Vihuela tuner

Vihuela strings in Hz

At A4 = 440 Hz; the reference switch above moves them all. In the old letter notation: a d′ g′ b e′.

How to tune a vihuela with this tuner

Tap start and play the A, the 5th string, the one nearest your face. Turn its peg until the needle ticks at five cents or closer; the tuner then asks for the D, the G, the B and the E. Keep that order: A, D and G climb in fourths, then the B drops back below the G and the E sits a fourth above the B. Standard vihuela tuning is A3 D4 G4 B3 E4, the guitar's top five notes with the A, D and G raised an octave. With the microphone off, tap a string above to hear its note in the right octave.

The mistake to avoid is the octave. This tuner folds octaves together, like most clip-ons: it shows the note and the cents, never which octave you played. So a G left at a guitar's G3 still ticks, slack and dull, and a B wound toward B4 breaks before it gets there. Two checks: match the octave of the tapped note by ear, and remember that in tune the 3rd string, the G, is the highest note of the five and the B next to it is lower.

Vihuela tuning vs guitar tuning

A vihuela carries the top five strings of a guitar, A D G B E, with three of them an octave up. The B and E are the guitar's own pitches; the A, D and G are an octave above. That makes the tuning re-entrant, like a ukulele's: it rises to the G and falls back. The chord shapes are the guitar's without the low E string, so a guitarist can play a vihuela on the first evening. The chords come out higher and closer together, and that tight voicing is the bright, packed sound of a mariachi's rhythm.

How to tune a vihuela by ear

Tune the A first to a reference: the A below middle C on a piano, the 12th-fret harmonic of a guitar's A string, or the A3 above. Then each string from one already in tune; play both and turn until the wobble between them slows and stops.

• D, 4th string: 5th fret of the A string
• G, 3rd string: 5th fret of the D string
• B, 2nd string: 2nd fret of the A string, the same note
• E, 1st string: 5th fret of the B string, or 2nd fret of the D string

Next to a guitar that is in tune: the vihuela's open B and E match the guitar's open B and E, and its A, D and G match the 12th-fret harmonics of the guitar's A, D and G strings.

Vihuela strings: new nylon and the high G

Vihuela strings are nylon, most of them plain, some sets with nylon-wound strings; the gauges and their order change the sound from soft to punchy. Use vihuela sets. A guitar's A and D strings are wound for an octave lower and won't take the pull of the vihuela's pitch. New nylon keeps stretching for days: tune, lift each string gently away from the fingerboard along its length, retune, and expect to retune the next day. Come up to each note from below; a peg turned up holds better. The G is thin and tuned highest, so it breaks first. Keep a spare.

Which vihuela this is

This page tunes the vihuela mexicana: a small, round-backed guitar (the back's hump is la joroba) with five strings, played in a mariachi with the guitarrón and the guitar as the armonía. It is strummed, not picked: the fingernails of the right hand play rhythmic patterns, the mánicos, and it rarely plays a melody. The Spanish vihuela de mano of the 1500s is another instrument: six double courses tuned like a Renaissance lute, G C F A D G at no fixed pitch, which the lute tuner has. The mariachi's other strings: the guitarrón (A1 D2 G2 C3 E3 A2), the guitar and the violins. The requinto is the trío romántico's lead guitar, not a mariachi instrument.

A vihuela tuner app or a clip-on?

No app is needed: this page works in the phone's browser and names each of the five strings. A clip-on tuner reads the headstock's vibration and hears little of the room, which helps on a loud stage. Neither knows which octave you meant; that part is your ear.

The notes you tuned go into Brumm as a short melody over a beat.