Violin tuner

Violin string notes and frequencies

Standard violin tuning, G D A E from the thickest string to the thinnest, in Hz (equal temperament). The G is the G below middle C, the A the one above it, and the strings are counted from the top: the E is the 1st. From the open G a violin reaches up to about A7, 3,520 Hz, on the E string.

How to tune a violin with this tuner

Tap a string above the needle to hear its note, then tap Start tuning and allow the microphone. Begin with the A: tap A, then pluck it or bow it and let it ring. Plucking is easier at first; a long, light, even bow stroke gives the tuner more to read and shows whether the note holds. The needle leans left when the string is low and right when it is high, and the line under it says by how many cents (a cent is a hundredth of a semitone). Turn the fine tuner, or the peg if the string is far off, and play again. If the needle wobbles, bow between the bridge and the fingerboard with steady speed and less pressure, and keep the other strings from ringing; once you can, keep bowing while you turn the fine tuner. When it holds within five cents for a moment, a tick appears and the tuner moves on to the next string along, the E after the A. For the orchestra's order, tap D yourself, then G, then E. The cents read to one: for the closest tune, keep turning until it reads 0 or 1 and holds, not only until the tick; if the tuner has already moved on, tap the string to read it again. If you play a different string that is still to tune, the tuner switches to it once it is close to its note.

Why A, D, G, E: the A is the note an orchestra tunes to (the oboe gives it), and tuning by ear each string is set against one that is already right, D and G downward from the A, E upward. Tuning one string changes the pull on the bridge and the top, so the others shift a little: go round once more and stop when all four tick without a turn. To recheck one string during the first round, tap it; a string that has ticked is not picked up by playing it. When all four are in tune the tuner says so and closes the microphone; tap Start tuning again for the second round, and the ticks clear. It also closes after half a minute of quiet.

Clip-on, app or online violin tuner

An online tuner for violin like this one hears the violin through the microphone: nothing to buy or install, on a phone, tablet or laptop, best in a quiet room. A clip-on violin tuner, the usual electronic or digital violin tuner, clips to the scroll or the bridge and reads the vibration of the wood instead of the air, so it still works when everyone around you is tuning, in an orchestra rehearsal or a session. Snark, D'Addario's NS Micro and Nexxus 360 are the common ones; in October 2026 Fiddlershop, a US violin shop, listed them from $15.99 (Snark X) to $34.99 (D'Addario Nexxus 360). A pocket or desk tuner (Korg's CA series, or a tuner-metronome combo) listens through a microphone like this page; a tuning fork gives only the A. A violin tuner app does what this page does but has to be installed. Any chromatic tuner works as a tuner for violin, a guitar player's clip-on included; Google's own tuner, which appears when you search "tuner", is chromatic too and names whatever note it hears. This one asks for each violin string and plays it for you first. A viola is tuned C G D A, a fifth below the violin: use the viola tuner; for a cello the cello tuner.

Fine tuners for violin and pegs: which to turn

Fine tuners are the small screws on the tailpiece. Turned clockwise, seen from above, they raise the note; anticlockwise they lower it. They cover only a small range, and they are the safe way for a beginner to tune.

Violins with synthetic or gut strings usually have a fine tuner on the E only; student violins with steel strings often have one on every string. The E needs it most: it is thin steel, a peg turn that barely moves the G moves the E a long way, and turning too far is how E strings snap. Before you tighten, check that the tuner is asking for the string you are turning.

When a fine tuner runs out of thread, unscrew it back to the middle and make up the difference with the peg. Screwed all the way down, its lever can touch the top of the violin underneath and mark it: look from the side.

Pegs are for big changes: a new string, or one a semitone or more off. A peg holds by friction in a tapered hole. Loosen it a touch, then bring the note up from below while you push the peg into the pegbox, the way you push in a cork; coming up to pitch holds better than coming down to it. A peg that keeps slipping needs to sit a little deeper, or a little peg compound; one that sticks and jumps needs the compound too. Pegs slip more in dry winter air, when the wood shrinks. If a peg is cracked or worn oval, or you want pegs that never slip, a luthier can fit geared pegs that turn like a guitar's.

Check the bridge after tuning

Every turn upward pulls the top of the bridge a little toward the fingerboard. After tuning, look at it from the side: the face toward the tailpiece should stand at a right angle to the top of the violin, both feet flat. If it leans, a teacher or violin shop straightens it in a minute; once you have seen it done, you can ease it back yourself. A bridge left leaning warps, and one that falls can take the soundpost inside with it. For the same reason, change strings one at a time, never all four at once.

Why a violin goes out of tune, and how often to tune

Tune every time you take the violin out of the case, and again after about an hour of playing. Wood and strings move with temperature and humidity: brought in from the cold, a violin drifts for the first minutes, so let it warm up in its case before you tune. New strings stretch: synthetic strings need a few days of retuning before they settle, gut longer, a steel E hardly any. A string that still goes flat every few minutes after that points to a slipping peg or a fine tuner at the end of its thread.

440 or 442: which A to tune to

A4 = 440 Hz is the international standard (ISO 16, 1975) and the right choice alone, with a piano or along with recordings. Orchestras often tune higher: in the US usually between 440 and 442, in much of Europe 442 or 443 (as of 2026); ask your conductor. Set the switch to what your conductor or teacher uses, and every string moves with it. For 443, tune at 442 and leave each string 4 cents high. The 432 setting is for players who choose it (where 432 comes from). Baroque pitch, A = 415, is not on the switch: it is almost exactly a semitone below 440, so on the chromatic tuner tune each string to the note a semitone down (F♯, C♯, A♭ and E♭, as it names them), within 2 cents.

Child-size, fiddle, five-string and electric violins

Every size, from 1/16 to full size (4/4), is tuned G D A E at the same pitches; a smaller body only sounds thinner. A child can usually work the fine tuners within a few weeks; leave the pegs to a teacher or parent until then, since a slipping peg drops the whole string. A fiddle is a violin, and standard fiddle tuning is G D A E too. Old-time players also use cross tunings such as A E A E, A D A E and G D G D: this page asks only for G D A E, so tune those on the chromatic tuner. A five-string violin adds a low C (C3, 130.81 Hz), the viola's bottom string: tune it on the viola tuner. An electric violin is quiet unplugged, so hold the phone close, or play it through the amp.

Tuning a violin by ear, in fifths

Neighbouring strings are a fifth apart, and a fifth in tune is easy to hear. Take the A from this tuner, a tuning fork or a long A from the tone generator. Then bow D and A together, lightly: out of tune the sound wobbles, the wobble slows as you get closer, and it stops when the fifth is pure. Then G with D, and E with A.

A pure fifth is the ratio 3 to 2, about 2 cents wider than a piano's. Tuned that way from A = 440 Hz, the D lands at 293.33 Hz (2 cents under the table), the G at 195.56 Hz (4 cents under) and the E at 660.00 Hz (2 cents over). The tuner ticks all four either way. Pure fifths ring best on their own; the tuner's equal-tempered fifths, which beat slowly if you listen closely (G with D about twice in three seconds, D with A once a second, A with E about one and a half times a second), sit with a piano. Playing with piano, many violinists tune the G and the E a touch toward the A.

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