Twisting it round clockwise tightens the string up, which in turn makes the pitch go up too. Because you’re tuning the E string you’ll be on the opposite side of the ukes neck so you will need to turn your tuning peg in the opposite direction than you did the C. Once you’ve got your E string sound right and tuned properly you will use this to tune your next string.
Finally using the fourth fret on the C string will give you the E note you need to tune your E string. The next fret up is the D and the third will be the D sharp. To do this you can place your finger on the first fret to get a C sharp. Count it out and eventually you’ll be able to get the E string in tune. To get that E string sounding right you can tune the next string up from C. You’ve tuned your first string to middle C. The way you do this is by counting up the fretboard. Once you’ve got your middle C using the pitch pipe you will be able to start tuning the rest of the strings. So if you take the B and are twisting it the wrong way, you’ll end up making the B flat and not with a middle C at all. If you twist the tuning peg clockwise you will take it down in pitch. Be careful not to twist too far otherwise you’ll go past the middle C and end up making it sharp. Eventually you will be somewhere between the B and C notes. This will tighten the string and make it go up in pitch. If you start on the B tuning peg twist it anti-clockwise. Tuning the ukulele is a bit more difficult than a guitar. Twist your tuning peg on the uke until it matches this note. When you blow your pitch pipe or you play the note on a piano you will hear the middle C. First of all you will want to find a reference note. This is a really complicated process but we’re going to talk you through it step by step so you can learn to tune by ear using a pitch pipe. If this happens you will need to tune one string to the pitch pipe, then tune the other strings to the first one. In some cases the pitch pipe won’t have been designed for your particular instrument. It looks a bit like a little harmonica that plays a different note each time you blow it. Instead you may receive some old books and something which is called a pitch pipe. If you are choosing to get a used or vintage uke then these generally don’t come with a tuner. Tuning by EarĪdvanced ukulele players will eventually be able tune their strings by ear. So the best thing to buy is a chromatic tuner and not a guitar tuner for your uke. A non-chromatic tuner is calibrated to only tune the notes used in a guitar’s standard tuning. A ukulele tuner is different to a guitar tuner because the latter are not chromatic. You want to tune a ukulele with a chromatic tuner because this will help you tune all of the ukulele strings.