Tuning Your Ukulele
An out-of-tune ukulele will teach you to play out of tune. It’ll teach you, if you’re not careful, that maybe you just don’t have an ear for it. None of that is true, and none of it is about you. It’s about the strings being in the wrong place.
Tuning is the first relationship you have with the instrument every time you pick it up.
Ukulele strings stretch — a lot
Nylon and fluorocarbon strings are much stretchier than steel strings. When you put a new set on, they’ll go out of tune constantly for the first few days, just from settling. This is normal.
The four strings, top to bottom
- 4th string (top, high-G): G4 — 392 Hz, higher than C and E
- 3rd string: C4 — 262 Hz (middle C!)
- 2nd string: E4 — 330 Hz
- 1st string (bottom): A4 — 440 Hz (the classic “tuning A”)
Sing “My Dog Has Fleas” — it lands on G, C, E, A in that order.
Click "Start mic" and pluck a string. The tuner will listen and tell you how close you are.
1. Get your hold sorted. Uke in position, relaxed.
2. Start with the 3rd string (C).
3. Flat? Tighten. Sharp? Loosen below C, then tune back UP to C. Go slow — a quarter-turn can be a full half-note on a uke.
4. Repeat: C, E, A, G.
5. Go back to C and check. Do a second pass. Sometimes a third — new strings take five or six passes.
Sing “My Dog Has Fleas” while plucking in order. Match your voice to each string. Do it three times.
Sing “My Dog Has Fleas” before and after tuning. Did the difference surprise you?
What’s next
The Practice Mindset — five principles that will shape how you learn from here on.
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