Tuning

In these pages we will limit ourselves to the study of the ukulele tuned in the standard way;

Repeat these notes until you become fully familiar with them.

Note that during the playback of the tuning notes G4, E4 and A4 are displayed in more than one position on the fretboad; knowledge of these positions will allow tuning by ear.

The tuning shown is reentrant, since the notes of the third to first strings follow an ascending order in frequency, but the note of the fourth string has a higher frequency than those of the third and second strings. The ukulele can also be tuned with the fourth string tuned one octave lower (G3 C4 E4 A4), but we will not study it, we will not study this tuning in these pages because the reentrant tuning is the most common and is what gives the ukulele its characteristic sound . This site also studies an instrument related to the ukulele, the Venezuelan four, which also has four strings and which uses the reentrant tuning A3 D4 F#4 B3, that is, the notes of the fourth to second strings follow an order ascending in frequency, but the note of the first string has a lower frequency than the third and second strings. The four can also be performed using the G3 C4 E4 A4 tuning. Eliminating the reentrant tuning and using an ascending tuning offers some advantages in both the ukulele and the four, but the reentrant tuning is what gives these instruments the different sonorities that gives each their own personality.

Electronic tuners, especially clip tuners, are the most comfortable way to tune stringed instruments; however it is very convenient to learn how to tune an instrument without the help of these devices. This eliminates the total dependence on them, which is extremely important because you will not always have them available, either by exhaustion of the batteries, loss or any damage. In addition, the process of tuning by ear is a very good exercise of familiarization with musical intervals.

Tuning can be done in different ways. When the ukulele is being played within a musical group it can be tuned by matching the sound of its strings to the G4, C4, E4 and A4 notes provided by any of the other correctly tuned instruments.

The effort should be made to familiarize yourself with the sound of the A4 and G4 notes corresponding to the first and fourth strings. Once familiar with these sounds, you can use the tuning procedure known as relative tuning, which is based on the fact that music can be made if you have a set of notes spaced apart from each other for precise intervals. This method can be applied in different sequences, we will describe one of them below.

1. The first string is tuned to the A4 note (440Hz of a tuning fork, a keyboard, or any other instrument),or to a note close to it if a reference is not available.
2. The second string is pressed on at the fifth fret and adjusted by means of its tuning peg, plucking the first and second strings alternately, until the sound of the second match that of open first string.The second string will be tuned to E4.
3. The third string is pressed on the fourth fret and adjusted to match the sound of the open second string.The third string will be tuned to C4.
4. The fourth string is pressed on the second fret and adjusted to match the sound of the open first string.The fourth string will be tuned to G4.