Irish bouzouki
Three shared strings and a drone
A free online Irish bouzouki tuner covering GDAD and GDAE, listening through your microphone in the browser.
Tap a string to hear its reference tone and tune to it by ear. The microphone pauses while a tone sounds.
Listens through your microphone. Nothing is recorded and nothing leaves your browser.
Press a string to hear it. The microphone pauses while it sounds.
A free online Irish bouzouki tuner covering GDAD and GDAE, listening through your microphone in the browser.
The tuning you choose decides what the instrument is good at. This is the part that is rarely written down.
The common Irish tuning and what most bouzouki players use. Three strings shared with GDAE and the top dropped to D, which is where the drone comes from.
Chosen by players who also play mandolin or tenor banjo and want one set of fingerings across everything. It trades the drone for consistency.
Everything people ask before they tune up.
Yes. No account, no app and no adverts. It runs in the browser using your microphone.
Usually GDAD. Some players use GDAE instead so the fingering matches a mandolin or tenor banjo exactly.
The top string dropped to D gives an open drone that suits accompaniment, which is what the instrument mostly does in Irish music. GDAE keeps melody fingering consistent with a mandolin but loses that drone.
GDAD, low to high: G2, D3, A3, D4. That is the same as a fiddle or mandolin, which is why Irish players use it: the tunes sit under the fingers exactly as fiddle players play them.
Down on three strings and up on one. Standard tenor tuning is CGDA, a fifth below GDAE on the bottom three. Going to GDAE means the C string goes up to G, the G up to D, the D up to A, and the A up to E. Every string rises, so slacken first and come up to pitch slowly. Standard CGDA strings will feel tight and may snap, which is why gauges matter.
Possible if you use CGDA gauges. Fit a set intended for GDAE at your scale length, use the table above, and come up to pitch over a few minutes rather than all at once. A nut cut for heavier strings may also need easing.
It depends on scale length, not fret count, and that is why the question never gets a straight answer on forums. A 17-fret banjo with a 19 inch scale needs heavier strings than a 23 inch instrument to reach the same pitch at the same tension. The table above gives a starting point for each.
Tune the A string to a reference, then tune each other string to it in fifths. Fret the D string at 7 and it should match the open A. Fret the G at 7 and it matches the open D. Fret the A at 7 and it matches the open E. Fifths are harder to hear than octaves, so a clip-on tuner is worth the money at the start.