Guitar
The accompanist in the corner
A free online guitar tuner covering standard EADGBE, DADGAD and drop D. It listens through your microphone, runs in the browser and needs no account.
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 guitar tuner covering standard EADGBE, DADGAD and drop D. It listens through your microphone, runs in the browser and needs no account.
The tuning you choose decides what the instrument is good at. This is the part that is rarely written down.
Everything outside Irish traditional music, and plenty inside it. Every chord shape you already know, and the tuning all published guitar music assumes.
Backing Irish traditional music, and the reason most trad guitarists own a second guitar. The open strings give a D suspended chord, which sits under tunes without committing to major or minor. Irish tunes are often modal, and a tuning that refuses to pick a third suits them.
The smallest useful change. Only the bottom string moves, so every shape on the top five still works, and you get a low D drone for tunes in D. A good halfway house if DADGAD feels like starting over.
Everything people ask before they tune up.
Yes, entirely free. No account, no trial, no limits and no adverts. It covers standard EADGBE, DADGAD and drop D tuning.
This is one. Choose DADGAD above and the tuner listens for D2, A2, D3, G3, A3 and D4. There is no account and nothing to install.
Accompanying Irish and Celtic traditional music, mostly. The open strings sound a D suspended chord, so it supports a tune without deciding whether it is major or minor. A lot of Irish tunes are modal, and a tuning that stays neutral about the third suits them better than standard.
The tuning is easy, and unlearning your chord shapes is the work. Three strings move, so nothing you know transfers exactly. Most players find the open drone does so much of the work that simple shapes sound fuller than they did in standard.
Drop D moves one string: the bottom E goes to D. Everything else stays, so all your shapes still work. DADGAD moves three, giving a fuller drone and a genuinely different instrument to play.
No. This runs in your browser using your microphone. Nothing is installed, nothing is recorded and nothing leaves your device.
EADGBE, low to high: E2, A2, D3, G3, B3, E4. 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.