Tuner

This page listens through your microphone and describes what it hears in plain words: which note a string sounds, and how far it is from true. Pluck one string, let it ring, and the tuner speaks a short reading, for example: 6th string (low E). About 15 cents too low. Tune higher. Readings use A at 440 hertz, and anything within five cents counts as in tune.

The tuner speaks only when a note has settled and the reading has changed, stays silent while nothing is playing, and never says the same thing twice in a row. The Mute announcements button stops all automatic speech; the current reading then stays available as plain text in the tuner section, for you to read whenever you choose.

Before you start

You need a microphone; the one built into a laptop or phone works fine. The first time you press Start tuner, the browser asks for permission with its own dialog: choose Allow. Play one string at a time and let each note ring while you turn its peg. A quiet room helps, but unpitched sounds such as talking or fan noise are ignored rather than misread. Keep the guitar close to the microphone: an electric guitar played without an amplifier is quiet, so a hand's width from a laptop microphone works much better than across the room, and plugging into an amplifier at low volume works too. Microphone access also needs a secure connection: on the live site every current browser grants it, while a copy of this site opened straight from your own disk usually cannot reach the microphone. If that happens, this page says so in plain text instead of failing quietly.

Privacy

The sound is analyzed inside your browser in the moment it is heard. Nothing is recorded, nothing is stored, and nothing is sent anywhere; this site has no server and loads no external code. Pressing Stop tuner, or leaving this page, releases the microphone completely, and your device's microphone indicator turns off with it.

The tuner

Start tuner Mute announcements

How the readings work

A full reading names the string, then gives the verdict, for example: 6th string (low E). About 20 cents too low. Tune higher. Too low means the pitch must come higher; too high means it must come lower. A cent is one hundredth of a semitone, readings round to the nearest five cents, and within five cents the tuner simply says: In tune.

The note name is spoken when it changes and skipped while you keep working on the same string, so a session sounds like: 6th string (low E). About 20 cents too low. Tune higher. Then: About 10 cents too low. Tune higher. Then: In tune. After a few seconds of silence the name returns with the next reading, so you always know where you are.

The tuner always names whichever note is closest to what it hears. The two E strings are told apart as low E and high E. A sound that is not an open string is named by its letter, with both names where two exist, for example: Closest note is F sharp or G flat. If the tuner names a note you did not expect, your string is more than half a semitone from its target; follow the verdicts and the expected name will arrive. String names follow your choice on the Settings page, so 6th string (low E) can also read as 6th string, or as low E string.