If you didn’t know, like many instruments, there are actually several different tunings for the ukulele. But, like other instruments, there is a “standard” tuning that you’ll want to use for most of your playing.
It will allow you to use most of the chord charts and books made for ukuleles, as well as play along with most videos on youtube.
But what is the standard tuning?
The standard tuning used for ukuleles is a reentrant C major 6th chord, so each of the four strings will be tuned to one of the notes found in the C major 6th chord (C, E, G, A). Since standard ukuleles sound best in the 4th octave the strings are specifically tuned to C4, E4, G4, and A4. But with a reentrant tuning, the G4 string is moved to the top string position (also called the 4th string) which means the tuning of strings from top to bottom is G4, C4, E4, and A4.
If that sounds like a bunch of gibberish to you, don’t worry, we’ll walk you through it so it is a bit more clear. At the end of the day, you just want to tune your ukulele so you can play it right? At least, that is my guess for most folks who make their way to our blog.
What is the C Major 6th and What About the Fourth Octave?
In short, the C major 6th is a chord. If you’re new to music, chords are simply formed by pairing multiple notes together. The C major 6 is formed when the notes of C, E, G, and A are grouped or played together at the same time.
However, like all notes and chords, the C6 can slide up or down in pitch.
Generally speaking, octaves are how musicians keep track of pitch. And, musicians count octaves going up from low pitched notes to high pitched notes as they fall on a standard piano from left to right. The lowest complete octave and its notes, as found on a piano, are labeled with a 1. The highest complete octave and its notes are labeled with a 7.
For the ukulele, the C6 is most often pitched to match the fourth octave on the piano which starts with middle C (also called C4). So, to say that the ukulele is tuned to the C Major 6th pitched to the fourth octave means that the four strings on a ukulele are tuned to match C4, E4, G4, and A4. Or rather, the C, E, G, and A notes from the fourth octave.
What is Reentrant Tuning About?
For string instruments, they are more often than note tuned to be linear. This means that each string will go up or down in pitch in order.
Thinking of a standard piano is helpful here. As you move from key to key from left to right, each key you move to gets higher in pitch. If you move from right to left each key gets lower in pitch. That progression is considered linear.
With reentrant tuning, at least one string is pitched out of linear order. With the piano in mind, it would be like moving from left to right and hearing key after key get higher, and then all of a sudden the next key is lower than the previous key.
For the ukulele, reentrant means that the top string (closest to ceiling in playing position) is actually higher pitched at the G4 than the next two strings in order as you move down (towards the floor in playing position). In other words, the G4 is higher pitched than the C4 and E4 but it is placed in the lowest string position.
We actually have an entire post on reentrant tuning, we cover it in great detail over there.
What Does This Mean if I Just Want to Tune my Ukulele?
In simple terms, you will tune your ukulele so that the 4th string is a G4, your 3rd String is a C4, your 2nd strings is an E4, and your 1st string is an A4. Or just, G4, C4, E4, A4.
And since a picture is worth a thousand words, we think this one will speak volumes.
