Reference tones · tune by ear

Online Pitch Pipe and Reference Tone Generator

Press a string to hear a sustained reference tone for it, straight out of your speakers — no microphone, no permission prompt, no recording. Choose any of 63 tunings across 9 instrument families, set the A4 reference, shift an octave so low strings stay audible, and step through the whole set one string at a time when you would rather tune by ear.

1. Pick the tuning

Six strings, standard scale. 36 tunings from Standard EADGBE to Drop G.

Open strings, lowest string first: E2 A2 D3 G3 B3 E4

Reference pitch (A4)

The tone you hear moves with this setting, exactly like the numbers on the frequency chart. Leave it at 440 Hz unless your ensemble or backing track uses something else.

Active reference:A4 = 440.00 Hz

The standard concert pitch. Use it for modern guitars, pianos, tuner apps and almost every recording you will play along to.

2. Shape the tone

A single frequency with no overtones. The easiest waveform to compare against a string, and the closest thing to a real pitch pipe.

Long enough to match a string by ear without hurrying, short enough to keep a sequence moving.

Low strings keep the same note name but can drop below what a phone speaker reproduces. Shift up when a tone sounds thin or vanishes.

Tones are capped well below full volume so a sine wave never clips. Turn it up and the pitch is still the same.

Works through the strings the way they are numbered, which is how most people tune.

Time to turn a peg and listen before the next string starts.

6 tones × 4 s + 5 gaps × 1 s ≈ 29 s

3. Play the strings

—

No tone playing. Press a string below to hear its reference tone.

Nothing on this page opens your microphone or records audio. The tone is generated by your own device; the only thing that leaves it is the page request that loaded this tool.

How to tune by ear with a pitch pipe

  1. Pick the tuning and the reference. The tone for each string is the note the tuning asks for, measured from A4 = 440 Hz unless you change it. Drop D, open G, DADGAD, four- to six-string bass, ukulele, mandolin and banjo are all in the list.
  2. Play one string's tone. Press the string you want and listen to the whole tone rather than the attack. With the length set to 8 seconds or to hold, the tone is still sounding while you reach for the tuning peg.
  3. Turn the peg while the tone sounds. If the string sounds lower than the tone, tighten it; if it sounds higher, loosen it. When the two pitches are close, you will hear a slow beat or wobble instead of one steady pitch — that wobble is the distance closing.
  4. Stop when the wobble is gone. One steady tone with no beating is as close as a pitch pipe gets. Move to the next string, and check the first one again after you finish the set: tightening a string pulls a little on the neck and the others move with it.
  5. Use the sequence to keep your hands free. “Play every string in order” walks through the whole tuning with a gap between tones, so you can stay at the headstock and tune along.

What each control changes

Reference pitch
A4 is the anchor for every tone. At 432 Hz the whole tuning sits about 32 cents below the same tuning at 440 Hz, which is roughly a third of a semitone — enough to hear against a fixed-pitch instrument.
Octave
Shifts every tone by whole octaves without changing the note names. The low E of a guitar is 82.41 Hz, which most phone and laptop speakers cannot move much air for; one octave up is the same note in a range the speaker can actually reproduce.
Waveform
A sine has no overtones and is the easiest to compare against a string. Triangle adds a soft edge and travels better through small speakers; square and sawtooth are brighter and cut through room noise, at the cost of sounding less like a pitch pipe.
Tone length
Two seconds is a quick check, four keeps a sequence moving, eight gives you time at the peg, and hold sustains until you press Stop. In a sequence a held tone lasts 2 seconds so the sequence can move on by itself.
Volume
Capped at a level where a sine wave cannot clip or distort, which keeps the pitch easy to judge. Distortion adds harmonics and makes a tone harder to match by ear.
Sequence order and gap
String order follows the numbering players use, lowest string first. Pitch order matters on reentrant tunings: the fourth string of a standard ukulele is G4, higher than the C4 and E4 below it, so “lowest pitch first” plays C4, E4, G4, A4 instead.

Example tone sets at A4 = 440 Hz

These are the exact tones the tool plays for six of the included tunings, calculated during the page build with the same arithmetic the browser uses.

Reference tones for six tunings at A4 = 440 Hz, lowest string first
TuningTones, lowest string first
Standard EADGBEE2 · 82.41 HzA2 · 110.00 HzD3 · 146.83 HzG3 · 196.00 HzB3 · 246.94 HzE4 · 329.63 Hz
Drop DD2 · 73.42 HzA2 · 110.00 HzD3 · 146.83 HzG3 · 196.00 HzB3 · 246.94 HzE4 · 329.63 Hz
Open GD2 · 73.42 HzG2 · 98.00 HzD3 · 146.83 HzG3 · 196.00 HzB3 · 246.94 HzD4 · 293.66 Hz
DADGADD2 · 73.42 HzA2 · 110.00 HzD3 · 146.83 HzG3 · 196.00 HzA3 · 220.00 HzD4 · 293.66 Hz
Bass StandardE1 · 41.20 HzA1 · 55.00 HzD2 · 73.42 HzG2 · 98.00 Hz
Ukulele Standard (GCEA)G4 · 392.00 HzC4 · 261.63 HzE4 · 329.63 HzA4 · 440.00 Hz

The same tuning at three A4 references

Standard EADGBE, measured from 440 Hz, 432 Hz and 415 Hz. Nobody is stopping you from picking a reference, but a pitch pipe that disagrees with the rest of the room is worse than no pitch pipe: agree on A4 first.

Standard EADGBE string frequencies at three reference pitches
StringA4 = 440 HzA4 = 432 HzA4 = 415 Hz
E2 (string 6)82.41 Hz80.91 Hz77.72 Hz
A2 (string 5)110.00 Hz108.00 Hz103.75 Hz
D3 (string 4)146.83 Hz144.16 Hz138.49 Hz
G3 (string 3)196.00 Hz192.43 Hz184.86 Hz
B3 (string 2)246.94 Hz242.45 Hz232.91 Hz
E4 (string 1)329.63 Hz323.63 Hz310.90 Hz

When a reference tone beats the microphone tuner

A microphone tuner needs permission, a quiet room and a clear single string. A pitch pipe needs none of that. It is the better tool when you are tuning somewhere you would rather not grant microphone access, when the room is too loud for pitch detection, when you are tuning by ear on purpose as practice, or when you want a pitch to sing or play a non-fretted instrument against. The trade is that you do the judging: a pitch pipe tells you the target, not how far off you are, and it cannot hear the string for you.

Limits worth knowing

  • Every tone is twelve-tone equal temperament, the same tuning an electronic tuner, a guitar's frets and this site's frequency chart assume. It is not just intonation or a stretched piano tuning, and it does not model fret or saddle compensation.
  • Tones are synthesised in the browser, so they are exact equal-tempered frequencies rather than a recorded instrument. That is the point for pitch reference, but a sine tone does not sound like a guitar string.
  • Speakers, headphones and Bluetooth devices colour low notes. Below about 200 Hz a phone or laptop speaker may reproduce the note poorly or not at all; use headphones or an octave shift instead of tuning to a tone you cannot hear properly.
  • The tool plays open strings. A fretted note has to be worked out from the open string — one semitone per fret — and the fretboard note finder lists those notes and their degrees for any tuning.
  • Playback stops when you stop it, leave the page or mute the tab. Nothing is recorded, saved or uploaded, and no tone is ever sent anywhere.
  • This page never opens the microphone. If you want a tuner that listens to the string and shows how far off it is, that is a different tool.

Questions

Do I need to allow microphone access to use this?

No. This page only plays tones out of your speakers or headphones; it never opens the microphone, records audio or asks for permission. A microphone tuner is the tool that listens — the two jobs are separate, and having a pitch pipe that works without permission is the reason this page exists.

How do I tune a guitar by ear with a reference tone?

Play one string's tone, then compare it with the string while you turn the peg: tighten if the string sounds flat against the tone, loosen if it sounds sharp. As the two pitches approach you will hear a slow beat or wobble in the sound, and it disappears as they meet. Work one string at a time, then recheck the set, because tightening a string pulls on the neck and moves the others slightly.

Why can I not hear the low E string on my phone?

Because 82.41 Hz is below what a small speaker can reproduce well. Nothing is wrong with the tone. Shift it up an octave — or two for bass — and the same note plays in a range the speaker can move; on headphones the unshifted tone comes back at full strength.

Which waveform should I choose?

Start with the sine: no overtones means nothing to confuse with the string. Switch to triangle when low tones disappear on a small speaker, and to square or sawtooth when the room is noisy or you are holding a clip-on tuner near the speaker. Brighter waveforms are easier to hear and slightly harder to match exactly.

Can I use it for bass, ukulele, mandolin or singing?

Yes. Choose the instrument family, then a tuning: bass from four to six strings, baritone and low-G ukulele, mandolin, banjo, 7- and 12-string guitar are all covered, and the octave control puts any of them in a comfortable range. For single notes that are not open strings — a melody line, a vocal line — set the A4 reference your ensemble uses and play the note's string and fret from the fretboard finder.

Where to go next