Greek Bouzouki tuner – Tetrachordo (C-F-A-D)
C-F-A-D · Standard
Also known as 4-course, CFAD
This free online tuner listens through your microphone and shows how close each string of your Greek Bouzouki is to Tetrachordo (C-F-A-D) tuning (C-F-A-D). Play a string, watch the needle, and turn the peg until the meter glows green. If you prefer tuning by ear, tap any string card to hear its reference tone.
About Tetrachordo (C-F-A-D) tuning
Tetrachordo (C-F-A-D) is the reference tuning for the Greek Bouzouki – the pitch the instrument normally ships at, and the starting point every other tuning on this page is measured from.
Played open, the strings sound C-F-A-D – from C3 at the bottom to D4 at the top, a span of 1 octave and 2 semitones. Step by step across the neck the intervals are a fourth, a major third, a fourth, and that is what decides how chord shapes fall under the hand.
Left open, the strings together spell F6. That is a by-product of how the intervals are laid out rather than the point of the tuning, but it does mean some chords need very few fingers here. See F6 shapes in this tuning →
The four-course tetrachordo bouzouki, tuned C-F-A-D, is the instrument of modern rebetiko and laïko. Manolis Chiotis popularised the fourth course in the 1950s, and its guitar-like intervals – a fourth, a third and a fourth, the same pattern as a guitar's top four strings a tone lower – made chord playing far easier than on the older three-course instrument.
The two lower courses are strung in octaves, so each one sounds a high and a low note together; the tuner reads the stronger of the two. Tune each course by its low string first, then bring the octave string in by ear.
History
Greek Bouzouki
The Greek bouzouki descends from the long-necked lutes of the Ottoman world – the saz and the bağlama. It became central to Greek music after 1922, when more than a million refugees from Asia Minor arrived in Greece and brought rebetiko, the urban blues of the port cities, with them. Markos Vamvakaris, the “patriarch of rebetiko”, made the three-course bouzouki its lead instrument on his recordings of the 1930s.
In the 1950s Manolis Chiotis popularised a four-course bouzouki with a guitar-like tuning, which let him play fast virtuoso lines and Western harmony. Mikis Theodorakis and Manos Hadjidakis took the instrument into art music, and the soundtrack of Zorba the Greek (1964) made it world-famous.
Where the Tetrachordo (C-F-A-D) tuning comes from
C-F-A-D, the tuning of the four-course bouzouki (tetrachordo), was introduced by Manolis Chiotis in the 1950s. It resembles the top four strings of a guitar a tone lower and allowed Chiotis to play fast lines and Western harmony.
Other Greek Bouzouki tunings
Standard
Alternative
Chords for this tuning
How do I tune my Greek Bouzouki to Tetrachordo (C-F-A-D)?
Allow microphone access, pluck a string, and the tuner will detect it automatically. The needle shows whether the string is flat or sharp – adjust until the reading is within ±5 cents (C-F-A-D).
Which notes are used in Tetrachordo (C-F-A-D) tuning?
Tetrachordo (C-F-A-D) tuning for Greek Bouzouki uses the notes C-F-A-D, listed from the lowest string to the highest.
Can I tune without a microphone?
Yes. Every string card plays a reference tone – tap it and match your string to the sound by ear.