Erhu tuner – Standard (D-A)
D-A · Standard
This free online tuner listens through your microphone and shows how close each string of your Erhu is to Standard (D-A) tuning (D-A). 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 Standard (D-A) tuning
Standard (D-A) is the reference tuning for the Erhu – 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 D-A – from D4 at the bottom to A4 at the top, a span of 7 semitones. Step by step across the neck the intervals are a fifth, and that is what decides how chord shapes fall under the hand.
Strummed open, the strings spell D5 – root and fifth with no third, so the tuning stays neutral between major and minor.
The erhu has two strings a fifth apart, D and A, and no fingerboard: the player presses the strings in the air, and the bow hair runs between the two strings rather than over them. That is why an erhu cannot play both strings at once the way a violin double-stops – every note is chosen by which side of the hair the bow leans on.
D-A is the reference tuning for the modern Chinese orchestra and for most of the solo repertoire, from Hua Yanjun's "Er Quan Ying Yue" to the conservatory études. Pieces in other keys are handled by fingering, not by retuning; the inner D string is tuned first, and the outer A is then tuned a clean fifth above it.
History
Erhu
The erhu belongs to the huqin family – “hu” refers to the peoples of China's north and west, where these two-string fiddles came from. A Song-dynasty source from around 1100 already describes the xiqin, a fiddle of the Xi people played with a bamboo strip, and the bow of horsehair threaded between the two strings is a characteristic that the erhu keeps to this day.
For centuries the erhu was an accompanying instrument for opera and folk music. In the 1920s Liu Tianhua (1895–1932) wrote ten solo pieces for it and taught it at university, turning it into a concert instrument. The blind street musician Abing (Hua Yanjun, 1893–1950), whose “Erquan Yingyue” (The Moon Reflected in the Second Spring) was recorded shortly before his death, gave it its most famous work. Steel strings replaced silk from the 1950s.
Where the Standard (D-A) tuning comes from
D-A, a fifth apart, became the standard erhu tuning in the 20th century, when Liu Tianhua and his successors turned the erhu into a solo concert instrument. Older erhu tunings were relative and varied with the music.
Other Erhu tunings
Standard
Alternative
How do I tune my Erhu to Standard (D-A)?
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 (D-A).
Which notes are used in Standard (D-A) tuning?
Standard (D-A) tuning for Erhu uses the notes D-A, 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.