Mandolin tuner – Standard (GDAE)
G-G-D-D-A-A-E-E · Standard
Press “Start tuner” – the browser will ask for microphone access. Sound is analysed on this device and never uploaded.
This free online tuner listens through your microphone and shows how close each string of your Mandolin is to Standard (GDAE) tuning (G-G-D-D-A-A-E-E). 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 (GDAE) tuning
Standard (GDAE) is the reference tuning for the Mandolin – 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 G-G-D-D-A-A-E-E – from G3 at the bottom to E5 at the top, a span of 1 octave and 9 semitones.
The mandolin is tuned GDAE in fifths, in four courses of two strings tuned in unison – exactly the violin's tuning, an arrangement that dates back to the instrument's eighteenth-century origins in Naples.
Because it shares the violin's tuning, the entire fiddle repertoire is available to a mandolinist without transposition, which is how the instrument became central to bluegrass and to Irish and Italian folk music alike. Unison courses have to be tuned string by string: a course that is slightly off beats audibly.
History
Mandolin
The mandolin grew out of the mandore, a small lute, and took its modern form in Naples in the mid-18th century, where the Vinaccia family built a deep-bowled instrument with four double courses of metal strings tuned in fifths like the violin. Composers of the period wrote for it – Vivaldi's concertos, Mozart's serenade in Don Giovanni, Beethoven's small pieces for mandolin and keyboard. Around 1835 Pasquale Vinaccia added steel strings and machine heads, giving the “Neapolitan mandolin” its final shape.
In the United States, Orville Gibson carved flat-backed, violin-style mandolins in the 1890s, and in 1922–24 the Gibson engineer Lloyd Loar designed the F-5, still the model for bluegrass mandolins. Bill Monroe played an F-5 and built bluegrass around its sharp chop and tremolo from the late 1930s onward.
Where the Standard (GDAE) tuning comes from
G-D-A-E, the same as the violin, has been the mandolin's tuning since the Neapolitan mandolin of the 18th century. It allowed violinists to play the mandolin easily, which helped it spread.
Other Mandolin tunings
Standard
Chords for this tuning
How do I tune my Mandolin to Standard (GDAE)?
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 (G-G-D-D-A-A-E-E).
Which notes are used in Standard (GDAE) tuning?
Standard (GDAE) tuning for Mandolin uses the notes G-G-D-D-A-A-E-E, 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.