Pipa tuner – Standard (A-D-E-A)
A-D-E-A · Standard
This free online tuner listens through your microphone and shows how close each string of your Pipa is to Standard (A-D-E-A) tuning (A-D-E-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 (A-D-E-A) tuning
Standard (A-D-E-A) is the reference tuning for the Pipa – 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 A-D-E-A – from A2 at the bottom to A3 at the top, a span of 1 octave. Step by step across the neck the intervals are a fourth, a whole tone, a fourth, and that is what decides how chord shapes fall under the hand.
Left open, the strings together spell Asus4. 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.
The modern pipa is tuned A-D-E-A: an octave between the outer strings, filled with a fourth, a tone and a fourth. The tone in the middle is what defines the instrument's idiom – it puts two adjacent open strings a major second apart, and the famous tremolo passages and ringing clusters of pieces like "Ambush from Ten Sides" rely on it.
The four strings were silk until the mid-twentieth century and are now steel-core nylon, which is why today's pipa holds pitch far better than old recordings suggest. The tuning is fixed for the orchestra; soloists sometimes lower the whole set a tone for older repertoire.
History
Pipa
Instruments called pipa appear in China in the Qin and Han dynasties, over two thousand years ago; the name imitates the two basic strokes, pi (forward) and pa (backward). The pear-shaped, bent-necked pipa came from Central Asia along the Silk Road around the 4th century and flourished in the Tang dynasty. A Tang pipa inlaid with mother-of-pearl survives in the Shōsōin treasury in Nara, Japan.
Tang players held the pipa horizontally and used a plectrum; over the following centuries it was turned upright and played with the fingernails. The classical pieces “Ambush from Ten Sides” and “The Tyrant Unarmoured” come down from printed collections of 1818 onwards. In the 20th century extra frets gave the pipa a full chromatic scale in equal temperament, and nylon-wound steel strings replaced silk.
Where the Standard (A-D-E-A) tuning comes from
A-D-E-A is the standard tuning of the modern pipa, established in the 20th century along with equal-tempered frets. Older pipa tunings varied; Tang dynasty tunings are recorded in manuscripts preserved in Japan.
Other Pipa tunings
Standard
How do I tune my Pipa to Standard (A-D-E-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 (A-D-E-A).
Which notes are used in Standard (A-D-E-A) tuning?
Standard (A-D-E-A) tuning for Pipa uses the notes A-D-E-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.