Press Listen, play a string, and watch the needle. Fretnook's chromatic tuner reads your microphone in real time and covers standard tuning plus five alternate tunings, with nothing to install and no account.
Open the tuner and press Listen in the top-right corner. Your browser asks for microphone permission the first time; allow it. With a USB microphone or audio interface, choose it from the Default microphone menu beside Listen.
Pick Standard, Drop D, Whole Step Down, Open G, Open D or Open E from the Tuning menu. Tap any string button to hear its reference note if you would rather tune by ear first.
Play a single note, not a chord, and let it sustain. The wheel shows the note name, its frequency in hertz, and how many cents sharp or flat it is.
The needle swings left or right of centre to show sharp or flat. It turns green within about 6 cents of perfect pitch and red outside that.
Note name, frequency in Hz and the offset in cents, updated live while the string rings.
Standard, Drop D, Whole Step Down (D G C F A D), Open G (D G D G B D), Open D (D A D F# A D) and Open E (E B E G# B E).
Tap a string to hear its target pitch. The tuner also shows which string you are closest to and how far off it is.
Built-in microphone, USB microphone or audio interface. A level meter beside the input menu confirms you are getting signal.
Your tuning choice is saved in your browser, so the tuner opens the way you left it.
Install Fretnook from your browser and the tuner keeps working offline, handy in a rehearsal room or backstage.
Pluck at a moderate volume and let the initial attack fade for a second. The pitch settles after the pick noise, and that is the reading you want to trust. Hitting a string very hard makes it briefly sharp, so a gentle, even pluck gives the most stable needle.
Tune up to the note whenever you can. If you overshoot, drop the string below the target and bring it up again, which takes the slack out of the tuning peg and helps the string stay in tune.
Work in a fairly quiet room and keep the microphone reasonably close to the guitar. If the needle jumps around, check the level meter beside the microphone menu and make sure only the string you are tuning is ringing; mute the others with your palm.
Standard (E A D G B E) suits most songs. Drop D lowers the sixth string one whole step to D, which makes heavy power chords easy to play with one finger. Whole Step Down tunes every string down two semitones (D G C F A D), which is common in rock and helps with vocal range.
Open G, Open D and Open E tune the open strings to a chord, so strumming with no fingers down rings a full chord. They are popular for slide guitar and blues. Pick the tuning first, then tap each string button to hear its target.
Fretnook is free and runs in your browser. Your microphone audio and recordings stay on your device.