How to Tune a Cello

My name is Diana Flesner and we are here at the International School of Music in Bethesda, Maryland. In this clip, we will be covering tuning the cello. So, in the beginning if you are unfamiliar with pitch and tuning instruments, it’s probably wisest to start tuning with a tuner. You can buy them at most any music store. Another thing that you can do if you have a piano at home or familiar with the instrument is tune with the piano.
The top string on a cello is an A. So, after turning the tuner on, most of them will have a green light in the center and red lights on either side. So, taking the top string which again is an A, you want it so that the green light is showing on the top. If the note is too sharp or too high, you want to turn this small peg. These are the small or fine tuners, so if the note is too sharp, you can turn the peg to your right. If the note is too flat, here is an instance, too low, you want to turn the fine tuner to your left and adjust it until the light in the middle is green.
Another option, if the string is very slack or very sharp or flat is adjusting the big pegs or big tuners. In order to do this, it’s best, first of all to loosen the peg before tightening it, so that it doesn’t snap and then turning it away from you to make the string tighter. Then, you can play around with an adjustment of either the fine pegs or the large pegs.
And so you will want to go through this with each of the strings, the strings on the cello from the top to the bottom, the highest string to the lowest string is A, B, G and C and each of these of course, finding on the piano it’s the A below middle C and going down D, then G and C. So, in the next clip we will be covering left hand basics.


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