hi everyone in this video I'm going to show you how to tune a cello. There's two
ways to tune the cello, the easiest way to do it and to get started if you're a
beginner is using the fine tuners they're located on the tailpiece but you
can only use them when the cello is out of tune just a little bit the other way
is with the pegs the pegs are necessary if your cello is really out of tune but
they're a little bit more tricky to use to help with your tuning we recommend
using an electronic tuner in this video i'm going to be demonstrating using a
Musedo branded tuner but you can use any chromatic tuner including ones that
you can get for free as an app on your phone one of the reasons I really like
this tuner is because it comes with a clip and the clip is really handy
because you can attach it directly to the instrument and then it eliminates
all the background noise that you might have in your room without that you
will pick up some background noise and that's particularly the case
if you choose to use one of the apps on your iPhone I find that most apps on
your phone they'll get the job done but they're not always as accurate or as
responsive before you get started it's really important that your tuner is set
up correctly there's really only two things that you need to make sure of one
is that the frequency that's shown is 440 that's the frequency of A the other
thing is the key you want to make sure that it's either showing the key of C or
that there's no flats those settings exist so that you can calibrate this for
a transposing instrument but because we're using a cello and the cello is
tuned in the key of C there's no reason why you need to change those but it can
give you a false read while you're trying to tune so it's really important
that the tuner is set up correctly of course you'll need to know what the
names the strings are so from top to bottom the skinniest highest string is A
followed by D then G and the lowest string is C
so to get started I normally sit with the cello in the usual position as if
I'm about to start playing I get the clip and I clip it on the bridge it's
going to give us the cleanest signal and then I put the tuner on the music stand
in front of me so that I can clearly see the screen and I can see what's going on
if you don't have the clip don't worry just put the tuner or your phone on
your music stand but keep it fairly close to the cello just to get a nice clean
signal especially by the time we get to the C string which is a very low note
some tuners struggle to pick up that frequency so a clip is the best thing or
very close proximity to the cello I normally start by tuning the A string
but you could start with whichever string you'd like i normally use my left
hand to pluck which is a little bit unusual but it allows me to use my right
hand to tune using the fine tuners so you can see in this instance the needle
is sitting slightly to the left the little flat sign is on and it's showing
the note a so we're happy because we know that it's the note A that's what
we're trying to tune but it's a little flat so all i need to do is turn the
finetuner clockwise just a few turns very slowly
and if i pluck it again you can see that it's getting close to the middle and I
basically keep turning it and then plucking it to check until the needle is
in the middle and the green light is on if you go too far or you can see that
the needle is pointing to the right of the middle then you know that it's too
sharp in that case it's really easy just the opposite of what you did turn it
anti-clockwise until it comes back to the middle if the note on the screen is
anything other than what it's supposed to be for example if you're playing the
D string but the screen displays a B or a C then it's quite flat and you'll need
to use the pegs pegs a slightly trickier to use and they do require some practice
it's not mechanical in any way it's a tapered piece of wood and it's only held
in place by the pressure that you use when you're tuning it some people tune
with their left hand like this with the cello in the regular playing position
but I find that quite tricky and I'd suggest that as a beginner you might
also find that a little difficult so I would suggest that you turn the cello
around lower the pin and then the pegs are roughly at eye height or you could
stand up to do it to tune with the peg you need to push in as you turn if you
don't the result is that the peg doesn't stay where you leave it and it will pop
out of place to get started firmly grip the peg and pluck the string once
checking the tuning if you can see it's flat you need to make it tighter and to
do that very slowly move the peg make it tighter but push in at the same time and
pluck again it's really important that when you pluck it that that note is
always staying at or below the note that you're aiming for so for example if
you're aiming for an A and it says that it's an A sharp you've gone too far and
you're in the danger zone it's very possible that you'll break a string at
that point so keep checking it as you go so I pluck and then I push in and turn at the
same time so that it stays firmly in place you don't need to turn it as far as you
will with the fine tuner so you'll often find that it's it's not even an eighth
of a turn that you're turning it just a tiny little bit getting closer now but
not close enough so I turn it a little bit more pushing in and turn once you've
got it so that the note that you're aiming for is displayed on the screen
you can stop even if it's a little flat or a little sharp at that point I turn
the cello around and I would use the fine tuners again there are a few things
that you need to be aware of if you're tuning with the pegs so the first thing
is that as you tune with the pegs the bridge will move and the more out of
tune it is the more the bridge is going to move as you change and this is
because the strings grab hold at the top of the bridge and as you tune them
pulling them closer to the pegs the bridge is going to move in the direction
of the pegs you've got to be really careful that as you tune stop
straighten the bridge put it back into the correct position and then continue
to retune otherwise the bridge may fall down
the second thing that you need to be aware of is that the tension of one
string affects the tension of all the other strings and therefore the tuning
of the other strings so it's quite common that especially if your cello is
really out of tune you'll finish tuning the fourth string and by the time you've
done that and go back to the first string you'll find that that first
string is out of tune you may then need to redo that process of tuning all four of
them once or twice until it's stable and back in tune thanks so much for watching
this video on how to tune your cello for beginners if you've got any questions
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