Banjo tuner
Open G, g D G B D, one string at a time, with the sound kept on your device.
- Nothing is uploaded
- Works offline after first visit
- Open source
- Free, no account. The microphone is on only until you press Stop
Tune a five-string banjo to open G (g D G B D) with your microphone, or press a string button to hear each note and tune by ear. The tuner shows the string it heard and whether it is sharp or flat. It is free, and the sound from your microphone is not uploaded: everything runs in your browser on your device.
–
Play one string or note
– Hz
Done
Open the network tab. Your files never appear in it.
Add files and run the tool to see every request this tab makes.
Your files are processed on this device and never sent to a server. Reload the page to clear everything from memory.
A five-string banjo in open G is tuned g D G B D. The short fifth string is G4, the highest note on the banjo even though it sits next to the lowest string; the other four are D3, G3, B3 and D4. Played open, they sound a G major chord with nothing fretted. Press Start the tuner, pluck one open string, and the tuner lights the string it is closest to and shows how far off it is.
A worked example: you pluck the third string and the tuner shows G with the needle to the right and “26 cents sharp: tune down”. Slacken the peg past the note, then bring it back up until the needle sits in the shaded middle and the G button fills in. A banjo note dies away quickly, so the page keeps the last note on screen for about a second after the sound stops; pluck again to refresh it.
The fifth string is the one people forget. It starts at its own peg partway up the neck, at the fifth fret, which is why it is short and why it is tuned above the rest: it is a drone that sounds the G of the chord against the melody. Tune it like any other string, with its own button, G4.
The five open strings
Shown in the order the page lists them, the way open G is written: g D G B D. The frequencies use A4 = 440 Hz in equal temperament, the same numbers the page shows as a tooltip on each string button.
- 5th string, g: G4, 392.00 Hz (the short drone string)
- 4th string, D: D3, 146.83 Hz
- 3rd string, G: G3, 196.00 Hz
- 2nd string, B: B3, 246.94 Hz
- 1st string, D: D4, 293.66 Hz
What this page does not do
- It is open G only. Double C (g C G C D), G modal or sawmill (g D G C D) and four-string tenor or plectrum tunings are not in the list; choose Chromatic for those.
- Take the capo off first. With it on, every string sounds higher than the list expects.
- A string more than about a semitone and a half off can be taken for its neighbour. Bring a very slack new string close by ear with the string buttons, then use the needle.
- It hears one string at a time. Strumming, or a roll, gives it several pitches at once.
How it works
- Press Start the tuner and allow the microphone. Banjo, 5-string open G is already chosen.
- Pluck one open string and let it ring. The nearest of g, D, G, B and D lights up and the needle shows sharp or flat.
- Turn the peg until it says In tune, then tune the next string.
In your browser, not on a server
Your browser opens the microphone (getUserMedia) with its noise suppression and automatic gain turned off, and the Web Audio API hands this page about 85 ms of sound twenty times a second. Each slice is compared with delayed copies of itself (the McLeod pitch method) to find the period of the note, which gives its frequency to a fraction of a hertz; the reading is then dropped. The string buttons play a tone from a Web Audio oscillator.
Compared with upload-based tools: Tuner apps ask for an install and access to much more than the microphone, and many tuner websites are buried in ads and trackers. Here the sound goes from your microphone to this tab and nowhere else, and nothing is kept.
Verify it yourself. Give the page a short while after one visit to save itself for offline use, then turn off Wi-Fi or switch to airplane mode and run the tool again. Or open your browser's developer tools (F12, or Cmd-Option-I on a Mac), pick the Network tab, and watch it while you convert. The panel above does the same count for you.
Questions
Why is the fifth string tuned higher than the rest?
It is a drone. The fifth string is short, starts at the fifth fret and is tuned to G4, above the first string’s D4. In open G it plays the root of the chord against the melody on the other four, which is much of the banjo’s ringing sound. Its peg is on the side of the neck, so reach for that one separately.
How do I get from open G to double C or sawmill?
Choose Chromatic, which names any note. For double C, g C G C D, lower the fourth string from D3 to C3 (130.81 Hz) and raise the second string from B3 up to C4 (261.63 Hz); the other three stay. For sawmill, g D G C D, raise only the second string from B3 to C4. Chromatic has no string buttons, so there is no reference tone.
Why does my banjo drift out of tune?
The head is a drum skin stretched over the pot, and the bridge rests on it, so temperature and humidity change its tension and with it the pitch. A banjo that has just come in from a cold car often reads flat for the first few minutes. Let it sit in the room, then tune again.
Is the sound from my microphone recorded or uploaded?
No. The pitch is measured by code running in this tab, about twenty times a second, and no sound is recorded or stored: only the last few pitch readings are held in memory while the tuner listens. Press Stop using the microphone to turn it off. Like any website, the host sees your connection’s IP address when the page loads, and the site counts visits with anonymous usage events that never include sound; the privacy page lists them field by field.
More video and audio tools
Online tuner
Play a note and see how sharp or flat it is. Guitar, bass, ukulele, violin or chromatic, with the sound kept in your tab.
Add audio to video
Put music or a voice-over on a video, or replace its sound. The picture is copied as it is, and nothing is uploaded.
Reverse video
Make a clip play backwards, for a rewind effect, a boomerang or a laugh. Done on this device, never uploaded.
Video to JPG
Turn a video into still images: a few good frames or every single one. Done on this device, never uploaded.