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    2. If the tuner has different modes, choose the C mode.
    3. Start by plucking the g-string (the first one, nearest your face).
    You’re aiming for the g note. If you’ve got an arrow display, when the arrow is pointing towards the left, you need to tune up. When the arrow points to the right, tune down.
    4. When you get the arrow pointing straight up, you’re in tune and you can repeat the process with the next string.
    Not all electronic tuners work in the same way. Some use a system of lights (for example, red for too high/too low, green for in tune). The important thing is to make sure that you know which note you’re tuning your string to. That’s particularly important when you first get your ukulele, because often ukes are very out of tune when you buy them.
    Don’t worry about getting everything dead-on. Some tuners are very sensitive. So long as you’re close, you’re going to be fine.
    Listening and repeating: Tuning to the audio track
    You can find tuning notes for gCEA tuning (with the tones in that order) in Track 1.
    Listen to the first note played (a g) and play your open g-string (the first one) at the same time. You’re aiming to get the two sounds exactly the same. Twist your uke’s tuner to change the pitch of the string until the note on the track and the note on your ukulele sound exactly the same. Repeat the process for each string.
    This process takes a bit of practice. Don’t worry if you have to listen to the track a few times before you feel satisfied with your tuning.
    Tune up to a note rather than down to it. Tightening the string makes it less likely to slip. So if you find that your string sounds too high, tune it down so that it sounds lower than the note you’re aiming for. Then tune up until the string is in tune.
    Stringing along: Tuning to a guitar
    If you’re playing with a guitarist, you want to make sure that you’re in tune with each other. Otherwise you end up sounding like a back-alley banjo fight.
    After the guitarist is in tune, ask him or her to play the following notes (note: guitarists can be easily bribed with ‘magic beans’):
Ukulele

Guitar
g-string
=
E-string third fret
C-string
=
B-string first fret
E-string
=
E-string open
A-string
=
E-string fifth fret
    Seeing in black and white: Tuning to a piano or keyboard
    Pianos may not be the most glamorous instrument around, but they do come in handy. (That should guarantee the publisher some letters!) They hold their tuning much longer than most string instruments. Electronic keyboards are even better because their notes are produced digitally and are always spot-on.
    So if you have a piano or keyboard handy, you have the perfect tuning source (note: unlike guitarists, pianists are above being bribed and so instead distract them with a particularly fascinating quadratic equation).
    The C-string of a ukulele (the fattest one) equates to the middle C on a piano (slap bang in the middle of the keyboard – just to the left of two black keys next to each other). Two white keys up from the C is E. Up two more white keys to G and up to the next white key for A. (See Figure 2-3.)
    Figure 2-3: Finding the right notes on a piano or keyboard.

    Tuning your uke to itself
    If you’re stuck with nothing to help you tune, you can always tune the ukulele with itself. This method is the trickiest, however, and so get comfortable with a couple of the other methods (described in the preceding sections) before attempting it. Practising this method of tuning is well worthwhile, though, because you never know when you’re going to get caught without a tuner or other instrument.
    You can start with the C-string (the third one up) because it tends to hold its tuning best:
    1. Play the C-string at the fourth fret and pluck it.
    (Check out Chapter 4 for more on fretting.)
    2. Now play the open E-string (the third one) and compare the sounds.
    When you’re in tune,