How to tune semi-note sharp?

Blueberrytree

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Hi!

I just bought my first Uke and I got instructions to tune everystring one semi-note sharp! How do I do this? Any tips?

Thanks in advance!
Me
 
Who gave you that advice and why would you want to do that?
 
Who gave you that advice and why would you want to do that?

Good question!

Of course, tuning sharp just means tightening the strings a bit. And unless I am completely wrong (which is very likely), a semi-tone sharp would be moving from A to A#, or just tuning one fret higher.

But yeah, like Baz I am confused about why anyone would tell you to do that.
 
I suppose it would work to stretch strings, but I just do a pull / twist thing along their length to do that. Easy.
 
I got this advice from my music teacher. It is supposed to stretch the strings a little bit (??) and also my first lessons require my ukulele to be tune'd this way, tuning is also a part of my lessons, but I am completely lost how to tune it like this. And yes, it is like tuning A to A# etc.

Thanks!
 
Sounds like your teacher is trying to stretch your strings and give you a little introduction to music theory. The only tricky thing about this tuning is that because of the way the notes of the octave are named, there is no E#.
Do you have a chromatic tuner? If so, use it to tune to G# C# F A# instead of the usual G C E A. You could also find those notes on a piano or other reference instrument and tune to match them.

Best of luck. :)
 
I have seen similar advice somewhere, but I can't remember where. It's to help speed up the stretching of the strings and makes perfect sense to me. What puzzles me is why just a semitone? Why not a whole tone to ADF#B which is a recognised ukulele tuning, though of course when you next play it the strings will have relaxed somewhat. Come to think of it maybe that's the reason for a semitone. Because the strings will have relaxed and are hopefully fairly close to CGEA when you next come to play the uke. As long as they are stretching, tune it up when you've finished.

I have a uke which I keep tuned to ADF#B and I noticed that, although the strings were settled on GCEA, when I tuned it up, they stretched a bit more and the first few times I played it with the D-tuning, the uke was a little flat and needed retuning. Once the strings had settled to the new tuning it has remained stable.

Overall, I think maybe tuning new strings a little sharp until they have settled is probably a good idea.
 
It's one thing your teacher asking you to stretch strings, but asking you to come to next lesson with the whole uke tuned sharp is just bonkers? They should be encouraging you to tune the uke to the correct notes.

Don't get it at all
 
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