FRETTED INSTRUMENT TUNING CHART

The comprehesive tuning chart below features each string reading from left to right as if the instrument was standing up vertically in front of you. Generally, the strings on the left will be lower pitched than those on the right, but there are variations including the mountain dulcimer, where the higher melody strings precede their lower pitched counterparts.

The note names are listed in scientific pitch notation as used by The Acoustical Society of America.  If you need know their Helmholtz equivalents we have a free downloadable/printable version with both systems and their piano keyboard positioning in Volume VI of our Music Workbook series. You'll find this in the 'Freebies' section of FFM.

When discussing the configuration of an instrument's stringing arrangement, you'll find they are often referred to by the number of strings or by the number of courses.  A course is simply a series of strings tuned to the same note (albeit often an octave apart) to be fretted by one finger at the same time. To give an example of this, the mandolin has 8 strings or 4 courses of strings. Steel strings in particular give a ringing or jangly sound when they are arranged in double, triple or quadruple courses.