How is a cello tuned?

The cello is tuned C-G-D-A from lowest string to highest, in perfect fifths. At the international standard A=440 Hz, the four strings sound at 65.41, 98.00, 146.83 and 220.00 Hz. The tuning pattern is identical to the viola but exactly one octave lower.

What is the order to tune a cello in?

Always tune the A string first — it is the most exposed in ensemble playing and other instruments tune to it. Then tune D against A as a perfect fifth (the D will sound clean if it is tuned correctly), then G against D, then C against G. This 'down by fifths' approach is the standard sequence and matches how the strings get tuned by ear from the A reference.

Why does Bach's 5th Cello Suite use a different tuning?

Bach specified a scordatura — alternate tuning — for the Suite No. 5 in C minor, BWV 1011. The top A string is dropped a whole step to G, producing the tuning C-G-D-G. The darker resonance suits the suite's sombre character, and the scordatura makes possible certain chords that cannot be played in standard tuning. It is the only one of Bach's six Cello Suites with notated scordatura.

Is the cello the same tuning as a viola?

Yes — the four strings of a cello and a viola both follow the C-G-D-A pattern in perfect fifths. The cello sounds exactly one octave lower than the viola. Music written in the alto clef for viola can be read on cello in the tenor or bass clef at sounding pitch, and the fingering patterns transfer almost directly between the two instruments.

What is the lowest note on a cello?

The lowest note on a standard cello is C2 — the open C string — at approximately 65.4 Hz when tuned to A=440. This is two octaves below middle C. The cello reaches this low pitch with a tonal warmth no other Western instrument matches, and the open C is a foundational orchestral colour, often doubled by the double basses an octave lower.

How often do I need to tune my cello?

Tune at the start of every practice session, and again after roughly 15 to 20 minutes of playing. The strings stretch as they warm under the bow, so first-pitch and warmed-pitch are noticeably different. New strings need re-tuning multiple times a day for the first week or two until they settle. Temperature and humidity changes also affect tuning — orchestral players retune between every piece.

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Microphone tuner with cents-accurate readout. Standard CGDA, Bach 5th Suite scordatura, and 5-string CGDAE. A4 reference selectable from 440 to 443 Hz for German and Russian orchestra players.

Quick Answer

The cello is tuned C-G-D-A from low to high — perfect fifths between each adjacent string, exactly one octave below the viola. At A=440 Hz, the four strings sound at 65.41, 98.00, 146.83 and 220.00 Hz. Tune the A first (the reference pitch), then D against A, G against D, C against G — each new string checked against the previous one as a perfect fifth. The microphone tuner above does this in cents; the reference tones below let you tune by ear if you'd rather not enable the mic.

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The default since the late 17th century. Tuned in perfect fifths from low to high: C2 (65 Hz), G2 (98 Hz), D3 (147 Hz), A3 (220 Hz). Identical interval pattern to the viola, exactly one octave lower. Used for virtually all standard repertoire from Bach to the present.

A4 REFERENCEinternational standard

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Reference Tones

Tap a string to hear it bowed. Tune by ear against the reference if you don't want to enable the microphone.

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How cellos are tuned, and in what order

The cello has four strings in perfect fifths: C2 (lowest), G2, D3, A3 (highest). This tuning was settled by the late 17th century and has remained standard ever since. The pattern is identical to the viola, an octave higher, and forms the bottom half of a violin family rooted in the same fifths-based design.

Always tune the A string first. In an orchestra, the oboe plays A, the concertmaster (principal violin) takes it, and the whole section tunes from there. As a solo player at home, the A is your reference point — get it right, and the other three strings follow as clean fifths against it.

From A, tune D by bowing A and D together — a perfect fifth produces a clean, beating-free sound. Adjust D until the two strings ring as one chord with no audible "wow-wow" beats. Then tune G against D the same way, and finally C against G.

Most modern cellos have fine tuners on the tailpiece for at least the A and sometimes all four strings. Use the fine tuners for cents-level adjustments; only touch the pegs in the scroll if a string is significantly out (a quarter-step or more). Cello strings stretch as they warm under the bow, so expect to retune after 15–20 minutes of playing — orchestral players retune between pieces as a matter of routine.

The Bach scordatura — why the 5th Cello Suite is different

Johann Sebastian Bach's six Cello Suites (BWV 1007–1012), composed around 1717–1723 during his years at Köthen, are the foundational solo repertoire for the instrument. Five of the six are written for standard CGDA tuning. The Suite No. 5 in C minor, BWV 1011, requires a different setup — Bach specified that the top A string be tuned down a whole step to G, producing the scordatura C-G-D-G.

The retuned A string sounds darker and more sombre. It also makes possible certain chord voicings — particularly four-note chords spanning the entire instrument — that simply cannot be fingered in standard tuning. The suite's overall character matches: meditative, austere, less rhetorical than the other five. Many modern cellists own a second instrument or a "scordatura set" of strings just for this work.

The Suite No. 6 in D major, BWV 1012, presents a different puzzle. Bach almost certainly wrote it for a five-string cello — possibly the violoncello piccolo — with a high E added above the standard A. Modern cellists play it on standard four-string instruments, but the piece sits very high on the A string and the fingering is awkward. A few specialists do still play it on five-string cellos in the original tuning C-G-D-A-E. The 5-string CGDAE preset in this tuner is for them.

Cello tuning reference table

Tuning	Strings (low → high)	Frequencies at A=440 (Hz)	Used for
Standard CGDA	C2 G2 D3 A3	65.41 · 98.00 · 146.83 · 220.00	All standard repertoire — Bach Suites 1–4 and 6, every concerto
Bach 5th Suite (CGDG)	C2 G2 D3 G3	65.41 · 98.00 · 146.83 · 196.00	Bach Cello Suite No. 5 in C minor (BWV 1011) only
5-string CGDAE	C2 G2 D3 A3 E4	65.41 · 98.00 · 146.83 · 220.00 · 329.63	Bach's 6th Suite in original tuning; 5-string baroque and contemporary cellos
Baroque tuning (A=415)	CGDA at A=415	61.74 · 92.50 · 138.59 · 207.65	Period-instrument ensembles, historically informed performance
Solo concerto pitch (A=442+)	CGDA at A=442	65.71 · 98.45 · 147.50 · 221.00	Some German and Russian orchestras tune higher for added brightness

Highlighted row is the modern standard. Baroque tuning (A=415) sounds a whole semitone lower than modern pitch — a Bach Suite played at 415 lives in a noticeably darker register than the same notation at 440. Period-instrument ensembles tune this way for historical authenticity.

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Famous cellos, famous cellists

The most famous cello of all is the "Davidov" Stradivarius, made by Antonio Stradivari in 1712 and now played by Yo-Yo Ma — it was previously owned by Jacqueline du Pré, who left it to the Vuitton Foundation upon her death from multiple sclerosis at age 42. Stradivari built around 60 cellos over his lifetime (compared to roughly 500 violins), and the surviving examples now sell for $5–20 million each. The "Duport" Stradivarius, played by Rostropovich, is widely valued above $20 million.

The cello's modern repertoire was built by a handful of players. Pablo Casals (1876–1973) is the patriarch — he discovered Bach's Cello Suites at age 13 in a Barcelona music shop in 1889, spent 12 years studying them privately, and didn't perform them publicly until he was 25. His 1936–1939 EMI recording of all six suites remains the most influential cello recording ever made. Mstislav Rostropovich (1927–2007), Jacqueline du Pré (1945–1987), Yo-Yo Ma (b. 1955), Mischa Maisky (b. 1948), Steven Isserlis (b. 1958) and Sheku Kanneh-Mason (b. 1999) form the line of major cellists from the mid-20th century to today.

For builders, after Cremona, the great makers were the French luthier Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume (1798–1875), who copied Stradivari and del Gesù instruments so accurately that some of his cellos still pass as 18th-century Italian, and the English maker William Forster the Younger. Modern luthiers including Christopher Dungey, Mario Miralles and Hiroshi Iizuka continue to build cellos to old patterns, with the best contemporary instruments now selling for $80,000 to $200,000.

Related instruments — different tunings

Violin — smaller, soprano voice. Tuned G3-D4-A4-E5 in fifths. Same interval pattern as the cello but a full two octaves higher.

Viola — slightly larger than violin, alto range. Tuned C3-G3-D4-A4: exactly the same pattern as the cello but one octave higher. Music transfers between cello and viola almost directly.

Double bass — the largest member of the bowed-string family. Tuned in fourths (not fifths) — E1, A1, D2, G2 — sounding an octave below written pitch. Same tuning as the bottom four strings of a bass guitar.

Violoncello piccolo — a smaller five-string cello common in the 17th and 18th centuries. Tuned C-G-D-A-E, with the high E enabling the upper register Bach wrote into the 6th Cello Suite.

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Full-size, fractional sizes, electric, baroque, piccolo.

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Same fifths-tuning pattern, two octaves higher.

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4, 5, 6-string bass guitar — for the deeper end.

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Tuned in fifths like the cello, in doubled courses.

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Bowed, plucked and struck — the full family.

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Standard EADGBE and six alternative tunings.

Sources & technical notes

Robin Stowell (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Cello (Cambridge University Press, 1999) — the standard scholarly reference, including chapters on baroque tuning practices, scordatura and the historical development of the modern instrument.
Margaret Campbell, The Great Cellists (Faber and Faber, 1988) — biographies of Casals, Rostropovich, du Pré and the major 20th-century cellists.
Anna Magdalena Bach manuscript copy of the Cello Suites (c. 1727–1731, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin) — the earliest surviving notation of the six suites and the source of the scordatura instruction for Suite No. 5.
International Organization for Standardization, ISO 16:1975 — Acoustics — Standard tuning frequency — the international codification of A4 = 440 Hz from the 1939 London tuning conference.
Bruce Haynes, A History of Performing Pitch: The Story of "A" (Scarecrow Press, 2002) — definitive scholarly source on baroque pitch standards including A=415.
David D. Boyden, The History of Violin Playing from its Origins to 1761 (Oxford University Press, 1965; rev. 1990) — the Cremonese makers (Amati, Stradivari, Guarneri) and the establishment of the violin family.
The pitch detector uses the YIN algorithm described in Alain de Cheveigné and Hideki Kawahara, "YIN, a fundamental frequency estimator for speech and music", Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 111(4), 2002.

Four strings, perfect fifths, no frets. Tuned by ear since the 1660s. Tune the A first.