There are good number of awesome digital tuners available in the market which allows you to tune an instrument. Almost all of the tuners are designed for western notation. The Indian notation system is not much different and maps very well with western notation. The major problem comes when changing the scale of the notes and becomes hard to map even for experienced performers.
Also the string instruments unlike Guitar has lots of strings and its hard to remember notes for each string to be tuned whether its a main string, drone or harmonic strings.
SaaTtuner:
- Its mainly designed to allow users to tune North Indian classical string instruments.
- Initial version supports 5 instruments (Rabab, Dilruba, Taus, Sarangi, Saranda) with a tuner chart well suitable for all kind of compositions in various ragaas.
- Gives the ability to change the scale.
- Allows to display notes in either English/Gurmukhi.
- Supports auto switching to next string once a string is tuned to the correct note as per the tuner chart.
- Beginners might find hard to do a perfect tuning, so supports multiple accuracy ranges.
- Scrolling is very smooth.
Notes:
- Though the chart is best suited for all kind of performances, user can choose whatever chart he/she is following and tune the strings accordingly. Try using Manual Switching mode.
- If the string cant be tuned to the note as per the chart, due to string too tight or too loose, check with your teacher or mentor the correct note to tune to. Be careful string can break as well.
- Best way to tune is to keep the device as close to the lower bridge.
Thanks to Preetinder Singh Ji from SikhSaaj for providing the tuning chart for all the supported instruments.