Shamisen Tuner — Hon-chōshi, Ni-agari & San-sagari

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A shamisen (三味線) is a Japanese three-string plucked lute, played with a large plectrum called a bachi. Its three strings — 一の糸 (ichi no ito, the thickest), 二の糸 (ni no ito) and 三の糸 (san no ito, the thinnest) — are tuned to one of three patterns, and this page measures each one with your microphone and names it.

How to use the shamisen tuner

1. Start the tuner. Press Start Tuner (Microphone) and allow microphone access. The audio is analysed in your browser and is never uploaded.
2. Tune 一の糸 first. The thickest string is the reference for the other two. Pluck it cleanly and turn its peg until the display reaches your 本数 target — C3 on the preset’s C reference.
3. Then 二の糸 against 一の糸 by ear. Press 一の糸 at position 4 and match the open 二の糸 to it (a perfect fourth). Let the display confirm what you hear.
4. Then 三の糸 against 二の糸. Press 二の糸 at position 6 and match the open 三の糸 to it (a perfect fifth).
5. Hon-chōshi is 4 then 6; ni-agari is 6 then 4; san-sagari is 4 then 4. Those two positions cover all three tunings and are the same ones a teacher demonstrates.
6. Mute the strings you are not tuning. The three strings share one body and ring in sympathy, the usual cause of a jumping reading; rest your free hand across the other two.
7. Re-check after a minute. Strings move as they settle and as the room changes; the second pass is quicker.

Shamisen tuning notes: C-F-C, C-G-C, C-F-B♭

There is no fixed A. The player sets the height of 一の糸 to suit the singer — that choice is the 本数 (hon-sū) — and the intervals never change. 一本 puts 一の糸 on A, and each step up the 本数 raises all three strings a semitone, so 4本 puts it on C. The presets here use that C reference, so the tunings read C-F-C, C-G-C and C-F-B♭.

Tuning	一の糸	二の糸	三の糸	一→二	二→三	一→三
Hon-chōshi 本調子	C3	F3	C4	perfect 4th	perfect 5th	octave
Ni-agari 二上り	C3	G3	C4	perfect 5th	perfect 4th	octave
San-sagari 三下がり	C3	F3	B♭3	perfect 4th	perfect 4th	minor 7th

At A4 = 440 Hz those targets are C3 = 130.81 Hz, F3 = 174.61 Hz, G3 = 196.00 Hz, C4 = 261.63 Hz and B♭3 = 233.08 Hz. If your singer needs another height, pick another 本数 — the whole tuning moves a semitone at a time.

Tsugaru shamisen tuning: ni-agari (C-G-C)

Tsugaru-jamisen, the percussive style from northern Honshū, is played mostly in ni-agari. Ni-agari (二上り, “raised second”) takes hon-chōshi and raises 二の糸 by a whole tone — F3 to G3 on the C reference — so the fourth and the fifth trade places: 一→二 becomes a perfect fifth and 二→三 a perfect fourth, while the outer strings stay an octave apart. That bright, open colour is what Tsugaru players reach for, and the style also drops back to hon-chōshi for quieter passages. Pick Ni-agari in the dropdown, or set it by ear with position 6 on 一の糸 for 二の糸 and position 4 on 二の糸 for 三の糸 — the reverse of hon-chōshi. The strings sit at C3–G3–C4 on the C reference.

Shamisen vs sanshin tuning

The Okinawan sanshin (三線) is the shamisen’s ancestor, and its standard hon-chōshi has the same interval shape — a perfect fourth then a perfect fifth, C-F-C on the C reference. What differs is the instrument and the naming. The sanshin’s strings are called 男絃 (uujiru), 中絃 (nakajiru) and 女絃 (miijiru) rather than 一の糸, 二の糸 and 三の糸; the neck is shorter and the soundbox is covered with snake skin, where a shamisen uses a dog- or cat-skin head and a much heavier bachi. In practice the same three pitches serve both instruments, so the C-F-C, C-G-C and C-F-B♭ targets above apply to either. This page labels the strings the shamisen way; the chromatic tuner reads bare note names with no string labels.

No app needed — works on iPhone and Android

This is a web page, not an app. There is nothing to install from the App Store or Play Store, no account and no download: the tuner runs in the browser using the Web Audio API. Open the page over HTTPS, tap Start Tuner (Microphone), and allow microphone access when the browser asks — on iOS that prompt appears once per site. Hold the phone near the soundbox rather than over the strings, mute the two strings you are not tuning, and work in as quiet a room as you can, because a phone’s small microphone hears more background noise than a laptop’s. It behaves the same on Safari and Chrome.