This online pitch detector listens to your microphone and shows the note you are singing or playing, its frequency in hertz and how many cents sharp or flat you are, on a tuner style needle. A scrolling graph draws your pitch against a scale of notes, so you can see whether you hold a note, slide into it or drift away from it. It also keeps your lowest and highest notes, your range and how much of the time you were on pitch. It works as a voice pitch detector for singing and as a chromatic tuner for single-note instruments, on Windows, Mac, ChromeOS, Android and iPhone, with no app to install.
How to use the pitch detector
- Press Start listening and allow the microphone. Choose another mic in Input if you have one.
- Sing, hum or play one note and hold it. The note, hertz and cents appear within a fraction of a second.
- Watch the needle and the colour of the line: green is within 10 cents, yellow within 25 cents, orange further off.
- Sing a scale or a phrase and read the graph from left to right. Each grey line is a semitone and the labels show the notes.
- Press Play the note to hear the note you last held, at the exact pitch, and match it.
- Press Copy results for a summary of the session or CSV for every reading.
Sing at your normal volume about 20 to 30 cm from the mic, in a room without music playing. If nothing shows, raise Sensitivity. If the room noise sets it off, lower it.
What the readings mean
| Reading | What it tells you | What to aim for |
|---|---|---|
| Note | The nearest note, with its octave. Middle C is C4 | Steady while you hold a note |
| Hz | The frequency of the fundamental | A4 is 440 Hz, middle C is 261.6 Hz |
| Cents | How far from the note you are. 100 cents make a semitone | Within 10 cents for held notes |
| Lowest and Highest note | The lowest and highest notes held for at least 0.2 seconds | Your comfortable range |
| Range | Semitones between them, with octaves | 12 semitones is one octave |
| On pitch | Share of the time you were within 20 cents of a note | Most of the time on held notes |
| Steadiness | How much the pitch wobbled on the last held note, in cents | Under 10 for a straight tone |
The detector uses the YIN method, which looks for the repeating period in the sound wave rather than the loudest frequency. That makes it reliable on voices, where the second or third harmonic is often louder than the note itself.
Find your vocal range
Warm up first, then glide slowly from a comfortable middle note down as low as you can without straining, and back up as high as you can. Hold the end points for a second. Classical voice types roughly cover these ranges:
| Voice type | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Soprano | C4 to C6 |
| Mezzo-soprano | A3 to A5 |
| Contralto (alto) | F3 to F5 |
| Tenor | C3 to C5 |
| Baritone | A2 to A4 |
| Bass | E2 to E4 |
Range is only part of a voice type. Where your voice sounds best and moves between registers matters as much, so take this as a starting point. Your speaking voice sits much lower than your singing range: a typical adult man speaks at about 90 to 155 Hz and a typical adult woman at about 165 to 255 Hz.
Practise singing in tune with the pitch graph
- Hold a note for four seconds and look at the line. A flat green line is a steady note. A line that sags at the end means you run out of breath and drop flat.
- Sing a scale slowly. Each step should land on a grey line and stay there. A curve that climbs into each note shows scooping.
- Match a note: press Play the note, then sing it back and watch the needle settle on zero.
- Vibrato shows as an even wave around the note, usually 5 to 7 times a second. Steadiness reads higher during vibrato, which is normal.
The note jumps around or nothing shows
- Too quiet: move closer to the mic or raise Sensitivity.
- Background sound: music, a TV or other voices mix with yours. The detector follows one sound, so turn other audio off.
- Breathy or whispered singing has little clear pitch. Sing with more voice for the test.
- A chord or two instruments gives no single pitch. Play one string or key at a time.
- No movement at all: check the mic with the mic test, and if it stays silent, follow the steps for a mic not working.
The right note in the wrong octave
Octave slips happen when the lowest part of a sound is weak. Deep male voices on a laptop mic are the most common case, because small mics pick up little below about 100 Hz. Sing closer to the mic, try a headset or USB mic and check it with the headset mic test, or switch Range to Wide. Very high whistles above 1,600 Hz also need the Wide range.
Every note is a little sharp or flat
If every note reads 20 to 40 cents off in the same direction, your reference is different from the track or instrument you sing with. Check A4 reference: most music uses 440 Hz, but some pianos sit at 442 Hz and some recordings use other tunings. Set A4 so a piano or track note reads zero, then sing. To hear a reference pitch for longer, play it with the online tone generator.
Tune an instrument with the pitch detector
Play one string or key at a time, let it ring and tune until the needle sits at zero and the line turns green.
| Instrument | Open strings |
|---|---|
| Guitar, standard | E2 82.4 Hz, A2 110.0 Hz, D3 146.8 Hz, G3 196.0 Hz, B3 246.9 Hz, E4 329.6 Hz |
| Bass guitar | E1 41.2 Hz, A1 55.0 Hz, D2 73.4 Hz, G2 98.0 Hz (use Wide range) |
| Ukulele | G4, C4, E4, A4 |
| Violin | G3, D4, A4, E5 |
What this pitch detector cannot do
It reads one pitch at a time, so chords, full songs and recordings are out of reach. It listens to a microphone only and cannot open audio or video files. A digital piano can be checked here through its speakers, while the notes it sends over USB or a MIDI cable show up in the midi tester. The reading lags the sound by about 50 to 100 ms, because it analyzes short slices of sound and smooths them, which is fine for practice but too slow to drive live effects. For the full mix of frequencies in a sound, use the frequency analyzer. If you suspect your hearing is the problem rather than your voice, a hearing frequency test checks the range you can hear.
Pitch detector questions
What note am I singing?
Press Start listening and hold one steady note for a second. The big letter and number are the nearest note, such as A3 or C#4, and the needle shows how many cents above or below it you are. The number after the letter is the octave: middle C is C4.
How accurate is this pitch detector?
On a steady tone it reads within about 1 cent, a hundredth of a semitone. Real voices move more than that, so the readout uses the middle of the last few readings and the needle settles in a fraction of a second. It reads from 60 to 1,600 Hz in Voice range and from 40 to 2,500 Hz in Wide range.
What are cents in music?
A cent is a hundredth of a semitone, the step between two neighbouring piano keys. Zero means you are right on the note. A few cents off is very hard to hear on its own, while 20 cents or more starts to sound out of tune against a piano or another singer.
Can it find my vocal range?
Yes. Sing down to your lowest comfortable note, then up to your highest, holding each for a moment. Lowest note and Highest note keep any note you hold for at least 0.2 seconds, and Range counts the semitones between them. Compare the result with the voice type table on this page.
Why does it show the right note in the wrong octave?
Low voices and some instruments have a weak fundamental, the lowest frequency in the sound, and small laptop and phone mics pick up deep tones poorly. Move closer to the mic, use a headset or USB mic, or switch Range to Wide for low instruments.
Can it detect chords or the notes in a song?
No. It follows one note at a time, like a tuner. A chord has several pitches at once, so the reading jumps or disappears. To see every frequency in a chord or a recording, use the spectrum analyzer, which names the strongest peaks.
Should A4 be 440 Hz?
440 Hz is the standard tuning pitch for A above middle C, and almost all pianos, apps and backing tracks use it. Some orchestras tune to 442 Hz and early music groups often use 415 Hz. Set A4 reference to match the instrument or track you sing with.