Uraha

Why a shamisen-dedicated tuner?

The shamisen's distinctive tone — shaped by its percussive attack, rapid decay, rich harmonic overtones, and the characteristic sawari buzz — makes it notoriously difficult for general-purpose digital tuners to detect accurately. Uraha is purpose-built and optimized specifically for the shamisen.

Why choose Uraha?

■ Record Your Own Shamisen — Recorded

No two shamisen sound alike. Record your instrument at its perfectly tuned pitch, then play that recording back before every performance to tune your strings to it — not a generic reference pitch, but the character of your own instrument. Hear each take before you keep it, add a quick memo, and swipe away any you no longer need. Found in no other shamisen tuner app.

■ [New in Version 4.5] Now on Apple Watch

Play reference tones from your wrist, through the watch's own speaker. Turn the Digital Crown to move between 壱, 弍 and 参, and tap to play or stop. The base tone and tuning follow your iPhone, or you can choose them on the watch itself.

■ The Whole Tuning on One Screen

Choose your key and tuning from two pickers, then work across the three strings side by side. Each string shows its note, its octave and its exact frequency, and keeps a check mark once you have held it in tune — so you can see at a glance how far through the instrument you are. Hold a string in tune for a second and Uraha advances to the next one on its own.

■ A Tuner That Measures the Right String

The needle now reads against the string you selected, not simply the nearest note. Play the wrong string, or catch an overtone instead of the fundamental, and Uraha tells you so rather than reporting a confident match.

■ Ear Tuning with Authentic Shamisen Tone

Uraha plays a synthesized tone that closely recreates the resonance and timbre of a real shamisen, so you can tune by ear the way musicians have for centuries. One tap sounds a string; hold to repeat it. Fine-tune the timbre to match your own instrument and preference.

■ Digital Tuner Optimized for Shamisen

Calibrated specifically for the shamisen's pitch range and harmonic structure, Uraha detects the fundamental pitch far more reliably than conventional chromatic tuners — use it alongside ear tuning for precision you can see and hear.

■ Instrument-Type Presets

Fine-tune the synthesized tone for Tsugaru shamisen, nagauta, jiuta, and more, then save up to three configurations as presets — ideal if you own multiple instruments or switch between genres.

■ Full Support for All Three Traditional Tunings

Hon-choshi, Ni-agari, and San-sagari — accurate reference pitches for every standard shamisen tuning, one tap away.

■ Saved Tunings with Memos

Save a key and tuning together with a note — the song, the piece, the player — and call it straight back from the saved list. Ideal for teachers tracking students' setups or performers managing multiple pieces.

■ Accessible by Design

Every primary control — record, play, save, tune — includes