---
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title: 'How is a harmonium tuned?'
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date: '2026-10-19T15:07:30+00:00'
updated: '2026-10-19T22:10:43+00:00'
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summary: 'A harmonium reed is tuned by scraping its tongue, near the root to flatten and near the tip to sharpen, on a keyboard fixed to equal temperament.'
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  FAQ · Instruments & artforms

# How is a harmonium tuned?

 Updated 19 October 2026

 A **[harmonium](/instrument/harmonium)** reed's pitch is changed by removing metal from its tongue: scraping near the root flattens the note, and scraping near the tip sharpens it. Broader tongues give a bolder tone but slower speech. The Indian harmonium keyboard is fixed to the 12 equal-tempered semitones, a tuning adopted in Bengal so that music could be transposed.



 

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 ###  Instruments (1) 

- [   Harmonium The harmonium is a hand-pumped reed organ of Hindustani classical, devotional and semi-classical music, introduced in the 19th century and standard in Indian…     ](/en-gb/instrument/harmonium)
 
  

 

 

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