How did musicians keep their instruments in tune before the advent of recordings?

by AidanSig

Like the title says, how did musicians keep their instruments in tune before the advent of recordings?

Did they need someone with perfect pitch to help them? Did they just do it by ear? I’m very curious.

thebearskinsband

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/32k3bt/how_did_musicians_in_the_past_tune_their/

/u/erus mentions techniques before the tuning fork (tubes and whistles), but also mentions that the idea of a universal pitch standard is a modern one.