If you’re a beginner violinist, you may be wondering how to tune your violin. While there are many ways to tune a violin, one of the easiest and most accurate ways is to use an online violin tuner. By using an online tuner, you can ensure that your violin is in tune with itself and with other instruments.
As most violin teachers and prestigious musicians would agree, maintaining your musical instrument should have as much attention directed toward it as caring for the family pet. Although your dog or cat doesn’t need regular tuning, your violin certainly does – or your playing skills won’t be popular with family or neighbors!
If this is your first experience with playing music seriously, tuning your instrument may not even have occurred to you. Nor will you notice, necessarily, slight changes in pitch as your violin slips out of tune. However, playing on an out-of-tune instrument will affect your ability to hear pitch changes clearly, and may hamper your progress in learning how to play the violin.
For a quick intro on how to tune your violin, check out the helpful tutorial below:
How Do You Properly Tune a Violin?
Any musician will tell you that a well-tuned instrument is essential for a good performance. When it comes to the violin, there are a few things you need to keep in mind in order to get the perfect sound.
- First, tighten or loosen the tuning pegs until the string produces the correct note.
- Next, use the fine tuners to make small adjustments to the pitch.
- Be careful not to over-tighten the strings, as this can damage the instrument.
- Finally, check that all four strings are in tune with each other before you start playing.
With a little practice, you’ll be an expert at tuning your violin in no time!
Still stuck? Signing up for violin lessons can help, as can watching the helpful video below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U3HT0wwxSA
How to Tune Your Violin for Beginners
When you first start playing, tuning your violin is something that you might leave to your teacher for fear of broken strings and collapsing bridges. However, it’s a skill that you should really acquire for yourself as early on in your playing career as you can – equate it to taking the training wheels off your first bicycle! Here are some things to keep in mind:
New strings
Ask an experienced violinist (or your teacher) to show you how to put new strings on your violin, and even do it for you the first few times. New violin strings need a couple of weeks to settle in and need frequent tuning adjustment, so don’t get discouraged.
Know Your Violin
Familiarize yourself with which peg relates to which string. It’s easier to navigate the fine tuners, as they’re directly related to the string in question. You can pull up an online violin tuner resource to help you tell the pegs apart, or follow the line of the string up to the peg. To adjust the pitch with the peg, turn it away from you in normal playing position to raise it, and in the opposite direction to lower it. Pegs can stick; if this happens, pull it out slightly, and scribble around it with a graphite pencil to make it easier to move.
Careful Does It
Tightening a string too far or too fast will cause it to snap, so bear this in mind when you’re learning to tune your violin for yourself. If your string is only marginally out of tune, use the fine tuners instead, turning them clockwise to raise the pitch, and anti-clockwise to lower it.
Points of Reference
Unless you have perfect pitch, which is incredibly rare, you will need a reference note to help you out. Tuning forks are a good investment, and there are smartphone apps available to help you, too (more on this later!).
How to Know if Your Violin is Tuned
If you’ve ever tried to play the violin, you know that it’s not as easy as it looks. One of the most important things to get right is the tuning. If your violin is even a little bit out of tune, it can sound terrible. So how do you know if your violin is in tune?
There are a few different ways to tell. First, you can try plucking each string one at a time and compare the sound to a tuning fork or piano. If the note is sharp, the string is too tight; if the note is flat, the string is too loose. You can also use an electronic tuner, which will give you a more accurate reading.
Finally, if you’re still not sure, you can always ask a experienced violinist to take a listen. With a little practice, you’ll be able to tune your violin like a pro in no time.
How to Tune Your Violin with a Tuner
There are a few different ways to tune your violin, but using a tuner is by far the easiest and most accurate method.
First, make sure that your violin is in the correct position. The chinrest should be positioned so that the violin sits comfortably under your chin, and the scroll should be pointing towards your left shoulder.
Next, select the tuning mode on your tuner. If you’re not sure which mode to choose, consult your tuner’s manual or look for an ‘auto’ setting.
Once you’ve selected the correct mode, pluck the string you want to tune and adjust the tuning peg until the needle on the tuner is in the green zone. Repeat this process for each string until your violin is in tune. With a little practice, you’ll be able to tune your violin quickly and easily.
How to Tune Your Violin With Pegs
Many people believe that tuning a violin is a difficult task, but it is actually quite simple. The first step is to find the right pegs. There are four pegs on a violin, located at the top of the instrument. Each peg corresponds to a different string.
The order goes from left to right, starting with the lowest string: E, A, D, G. Once you have located the pegs, you will need to tighten or loosen them accordingly. To do this, simply turn the peg in the desired direction. If you want to tighten the string, turn the peg to the right.
To loosen it, turn the peg to the left. It is important to make small adjustments, as large ones can throw off the entire tune of the violin. With a little practice, you will be an expert at tuning your violin in no time!
How to Tune Your Violin Without a Tuner
Learning how to tune your violin without a tuner is a valuable skill for any musician. Not only does it save you the cost of purchasing a tuner, but it also allows you to keep playing even if your tuner breaks or is lost.
Plus, tuning by ear can help you to develop a better sense of pitch, which is useful for both playing and listening to music.
The first step is to find a stable reference note. This can be done by playing an electronic keyboard, or by singing a note yourself. Once you have found a reference note, start tuning your violin’s strings one at a time.
For each string, start by loosening the corresponding tuning peg until the string is slack. Then, pluck the string and use your other hand to turn the peg until the string is tuned to the correct pitch. Finally, tighten the peg so that the string is snug but not too tight.
With a little practice, you’ll be able to tune your violin without difficulty – and without a tuner.
How to Tune Your Electric Violin
First, check that your bridge is in the correct position. The string shouldn’t be touching the First fret, and there should be a slight gap between the string and the Seventh fret.
Second, make sure your strings are in the correct order. The lowest-pitched string should be on the bottom, with each higher-pitched string sitting above it.
Third, check that your strings are the correct tension. They should be tight enough that they don’t buzz when you play them, but not so tight that they’re difficult to press down.
Fourth, tune your violin to the correct pitch. Check that all of your tuning pegs are tightened correctly. Pluck each string one at a time and listen for any buzzing or other irregularities.
Finally, once you’ve checked everything else, give your violin a good tune-up!
Tuning Your Violin – How Often?
If you’ve been to symphony orchestra concerts, you may have noticed that the violins make constant adjustments between movements with their fine tuners. If you’re playing for more than a few minutes, the pitch can easily slip and need your attention. Slight knocks and changes in the weather, as well as central heating or air conditioning, can also affect your violin’s sound. A good rule of thumb is to assume your violin is out of tune, especially if you’re playing with others!
Tuning to Others – Piano Accompaniment and Ensembles
As you improve and start to play with others – either with a pianist, a string quartet, or even in an orchestra – you will learn that “in tune” is sometimes relative, adjusting to the equal tuning of the keyboard, or even the key of the music you are playing. A little research on equal temperament and key relationships will help to explain this to you.
Be prepared to make slight adjustments, and learn to listen carefully. You might be in tune in relation to the melody line you’re playing, but are you in tune in relation to the chord that your fellow musicians have? In performances, tuning adjustments will be made by finger position, but listen in to your ensemble colleagues when you’re tuning between movements.
Want to Know How to Tune Your Violin By Ear? Try These Exercises
A “tin ear” can be trained, and although perfect pitch is the preserve of a chosen few, something called “relative pitch” can be acquired with patience and regular practice.
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Find a Friend – If your ear is very untrained, start by learning to sing back pitches that are played to you. Enlisting a fairly musical friend is essential, as you may not yet be in a position where you know if you’re singing the right notes back when they are played to you. A piano is best, but downloadable keyboard apps are also useful to train yourself on the go.
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Listen and Learn – Work on picking out notes from the middle of a chord, or from the tonic, and learn to sing back different intervals. Again, you may wish to have someone to help you with this.
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Acquiring “Relative Pitch” – You may find that after playing for some time, you can easily sing back various notes with no immediate point of reference. This is called “pitch memory,” and if developed properly, can turn into relative pitch.
Online Violin Tuners – A Guide
Using an online violin tuner has several benefits. First, it’s more accurate than tuning by ear. When you’re first starting out, it can be difficult to trust your own ear. An online tuner takes the guesswork out of tuning and ensures that your violin is in perfect pitch.
Second, online tuners are easy to use. You don’t need any special training or equipment – all you need is an internet connection and a microphone. Finally, online tuners are free! While there are some paid options available, there are also many high-quality free online violin tuners that will do the job just as well.
If you have a smartphone, there are several online violin tuner apps, for both iOS and Android systems, which can be an incredibly useful resource. Here are some to check out::
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YouTube Tutorials – Particularly useful for the complete beginner, a simple search on YouTube can help you find online violin tuner tutorials to help you out.
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If you find it hard to hear pitches played on the piano in relation to your violin, the online violin tuner here may help you with an electronic simulation of the G-D-A-E string pitches.
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Smartphone apps – These can be a minefield when searching for an online violin tuner; several reviewers note that the developers don’t know how to tune a violin! However, it’s worth testing these for yourself, as you may find one that works for your needs. We recommend the Android app gStrings Free, but still be aware that some reviewers with keen ears consider the pitches to be as much as a quarter tone wide of the mark!
A combination of a well-trained ear and online violin tuner will aid you in becoming competent and confident in tuning your own violin. Good luck!
Why is Tuning a Violin So Hard?
For anyone who has ever tried to tune a violin, the process can seem painfully slow and frustrating. Even for experienced musicians, tuning a violin is no easy task.
There are a number of reasons why tuning a violin is so difficult. First, the strings on a violin are extremely thin, which makes them very difficult to tune accurately. Second, the strings are under a lot of tension, which makes them even more difficult to tune.
Finally, the tunings for a violin are very specific, meaning that even a small mistake can throw off the entire tuning. As a result, tuning a violin is an extremely delicate process that requires a great deal of patience and skill. Even for experienced musicians, it can be a challenge to get everything just right.
Yet tuning your violin doesn’t have to be difficult – by using an online violin tuner, you can ensure that your instrument is in perfect pitch every time you play. There are many different online viola tuners available, both free and paid. If you’re just starting out, we recommend trying one of the free options first.
Once you’re more comfortable with tuning your violin, you can explore some of the paid options if you like. Whichever option you choose, make sure to practice regularly so that you can become a pro at tuning your violin!
Need help getting started with playing the violin? Be sure to sign up for violin lessons today!
Photo by Waldo Jaquith
Suzy S.