![]() ![]() If you’re a beginner or if you don’t have much experience with music, your listening might not be ‘attuned’ to the subtle differences in pitch. But it's still easier to hear the pitch if you play the strings using the bow! Once you have plenty of experience, it is possible to tune a violin by plucking the strings. ![]() So try not to 'pick' at the strings with the bow… instead, play long, resonant strokes and use the whole bow. SIDE NOTE: When tuning the violin, it's really important that you allow the string to vibrate clearly, otherwise you might not hear the pitch accurately. It's also why violinists will often start by tuning the A string, before they tune the other strings of the violin. This is why you will usually hear a symphony orchestra tuning to an 'A' played by the lead oboe player. This is because the 'international standard' has led to musicians all over the world tuning the A first, to be sure that it fits the fixed standard of 440Hz. So it's a good idea to have a sound that you can 'refer' to. To tune a violin accurately, you need to be sure that you're aiming for the correct right pitch in the first place. The A string, as we've already discussed, is tuned to 440Hz: A (440 Hertz)Īnd the E string is tuned to 659Hz: E (659 Hertz)īefore we get into the physical 'how-to' of tuning the violin, let's get clear on what we actually want to achieve. The D string is tuned to the frequency of 293 Hertz: D (293 Hertz) The G string is tuned to the frequency of 196 Hertz: G (196 Hertz) a 'perfect fifth' actually describes two notes which have a ratio of 3:2 between their frequencies. if you want to know more about this, look up 'perfect fifth' and 'A440' on Wikipedia, or consult the ViolinSchool Glossary! ![]() SIDE NOTE: Tuning is actually a bit more complicated than that. This basically means that each string is five notes of the scale away from the next one. Each violin string is different to the next by an interval of a perfect fifth. so we're going to stick with the A = 440Hz standard for now!įrom A, we can work out the frequency of all the other strings. Since then, the tuning of each string has been measured on the assumption that the frequency of A is 'fixed' at 440 sine waves per second.Īlthough there's a big debate amongst some musicians about whether this is correct (at our London School for example, we generally use A = 441Hz), we're going to assume that you just want to get your violin in tune as fast as possible. This frequency was decided on by the International Standards Organisation in the 1970s. This is the sound produced by 440 sine waves per second. The exact frequency can vary a bit depending on what style of music you're playing, or where you are in the world!īut the most commonly accepted tuning for the note A is 440Hz (Hertz). Each of these 'note names' describes a frequency of sound. ![]()
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