Tips for Tuning a Violin

Tap to Read ➤ Arjun Kulkarni

It is undoubtedly one of the most difficult instruments to play and an untuned violin will only worsen the cacophony when you are trying to learn to play a musical piece right! So how does one go about tuning a violin? Read this write-up to find out exactly how.

Before you start learning how to pluck at those strings with the bow, you first need to learn how to tune a violin. What is the point in learning how to play an instrument when you don't even know how to tune it?

Most people turn to their tutors and ask them to tune the violin. But suppose, your teacher gives you a bit of homework to practice the violin and one of the strings goes off tune, what will you do? You cannot always keep going back to your tutor to get it tuned!

The first thing you need to know is, what is the note that each string is supposed to play. Now, let us assume that you are holding the violin in your left and plying the bow on it with your right hand.

The leftmost string on the violin should be tuned to the note G. The one next to the leftmost string is tuned to D. The third string is A and the rightmost string is E.

Now that you know the notes, you also need to be sure whether the note on the string is the right one. Well, there are several ways of doing that. Some of them have been mentioned here.

Using a Guitar Tuner

You can use a guitar tuner or a violin fine tuner for this. Play an open string. The tuner will display the note being played.

And based on what the tuner shows, tune it to a higher or lower note. For eg., if the tuner shows that you are playing an E on the string which is supposed to be G, then you have to tune it a bit higher till you reach the G. As the tuner can also show the notes that are just a little off G, and helps you correct them, the tuner enables perfect tuning.

Using a Piano

Use any musical instrument actually, but since a piano rarely ever goes out of tune, you can be sure that the piano notes are accurate.

All you have to do is play the notes (G, D, A, E) on the piano and then you can go about tuning by ear. So you play each one till you are sure that the note you are playing on the violin and the piano are almost similar.

Using Notes Online

And if you don't have a piano or a tuner, you must surely have a computer with an internet connection! So you can access one of the violin tuning websites. Make sure that your speaker is on. The website will play each individual note as many times as you want, and you can make sure that you have tuned it right.

If you don't have a tuner, a piano, or a computer, then you'll have to approach your tutor and try to learn it so that you can do it yourself the next time around. Learning and playing a musical instrument is a lot of fun. Tune it perfectly so that you can make the most out of that fun!