Tuning a Violin

Learning how to tune a violin is one of the basic things to learn before you start playing the instrument. What is the point in learning how to play a musical piece on 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 can scarcely go back to the tutor, to keep tuning the violin! Tuning a violin is not too tough and is quite similar to guitar strings tuning.

How to Tune a Violin
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 the 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.

So now you know the notes. But how to know whether the note on the string is the right one. Well there are several ways of doing that which I have mentioned below.

Using a Guitar Tuner
This is one of the easiest ways to tune a violin. You can use a guitar tuner or a violin fine tuner to get this effect. First, you play an open string. The tuner will show what is the note you are playing. And based on what the tuner shows, you can tune it higher or lower. For example, 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 the perfect tuning.

Using a Piano
You can 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.

And if you don't have a tuner, a piano or a computer, then I'm afraid you're going to have to approach your tutor, for tuning the violin!

Learning and playing a musical instrument is a lot of fun. You can make the most out of that fun, by tuning the musical instrument perfectly!