Tuning
The four strings are G, D, A, E, low to high — and each is a fifth above the one below it. The violin has no frets and no way to hold those pitches in place, so you set them by ear or against a tuner every time you play.
The reference
The A string is tuned to A = 440 Hz — the pitch an oboe gives an orchestra, and the modern international standard. Get it from a tuner app, a piano, or the drone in the practice bar below, and tune the A first. Then tune the rest in order: A → D → G → E. That order keeps the tension across the four strings balanced.
Pegs and fine tuners
The fine tuners — the little screws on the tailpiece — make small adjustments; use these day to day (turn in to raise the pitch). The pegs make big ones.
Pegs hold by friction alone, so:
- turn slowly, and push the peg gently in toward the pegbox as you turn, or it slips straight back the moment you let go;
- always come up to the note from just below, and stop the instant you reach it;
- if the pitch is going down as you turn, you're going the wrong way.
Hearing "in tune"
Two strings a fifth apart, bowed together, lock into one clean, ringing sound when they're in tune. Slightly out, you hear a wobble — a pulsing beat — that slows down and vanishes as you close in. Learning to hear that beat disappear is a real ear skill, and the drone is the best place to practise it.
Try
Open the practice bar, set the drone to A, and bow your open A against it. Nudge the A fine tuner one way, then the other — hear the beating speed up and slow down — and settle it where the two sounds merge into one. Then tune your D the same way against the A.
The usual mistake
- Yanking a peg past the note and snapping the string — turn in tiny amounts;
- forcing a fine tuner that's already screwed all the way in (unscrew it most of the way and take up the slack with the peg);
- tuning E first, or out of order;
- not pushing the peg in, so it won't hold.
New strings also stretch for a week or two, and temperature and humidity move everything — which is why you tune before you play, and again a few minutes in.