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What is your way of learning intonation in pieces?
I usually work in layers. I am an amateur, practice 1 h daily and play all pieces with piano. My principle is following:
1. I go through the piece, and select the places I think are difficult.
2. I insert these into Finale Notepad and practice these lots and lots together with the program on high volume.
3. I play with recordings to fix also unnoticed problems.
4. And then I play simply the piece with my pianist. Of course, a lot of difficult places stay difficult, but gets better with time.
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Good question Lena,
Interesting to read what you do as well. Great that you have discovered your own unique methods that help you. I am familiar with Finale but not Finale Notepad.
I slow down the tempo and listen and concentrate extremely carefully to each and every note. Repeat over and over and keep picking up the tempo. Sometimes on the very strange, contemporary, and difficult music I use appropriate open strings as guidelines.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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Regulars
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I use open strings constantly to make comparisons.
King
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I do OK with intonation if I remember three things:
My natural aim at notes is very slightly flat. I find it effective to aim sharp and simply roll back ( if the piece is slow enough ). Otherwise, I'll think "sharp" and that seems to work for faster passages.
I need to remember that note separations are closer in higher positions, particularly the chromatics.
I try to keep my fingers (tips) at right angles to strings instead of laying down. I don't know why this should work but I can hear the difference.
If I do not "hear" the note before I play it, I'm likely to make a bad placement so knowing the music is a given.
When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
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As a total beginner, I've just been improvising along with familiar pieces. Preferably ones that let me use lots of open strings and don't have a violin part already. It's certainly not helping me learn the correct fingering for first position, but learning the correlation between distance and pitch is important too.
King
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Try some scales. Did you check the tutorials on Fiddlerman?
When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
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I've noticed that some of the music download sites offer mp3 accompaniment files that you can play along with. These are helpful if you are a beginner or are playing an unfamiliar piece that just isn't making sense. There are also music books with CD accompaniments (if you play these on the computer you can change the tempo).
Honorary advisor
Regulars
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I have the 1st book of suzuki music and the audio....but I wonder if it's legal to post it.
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Thanks for asking. It is not legal to post recent copyrighted material. I don't know the cut off for the year but probably around 75 years. Remember that we have PM functions here 
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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Another way of developing (or fine tuning) intonation is doing scales while checking each note against a chromatic tuner. We did this in Orchestra and my daughter also does so in band. In fact it's possibly the most hated exercises by music students. . It's tedious and frankly boring but it works well.
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Intonation is discussed here today, just as it was years ago. With new members, I thought it would be interesting to see what people do now.
Do you think technology has changed and methods of learning intonation are different?
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The Bumblebee Flies!
Regulars
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Traditional Fiddle Intonation vs. Classical Violinist Intonation Thread
Unlike on a piano, we can adjust our pitch intervals to what sounds best - just like singers!
Seems to me you can keep your instrument tuned a certain way and learn to place your fingers in specific spots, but ultimately - intonation is going to depend on who, or what, you are playing along with. So, I feel it's important to be able to listen, to adjust intonation.
For solo music on bowed string instruments - intonation can be an expressive tool. Strategically played notes that are slightly flat or slightly sharp can help draw attention to something that needs to be emphasized, enhance a mood.
I've got my hands full memorizing different tunes - many with microtones 🥴, so lately I find I have to do a 'test run' at the beginning of a piece I'm practicing - to remind myself of any 'unusual' notes I want to play.
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So. Today was the first day that the temperature reached 82 degrees in northern United States. I found that the changing temperature and humidity has a big effect on the way your violin plays.
After having THREE GLASSES OF MY FAVORITE BEER to celebrate the warm weather and then going directly into a practice session, I found that my intonation was way off and my bowing technique was just out the window.
What else could it possibly be other than the weather?
I'll try it again tomorrow.
(Sarcasm
)
Have a great spring everyone!
Grandpa
Violin ---- the most human of all instruments
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@Grandpafiddle It could very well be excitement of Summer, or, dare I say, 2 too many beers? 😂😂
For me, it is a tin ear and bad form!
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The Bumblebee Flies!
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I find that I need music to get my intonation on track. I usually start out with some scales and arpeggios, and the intonation is often a little sloppy. When I wear out my patience and start to play real music, my intonation seems to come back.
I do use open strings to check my accuracy while I’m playing. Double stops are common in old time music so the check with open strings fits right in.
I know that I really, really should spend 50% of my time playing scales like Yehudi Menuhin recommended, but if I did that I’d be a horrible grump and I’d probably smash my fiddle to smithereens over somebody’s head, haha.
Strabo
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Strabo said
...I know that I really, really should spend 50% of my time playing scales like Yehudi Menuhin recommended, but if I did that I’d be a horrible grump and I’d probably smash my fiddle to smithereens over somebody’s head, haha.
Strabo
From what I have read, spending all the time on the scales for intonation is a point of discussion. Some of the newer POVs state that any playing is helping. Some say that playing what you like is better than forcing scales. Some say, and what is better for me, is that it is easier and more accurate to play tunes you know to improve intonation because you know what it is supposed to sound like.
I can't really learn intonation until after I know how a tune is supposed to sound. Therefore, I am missing the mark and learning bad intonation up to that point. I tend to use tunes that I know and know how they should sound.
There are many ways to hone intonation. I think you use what works for you. I have a bit of a tin ear, I think, so I really rely on how I know a piece is supposed to sound. Once I get my intonation down better, it will be easier, for lack of a better word, to learn pieces that I have never heard. I think that is why I was getting nowhere when I was forcing myself to learn the way others learn.
Think about it, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is about, not all, the first tune everyone learns. Why? Because we know how it is supposed to sound. Just my opinion and thoughts.
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The Bumblebee Flies!
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