Heh, tunings. A4 is the A above middle C, and the number is the frequency of the sound, in Hertz. 440 is standard, but people frequently use other tunings. Orchestras (and string players) often tune higher because strings are louder and "brighter" at higher frequencies. It's very common in pop music too, though. An example you might be familiar with is that some sadder pop music is often played tuned to an A lower than 440, and happier pop music is often tuned higher. Also, occasionally, a song will have instruments that are intentionally out of tune with each-other for any number of reasons.

This song by Radiohead is tuned very flat to make it sound especially sad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....rTB-iiecqk

This song by Sigur Rós is tuned very sharp to make it sound bright and happy (notice the strings). 

Being tuned to the same pitch as whoever you're playing with is by far the most important thing--unless you want to tune differently, which isn't a bad thing. In fact all the instruments in my favourite song are tuned differently. 

Anyway, I use a chromatic tuner. I want to make sure that my violin is perfectly in tune because I'm learning the fingering, and I don't want to learn it wrong. Also, I've noticed that the strings on my violin tend to go sharp for no reason. If I start by tuning E, by the time I get to G, E is 20 cents sharp! This is just sitting in my bedroom, without having bumped the pegs or anything. What is going on?

LoopyLoonyLuna said:

anathama said:

 Also, I've noticed that the strings on my violin tend to go sharp for no reason. If I start by tuning E, by the time I get to G, E is 20 cents sharp! This is just sitting in my bedroom, without having bumped the pegs or anything. What is going on?

For some reason your strings are contracting. Mine go flat rather than sharp, and I've never heard about strings going sharp, but as we're talking about wood and metal many things are possible.

 

I was taught to start with the A, then go down to D and G. The E string is always the last to tune (I'm not sure if there is any particular benefit to this, other than the fact that we were given an A then tuned the other strings in relation). If you haven't already tried changing your tuning order you might want to try it to see if it changes anything. 

 

I'd think that's how you were taught since that's how it's done in orchestras, but I'm not tuning my strings in relation to eachother yet. I'll change my tuning order, but A and D go sharp too, it's so weird. At least my pegs aren't slipping constantly though, that would be much worse!