Welcome to our forum. A Message To Our New and Prospective Members . Check out our Forum Rules. Lets keep this forum an enjoyable place to visit.

Check out our 2023 Group Christmas Project HERE

AAA
Avatar
Please consider registering
guest
sp_LogInOut Log Insp_Registration Register
Register | Lost password?
Advanced Search
Forum Scope




Match



Forum Options



Minimum search word length is 3 characters - maximum search word length is 84 characters
sp_Feed Topic RSSsp_TopicIcon
Tuning without a 'tuner'
Topic Rating: 0 Topic Rating: 0 Topic Rating: 0 Topic Rating: 0 Topic Rating: 0 Topic Rating: 0 (0 votes) 
Avatar
Ferret
Byron Bay Australia
Members

Regulars
March 30, 2014 - 8:26 pm
Member Since: April 22, 2012
Forum Posts: 1575
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

How do you tune a violin using only a A tuning folk?

Would be good to know how to :)

Seen it all. Done it all. Can't remember most of dunno ..... What was I saying???? facepalm

Avatar
Fiddlerman
Fort Lauderdale
March 30, 2014 - 8:39 pm
Member Since: September 26, 2010
Forum Posts: 16430

You tune the D a fifth from the A then the G a fifth from the D then you go back up to the A and tune the E a fifth up . Perfect fifths are obvious to me but to those of you who don't hear it, the first interval in twinkle twinkle is a fifth.
I'll make a video someday if I haven't already. LOL

"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."

Avatar
RosinedUp

Honorary tenured advisor
Members

Regulars
March 31, 2014 - 10:55 am
Member Since: September 7, 2012
Forum Posts: 985
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

To expand on and extend what Pierre said:

First you tune the A string so that it matches your tuning fork, piano, pitch pipe, or similar.

Twinkle, Scarborough Fair, Drunken Sailor, and the Flintstones Theme all start out with a perfect fifth.  You hold the memory of the sound of that interval in your mind or even sing it or hum it aloud.  Then you tune the strings other than A so that adjacent strings produce that same interval (a perfect fifth).

After the strings are tuned approximately, you can bow adjacent strings simultaneously and listen for beats.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.....stics%29  You tune one of the two strings until no beats can be heard.  Then the pitches of adjacent strings are in the ratio 3:2 (again, a perfect fifth).

The results of tuning with beats and tuning using an electronic tuner will differ a little.  Tuners are usually set up for the system of equal temperament.  In that case, two pitches of a fifth are in the ratio of the twelfth root of two raised to the power seven (approximately 1.4983071) rather than exactly 3/2.

Avatar
Mad_Wed
Russia, Tatarstan rep. Kazan city
Members

Regulars
March 31, 2014 - 4:27 pm
Member Since: October 7, 2011
Forum Posts: 2849
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

Tough task at first!

I was overwhelmed by doing it at start, i always doubted about what i hear and didn't trust my ears and questioned myself if i'm doing right or wrong. Checked myself all the time with on-line tuners, then a month passed and it became a usual stuff. I can't tell that i tune it perfectly, but my teacher is more than happy. I don't have "perfect pitch" so i still need an orienteer, but my ears remembr what is fifth now, LOL.

Practice, Ferret. Will and practice. =)

Avatar
StoneDog
Members

Regulars
March 31, 2014 - 9:35 pm
Member Since: January 14, 2013
Forum Posts: 888
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

Mad_Wed said
Tough task at first!

I was overwhelmed by doing it at start, i always doubted about what i hear and didn't trust my ears and questioned myself if i'm doing right or wrong. Checked myself all the time with on-line tuners, then a month passed and it became a usual stuff. I can't tell that i tune it perfectly, but my teacher is more than happy. I don't have "perfect pitch" so i still need an orienteer, but my ears remembr what is fifth now, LOL.

Practice, Ferret. Will and practice. =)

LIKE!!!

 

Avatar
Ferret
Byron Bay Australia
Members

Regulars
April 1, 2014 - 5:23 pm
Member Since: April 22, 2012
Forum Posts: 1575
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

@Fiddlerman @RosinedUp @Mad_Wed 

Thanks folks for the help.

Will give it a try. Can't hurt and it would be useful to be able to do :)

Seen it all. Done it all. Can't remember most of dunno ..... What was I saying???? facepalm

Avatar
DanielB
Regulars

Members
April 2, 2014 - 7:06 am
Member Since: May 4, 2012
Forum Posts: 2379
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

Other than using songs that happen to contain a fifth interval, as some folks have already mentioned, you can sing a scale to find the notes of the strings.

You know, the old "Do re mi fa so la ti do" thing?  If you tune your A string to match the tuning fork, and sing "Do" to that note.. then sing your way up the scale, "Do re mi fa so.." and "so" will be the note for your E string.

Then you can sing down the scale from the A to get your D.. "Do ti la so fa.. "  and "fa" will be your D. 

Once you have those three, you can play the open "doublestop" of the A and E string to fine tune the E, if needed.  Then do the A and D.  Basically playing the two notes together and fine-tuning the one that isn't "A" a little (if necessary) so you don't hear a "beat" or "wobble" between the notes.

Then when you've got the D string tuned and fine tuned, you can sing down from the open D, "Do ti la so fa.." to get your G.

 

I don't know as there's any big advantage over using the first two notes of a song that conveniently has the right notes.. Other than finally having something that "Do re mi fa so la ti do" is useful for, if you had to learn it back in gradeschool. LOL

"This young wine may have a lot of tannins now, but in 5 or 10 years it is going to be spectacular, despite the fact that right now it tastes like crude oil. You know this is how it is supposed to taste at this stage of development." ~ Itzhak Perlman

Avatar
Ferret
Byron Bay Australia
Members

Regulars
April 2, 2014 - 4:07 pm
Member Since: April 22, 2012
Forum Posts: 1575
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

@DanielB 

Thanks for that Dan. Great explanation of how it's done.

Will have to get a tuning fork from eBay. If I'm going to have a go at tuning the 'traditional' way, I might as wall get the right tool :)

Seen it all. Done it all. Can't remember most of dunno ..... What was I saying???? facepalm

Forum Timezone: America/New_York
Most Users Ever Online: 696
Currently Online: Jim Dunleavy, Gordon Shumway, AndrewH
Guest(s) 73
Currently Browsing this Page:
1 Guest(s)
Members Birthdays
sp_BirthdayIcon
Today None
Upcoming Shell, Squiryl, GlassTownCur, mcassidy2004, Reptile Smile, MyMing, CarolineNH, JamesRSmithJr, SethroTull86
Top Posters:
ELCBK: 7828
ABitRusty: 3921
Mad_Wed: 2849
Barry: 2690
Fiddlestix: 2647
Oliver: 2439
Gordon Shumway: 2435
DanielB: 2379
Mark: 2154
damfino: 2113
Member Stats:
Guest Posters: 3
Members: 31673
Moderators: 0
Admins: 7
Forum Stats:
Groups: 16
Forums: 82
Topics: 10607
Posts: 134388
Newest Members:
alicedcoz258, Dres pirate, tonyluo, Terrence Terry Ruddy, andrea924breaux, pybring, stive4545, kevin498, Fiddlerjones, FidgetFrog
Administrators: Fiddlerman: 16430, KindaScratchy: 1760, coolpinkone: 4180, BillyG: 3744, MrsFiddlerman: 2, Jimmie Bjorling: 0, Mouse: 5355