Hey there! Today we're going to talk about how to tune a violin. Well we're going to
talk about two different scenarios. Scenario one you have four fine tuners on the tail
piece, o.k. Scenario two we have one the E string but the G, D and the A, no fine tuners.
Let me explain one thing real quickly. If you're going to use one fine tuner and have
no fine tuners on the tail piece you'll need to use synthetic core strings. Perlon, Gut,
synthetic versions of gut is what you mostly use today. If you're going to have the four
fine tuners typically it's because you're going to use a metal core string. Which means
with a peg the metal strings are going to tune much quicker, life would be miserable
without fine tuners. With a synthetic core strings that the core will stretch as you
turn the peg, you'll get a lot slower movement to the pitch. You can get to the center of
the pitch without the aggravation that you would if you tried to use metal strings with
no fine tuners. Several of the violins I tune everyday at the shop; I go through quickly
a tune with the fine tuners. So I strike an A note. Tune that. Tune the E to the A. Tune
the D to the A. And then tune the G to the D. What I would recommend, if you're new at
this, you're trying to tune the violin. It's frustrating for the child who can't practice
because his violins out of tune, it's all new. Get a pitch pipe or better yet an electronic
tuner. The pitch pipe, all four notes are here. So you can get real close.
So if you don't have a tuning fork and can't hear the 5ths, you get the pitch pipe just
take one string at a time. Try and get close. So let's move to the violin that has no fine
tuners on the tail piece. We're going to have to use just pegs on this one. You notice we
didn't even need the pegs on the other one. Sometimes you do, sometimes you don't. If
you do you get it close and you use the fine tuners. Here you get it real close with the
peg, you have no choice. The E strings got a fine tuner but for the most part you can
get it close just plucking on it. The pegs need to fit well to keep in tune so when you're
fine tuning with the peg you're not really catching up and having a real hard time getting
to the pitch. So let's see if these qualify. Yeah. So a friction peg will move in a way
that you start below the pitch, loosen he peg and as you go up in pitch you're pushing
in as well. And I'm holding the scroll here so I got something to push against. And I'm
pushing in and going up. I went past the pitch so I go down again. And I get to the pitch
and it should stay. Now most fine tuning is done by players with their bow when you have
this method. And people use their fingers over here. And they're tuning and they're
tuning up with their bow. Until they're close and they go to the low one. Fine. Really difficult
to do on the metal strings without the fine tuner so if you're tuning with synthetic core
strings one tuners fine, the pegs if they work well you're in good shape. If you're
not, if you're using any of the strings that have the metal core you'll absolutely need
to use the fine tuners. Also when you tune in with the fine tuners you really do that
fine tuning with the bow as well, you do it this way. And you move to the pitch that way.