Wanda

Thanks to all who responded. Is it possible that a violin can prefer to tune to A442 rather than 440? At 440 it sounds dull, at 442 it comes to life. In ensemble I always need to bring it down to match their A's, but I can hear my violin playing flat and it sounds awful to me. One of those things I guess: I may not know much, but I know what I like! Wanda

Hello A. Brown I have followed the discussion over the years and had hoped that with the passage of time I would learn. But I don't appear to be getting very far. I have fine tuners on all strings, so the actual mechanics of doing it isn't the problem. What I don't understand, and what hasn't been explained in all the posts, is how my A tuning fork tunes exactly to the "green" on the electronic tuner, but when my violin tunes exactly to the green light it sounds flat. How can this be so? I think once this is solved, I'll go a long way to being able to tune by ear (using the A fork as my reference point). I have access to a piano and electronic keyboard, but hate tuning to them. I hear what is said about having to tune to different reference points, depending on who/what you're playing with, and that causes grief too. I just feel like my violin has only the one way of being in tune and sounding good: *it's* way! I will grill my teacher again on this point. Hey, maybe it's time to trade up :-) Thanks. Wanda : Hello Wanda, : There have been various discussions of tuning on this board. Do a search in the archives. Here is a link to one of the discussions. : A. Brown

Hi I'm having great troubles tuning my violin with my chromatic tuner. If I tune my A to the green light (the one in the middle of the ten or so red lights), it sounds flat. And then when I get to my lesson my teacher will always have to sharpen it a lot. Is it the tuner that is faulty or something? I've had this thing over two years and I did give up on it a while ago, but now I find that unless my fiddle is in exact tune I can't play a thing properly. It is extremely offputting, and I look forward to my lesson each week for the big reason that I know that at least for the next few days (weather being stable) I am playing with a violin which is in tune. The tuner is a Yamaha (haven't got the model details) and I'm ready to throw it in the garbage. The strings are Dominants. How long until I can tune this damned thing by ear? (I've been playing 3 years.) I can hear when it's wrong, and I can hear when it's right. I just can't seem to bridge the gap and make the wrongs right. (Yeah, two wrongs don't make a right, but two Wrights made an aeroplane.) Would be interested in people's experiences: at what stage did you feel it becoming easy/easier to tune your fiddle. Any advice is more than welcome. Wanda