Certainly it will ring much, much more than an out-of-tune G or than a note such as an E flat, which does not have its own special string to ring with it.Īs you can guess, your violin needs to be well-tuned for this to actually work. If you play this note with very good, even tone and perfectly in tune, you can even see the G string vibrating. More specifically, the G string will vibrate in sympathy with the G note you are playing on the D string. If you play it perfectly in tune - and only if you play it perfectly in tune - your violin will have a party and ring with joy. So here's the cool part: What happens when you play an E, A, D or G that is not an open string? For example, try playing the G that is located third finger on the D string. Notice also that the wood on the body of your fiddle also vibrates, and you can feel this vibration if you put your hand on the back of the violin while playing, or even if you hold the scroll of the violin (yours or someone else's).Īny note on the violin vibrates, but the open strings vibrate the most. Notice that, not only does it sound very full, but also the string vibrates quite a lot - this is something you can see with your eyes. As you may have noticed, the open strings ring in a louder, fuller, more obvious way than notes played with a finger placed down on the string. The most obvious ringing tones are the strings: E, A, D and G (If you are a violist, A, D, G, and C). I welcome everyone's thoughts on the subject, as well. What I'd like to do in this blog is to give you an introduction to ringing tones, if you are a student who doesn't yet know about them, or give you some ideas for explaining them, if you are a teacher. You can't tune your violin by hearing a perfect fifth until you can hear a perfect fifth.Ī good, basic place to start learning intonation is by becoming sensitive to the ringing tones, also called 'resonant notes,' on your violin (or viola).

That's something Mendy Smith wrote about a number of years ago: she had realized that she had approached a level where she needed to refine her intonation without the use of a chromatic tuner because she truly was beginning to hear the subtleties of pitch in relation to other tones. Because yes, there are levels and refinements when it comes to hearing pitch. Certainly, start by tuning your instrument with the tuner, and frankly, I think you're going to be fine if you tune all four strings with it - it's going to be better than guessing, before you have developed your sense of pitch.

Non chromatic instrument tuner