Any Fiddle/Violin players?

AnyaKimlin

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I know I can Google this but I may have supplementary questions (or I may not). I have this nasty habit of giving my characters talents I know nothing about. So far Google and YouTube has served me well but my description of one scene is falling flat.

Kit, my MC, is a fiddle player. Could any of you describe to me the process of tuning a violin or fiddle?
 
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It's just a matter of turning the pegs at the end until the note is correct (though have to be careful as turning too much can break a string...definitely never did that, honest :D). You pluck the string as you go to hear the change. Despite playing for years, I never got good enough to tell when it was OK by ear, so I used a tuning device that tells you when you've hit the right note. The right ones being G, D, A and E on a violin.
 
It's just a matter of turning the pegs at the end until the note is correct (though have to be careful as turning too much can break a string...definitely never did that, honest :D). You pluck the string as you go to hear the change. Despite playing for years, I never got good enough to tell when it was OK by ear, so I used a tuning device that tells you when you've hit the right note. The right ones being G, D, A and E on a violin.

My MC plays by ear so I guess he'll be doing it by ear. Give me a moment and I'll write a sentence or two ;)
 
It's just a matter of turning the pegs at the end until the note is correct (though have to be careful as turning too much can break a string...definitely never did that, honest :D). You pluck the string as you go to hear the change. Despite playing for years, I never got good enough to tell when it was OK by ear, so I used a tuning device that tells you when you've hit the right note. The right ones being G, D, A and E on a violin.


From the point of view of a player is this OK? (it's first draft so the writer in me knows it needs work)

He placed HG’s fiddle under his chin. It felt alien – his own was a part of him whereas this one was unloved and not often played. It was of better quality than Kit’s fiddle, but it was newer. His stomach rumbled and reminded him he needed money. Kit turned the pegs on the end of the fiddle and twanged the strings until it all sounded right. The moment he drew back the bow he forgot about the instrument and focused on the music.
 
Yeah, sounds fine. Though I'd say twang before turning pegs, else you could be messing up strings that are already in tune ;)

I've had some more feedback is this even better:
Two doors down from the chippy, Kit stood in his usual spot. He placed HG’s fiddle under his chin. It felt alien – his own was a part of him. It was of better quality than Kit’s fiddle, but it was newer. His stomach rumbled and reminded him he needed the money. Kit sighed and took the tuning pipe from his pocket. He blew into it and drew the bow across the strings. The sound it made offended all of Kit’s senses. It took him a long time, blowing on the pipe and testing the strings to have the fiddle sounding right.
 
I like this as it makes it more obvious to the reader that he's tuning it, but I think the details depend on Kit's ability, or maybe more about the violin. You'd expect someone with a fair bit of talent to be able to do it by ear and fairly quickly, but if you're showing that the violin's been in poor use then the pipe and length of time makes more sense.
 
I like this as it makes it more obvious to the reader that he's tuning it, but I think the details depend on Kit's ability, or maybe more about the violin. You'd expect someone with a fair bit of talent to be able to do it by ear and fairly quickly, but if you're showing that the violin's been in poor use then the pipe and length of time makes more sense.

So might be worth having an earlier moment with his own fiddle where he tunes it easily? I can get that into the first chapter fairly easily. He's super talented but has had no training apart from what he picked up from his abusive father and HG (Hurdy--Gurdy Man) who clearly doesn't play his fiddle ;).
 
I hated tuning my first violin, but got better at it. Talking cheap school violin. Then had one of my own to which I insisted on adding the fine tuners.

So you can tune a violin just on pegs, but it can be stuffing annoying. The pegs don't always turn very easily, or having turned them, they slip a fraction. If it is a violin you are going to be using for a bit (as in it will be "yours" for a while), then you can take the pegs out (one at a time, you do not want to de-string a violin in its entirety if you can avoid doing so as that can cause problems with bridge and sounding post) and if the pegs stick, you rub them with chalk, if they slip you rub them with rosin dust.
But with pegs that stick you can be trying to turn the peg ever so fractionally and when you finally get it to move, it goes too far. Very gently pulling the peg a fraction out of its hole can help, then pushing it firmly back in.
There are violins with well behaved tuning pegs.
Also note - you are talking wet drizzly day - you'd need to be out of the rain to play a violin, and certainly to look after a violin. You need to rosin the bow - block of resin that all violinists keep in their case - often a little compartment in the case for it. Can be down to sad scraps at times that you have to hold between finger and thumb and struggle not to drop - then you tend to run it up and down the bow, rather than the bow up and down it as you would do with a nice new block. If not enough rosin on the bow, it slips around. You also have to tension the bow strings by the way - turn a knob at the end to tension the horse hair. When you finish, you slack it off before putting it in the case.
Another thing - shoulder rest. If he is putting the violin on his shoulder under his chin, and not holding it lower, folk style, then you need some sort of padding between your shoulder and the instruments. The classic one for kiddies is a little square cushion with an elastic loop on it that you hook over the chin rest. But you make them to fit yourself (or your parents do), so you might need more or less padding. They also can be slippy and you don't have such a good grip on the violin. On the teacher's recommendation I had a fancy one that was an oblong metal frame with feet, with rubber strips and rubber feet that gave me a much more solid hold on the violin.

Finally - if the strings are the old "catgut" ones not modern metal ones then they will stretch in wet weather.

Also, if the instrument has been out of tune for a while, whether or not you are talking metal or catgut strings, then when you get it in tune, you will find it goes out of tune again quite fast - as in while you are playing, because the strings stretch a little under tension and if they've not been under proper tension in a while they may relax a bit on first tuning and you have to retension again.
 
Further to previous - in terms of going out of tune as the strings stretch, it will go flat (deeper pitch).

Tuning - I never used one of the "blow into it" tuners as my violin teacher considered them to be unreliable and also that all you needed was one tuning fork. So the routine was to have a tuning fork for the A and keep it in the violin case in padding. (Damage it, change the note.) To make the sound, you hold it by the single end, bump the fork end against a padded surface - cork pad, your thigh - and while it is vibrating hold the single end against the bridge of the violin. At that point the violin magnifies the note and you can hear the A. Tune the A string to that note. You then tune the other strings to the A string. When you get close to the right note (E, D or G) then if you play the in tune string and the being tuned string at the same time with the bow, you can hear "beats" in the chord. You adjust the being tuned string very very finely (if you have tuners on the string as well as pegs, this is a good time to use them) until the beats go away. If the string being tuned is well out from where it should be there will be no beats either - so it does take some training and knowing approximately the right note.
Also, the way I was taught to tune, you can pluck the string to do it, but you generally use the bow. Especially if what you are doing is playing the chord and listening for the beats. You'd have the violin clamped under your chin, be bowing the two strings with your right hand and making the fine adjustment with your left on the little tuners if you have them. I couldn't play and tune on the pegs at the same time, had to play, put violin on lap, move peg a fraction, put under chin and play again.
 
I did a search on beats - came across this blog article on tuning in general - rather lyrical on the pleasure and resonance of violins. Worth reading.
You can play in tune without a chromatic tuner: Ringing tones explained

Here is a You Tube video of a professional violinist tuning with a tuning fork.


You can see her tuning on both pegs and the fine adjusters. She has lovely, well behaved pegs on her violin. You can hear the perfect fifth happening between the strings. The beats happen when the tuning is a fraction off - vaguely like tuning a radio when you get the pulsing effect as you get near to a station.
 
You still need to educate those ears :) - not as in formal education, but as in learning what sounds good and what doesn't. Do read the blog link I gave as there are some useful subtleties in there on the resonance of violins.
 
Further to previous - in terms of going out of tune as the strings stretch, it will go flat (deeper pitch).


Also, the way I was taught to tune, you can pluck the string to do it, but you generally use the bow. Especially if what you are doing is playing the chord and listening for the beats. You'd have the violin clamped under your chin, be bowing the two strings with your right hand and making the fine adjustment with your left on the little tuners if you have them. I couldn't play and tune on the pegs at the same time, had to play, put violin on lap, move peg a fraction, put under chin and play again.

I am sure my uncle used to do it without the bow- I've included Kit having to retune it quickly after playing and stuck him under an awning from a shop.
 

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