I`ve had my violin for a few months now, but have never used it. The problem is, it doesn`t stay in tune at all. It`s impossible to even move the tuning pegs right now. I took it in today and had it tuned, but it has since gone waaay flat. Should something be done with the friction? Also, why haven`t any companies made a solid scroll and thrown some guitar tuners on it? My guitar stays in tune almost indefinitely unless I use the tremelo.

And now onto the music reading. Bare with me, as I`m not really sure of the vocabulary. On the guitar, you would play the lowest note on the umm....thing (the E) at the third fret on the D string. But the violin doesn`t go this low. I`m guessing this has something to do with that "C" that I`ve seen at the beginning of many violin scores. Could someone explain this?

If your pegs are slipping buy some peg grease to put on the pegs which should help it stay in tune and make it easy for you to tune

The lowest note you can play on the violin is the open G string (the thickest string). On the violin the strings are in the order of- GDAE from lowest 2 highest, which is the opposite way round to the first 4 strings on the guitar: EADGBE.
As for the `C` on music, this just shows that the violin is tuned to the key of C, which is the same as the piano and guitar, its just that some instruments are tuned to different keys, so their concert pitch will sound different because although the music is written the same the instrument is tuned differently eg. clarinet is tuned to the key of Bb (a tone lower than violin)
I hope that helped a bit

I know the tuning of the violin...maybe an example would clarify my question.

Take this piece of music: http://www.violinonline.com/t.b.no.1.htm
The first note, the D, played on guitar would be lower in pitch than a violin can go. So how would you play it on a violin? Would it just be the open D string?

Yes, it is an open D. Either you`re tuning an octave too high, or something, I dunno. That is well within the range of the violin.

Does you violin have fine tuners at the tailpiece end? If not, get them fitted, it`ll make your tuning problems easier to cope with.

Regarding reading music, the key is indicated by the numbers of sharps #`s or flats b`s right after the clef, the stylised G at the start. The tail of the G circles the second line up, which is G. The spaces are FACE from the bottom up, the lines are EGBDF - Every Good Boy Deserves Fun. In your example, the two sharps sit on the notes that are sharp in the scale of D - D E F# G A B C# D. The key of C has no sharps or flats.

The C indicates the rhythm, common time, or 4/4, 4 quarter notes in each bar. The very last note in the piece is a full note. In your example each quarter note (crotchet) has been broken into 4 16th notes. The bracket or slur over the top indicates that you play two beats, or 8 of the 16th notes in one downbow before changing direction and playing the second half of the bar on the upbow.

Start the tune by playing the open string 2nd from the left - D. One finger down is E, second down is F#, third down is G. Then play the open A, then go back down the fingers to the E. All this in one downbow. For the second half of the bar start on the D again, but this time your fingers go down in the same places on the A string to get B C# and D. That`s a D scale, and the second half of the first bar. As you play guitar you should be able to get your fingers in the right place to play this in tune with practise.

hope that helps,

cheers, Martin

Buy a Chromatic tuner!

They tune Violin and Guitar!
Easy to use too!

Anton the Violinist

Yes, my violin has fine tuners, but like I said, the tuning had gone waaay flat.

One more quick question that I just remembered. I have an instructional video and I think the lady said not to touch the bow hairs with your hand because the rosin will not stay on it. Oops. What should I do about this?

Are you sure the C you are seeing on the music is not the indication of common time? I have hundreds of violin pieces and none have a C indicating that it is a C instrument. If your violin won`t stay in tune you need to have the pegs adjusted. That can be fixed. If the pegs are not just slipping the strings may still be streching. The notation for guitar is written an octave higher than it sounds so the d string on the violin will match the third fret d on the guitar b string. Godh I hope I said that right.

Hi Justin,

if the tuning pegs aren`t slipping (and you say you can`t move them so I assume they`re not) then it must the the strings stretching that makes it go flat. The strings need playing in, just like Guitar strings, and will stretch during the first few days of play. Chances are you just haven`t played enough yet.

Another possibility is that the violin if going from cold to hot surroundings. Do you store your violin in a different place to where you play it? It needs to acclimatise in a new location before tuning & playing. I try to allow ten to twenty minutes for the strings to adjust before checking the tuning and playing. If I haven`t moved the violin since I last played it (i.e. between practises at home) the violin usually stays in tune - unless the room got very cold overnight when the central heating went off.

As far as the rosin goes...if it`s holding...then you haven`t transferred enough oils from your hands onto the hair...

...if it`s not holding...then you`ll have to wash the hair...there are various recommendations out there...but what I`ve found works is to loosen the bow hair as much as you can...wash with warm water and dish soap (NOT dishwasher detergent - too harsh)...rinse ALL the soap out (don`t use too much to begin with)...tighten the bow just a little...(not as much as when you play it ...but just enough so the hair dries in a nice flat ribbon)...place the bow on it`s side and let dry...

...then rerosin...

...***CAUTION***...do NOT let any water get into the tip or the frog part...it could cause the bits of wood that hold the hair in place to swell and crack your bow...

...and...no more touching of the bow hair!!!

I suggest using shampoo.