Tuning for violinists

[Richard Brekne]

When I run into instrumentalist, including the occasional pianist, that 
are so little aware of basic tuning realities, I like to put them on the 
defensive right off by saying something to the effect that it is sad the 
music majors in our time are no longer required to learn some basic 
physics about the tuning of various instruments. If they insist on an 
explanation I simply refer them to some literature on the subject and 
explain its too detailed a disscussion to effectively teach in the 
course of a few minutes, assuring them that if they do take the time to 
do some reading they will understand.

Heck... I even run into very accomplished pianists that never could 
understand why the top (undamped) notes keep on ringing when you 
play..... go figure.  Sometimes I wonder just what beyond technique and 
somebodys idea of music interpretation they teach at some schools.

Cheers
RicB


Pianofxrguy@aol.com wrote:

> For the most part, tuning for more demanding musicians has been good, 
> as Tom said. Although, I once had a violinist in the local symphony 
> call me back after tuning her nondescript spinet to inform me that my 
> "thirds" were all off. When I checked them out they sounded fine to me 
> and then she pointed out that there were beats in them. She said that 
> when she played double stops on her violin the thirds had no beats. I 
> tried to explain about the adjustment to intervals, expanding and 
> contracting, about equal temperament (I hadn't heard much about HT's, 
> at the time, but I think that would have just complicated things.), 
> and how you can adjust on the fly while playing a violin but a piano 
> was stuck pretty much where it was. She was skeptical about my 
> explanation and I never heard from her again.     Oh well....
>  
> John Stroup