Playing on a badly-tuned violin is not good for the development of the pupil’s ear!
Violins need to be tuned daily, because they are "old technology", i.e. artisanal and made of natural materials which are sensitive to temperature and humidity variations. New violins, violins with new strings and seldom-used violins are the most unstable and will need more frequent tuning at first.
You also need to make sure to tune the violin(s) shortly before each group lesson, because if several violins in a group are badly out of tune the teacher will lose a lot of precious teaching time tuning them at the beginning of the lesson!
The first few times you try, tuning the violin will take you a lot of time but, once you get used to it, it’s not so difficult and can become routine! That's because, while an experienced violinist will do the tuning by ear, non-violinists (even if they are musicians) will generally use an electronic tuner or app (see accessories list) which can tell, when you play a string, whether you need to tune that particular string up or down.
However, it’s usually a little more difficult to tune small children’s violins than it is to tune bigger violins (which is, admittedly, unfair for Suzuki beginners and their parents!)
First of all, make sure that the violin is in a good state and fully equipped. Generally, any violin should be checked by a luthier (specialised violin maker and repairer) at least once a year, because violins are delicate instruments (although children’s violins are usually a more robust). A violin that has not been checked for too long will usually be more difficult to tune and will not sound so good.
In particular, check the following with the luthier:
- the strings should not be too old.
- the tuning pegs (which are in the scroll or “head” of the violin) should be easy to turn as well as to fix in place (which is done by pushing them firmly back in after turning).
- a beginner’s violin should always have not just tuning pegs but also a tuning screw for each string. These are small screws attached behind the bridge, on the tailpiece. Professionals usually have only one or two of these.
How to tune a violin:
(Before tuning, it can be a good idea to check, each time, whether the bridge (the piece of sculpted white wood holding the strings up) is well centred. The bridge is held in place only by the tension of the strings and can sometimes move due to an external shock, especially on smaller violins, where the string tensions are less. The bridge should be vertical, aligned with the crossings of the F-shaped holes which are on either side of the violin's top, and centred in the middle so as to align with the fingerboard (i.e. the outer strings should run parallel with the edges of the fingerboards). The bridge is quite easy to put back in place, especially on small violins, but if you have never done this before you might prefer to be shown how to do it by your single-lesson teacher.)
Every time you tune the violin you will need to check the tuning of each of the four strings, even those not yet being played by the pupil, because the tension of each string affects that of the other strings as well as the sound of the violin generally.
The four strings should sound the notes E (mi), A (la), D (ré) and G (sol), when played as open strings (i.e. without pressing down a finger on the string or otherwise shortening its vibrating length) and in order from right to left (looking at the violin with the scroll at the top).
However, you should preferably tune the string in the following order: first the A (second string), then D, then G and E. Then you need to check everything again and again until you are satisfied that all the strings are in tune, because changing the tension in one string can affect the other strings. This effect is noticeable especially between E and G, the outer strings.
To tune a string up, screw in the tuning screw (i.e. turn it clockwise) so as to increase the tension of the string. To tune down, unscrew.
The screw is very precise but has a limited range. If the string is too badly out of tune, or if the screw is already fully screwed in or out, you’ll need to use the peg. You probably won’t like this, because the pegs are less easy to use than the screws! So you might want to simply tune the string just a bit too high with the peg, fix the peg firmly in, and then come down again using the screw (or the opposite, whichever is necessary to make the screw useful again).
If you need to use the peg to tune a string, be careful not to break the string! The effect of turning the peg is much blunter than that of turning the screw: less than a ¼ turn should be more than enough, unless, of course, the string is very loose, which might happen if the itself peg has come loose. This can sometimes happen, due to of a sudden temperature change or some other external shock.