The best violin tuners detect and display the note that you are currently trying to tune. Violin tuner FAQ How do you tune a violin?Ī. You can pick up a perfectly effective clip-on model for as little as $10, but high-quality options cost $15-$30, with pedal tuners costing $50-$150. How much you can expect to spend on a violin tunerĭigital violin tuners are relatively inexpensive as far as musical instrument accessories are concerned. Many also feature auto power-off functionality, which helps to ensure that you can tune your instrument for over a week between charges. The best violin tuners are rechargeable via a micro USB or USB-C port and give you several hours of use when fully charged. Battery economyĪ low battery can affect your tuner’s performance before it stops working completely, so the longer the battery life, the better. In addition, many screens can rotate and swivel to ensure they can always face the musician, no matter how the tuner is clamped to the instrument. The best tuners have highly illuminated graphic meters, often with backlit LED screens. You must be able to read your tuner's display, whether you are tuning your violin alfresco in bright sunshine or the orchestra pit of a dimly lit concert hall. The meter on the screen should not lag while you turn your tuning peg, as this can affect your ability to quickly and precisely tune to pitch. The best tuners compute and present the result in milliseconds, with barely any visible delay. To tune your violin, a string is plucked as if you’re playing pizzicato, and the note registers with the tuner, which displays the amount by which it is sharp or flat. What to look for in a quality violin tuner Response time Ensure that a tuner is suitable for attaching to violins before you make a purchase. Those that do attach to the far end of the instrument must also have a clamping mechanism that is wide enough to accommodate this. Many violin tuners use a wider clamp to attach to the body of the violin, not the headstock as with an acoustic guitar. The clamping mechanism is the main point of differentiation between a violin tuner and a regular stringed instrument tuner. They are affordable, lightweight and small enough to fit into an instrument case or pocket. Clip-on tuners are the most popular violin tuners by far and they work by detecting the resonance in the instrument's body as the string is plucked. These are silent to use, highly accurate and very sturdy. Pedal tuners are only effective if you have a magnetic pickup fitted or play an electric violin, as they are positioned between two instrument cables. The two most popular types of violin tuners are pedal and clip-on tuners. Some violins have fine tuners on all strings, some just on the E string, while others have none. Fine tuners enable the player to tension their string close to pitch and then use a small rotary knob at the bridge end of the string to make incremental adjustments. While this is essential as far as tuning accuracy is concerned, it can be difficult to lock in your desired pitch while tuning. What to know before you buy a violin tuner When to use fine tunersĭigital tuners are highly sensitive and react to small adjustments in pitch. An example of a high-quality yet affordable violin tuner is the excellent D’Addario NS Micro Violin Tuner. An electric tuner makes life much easier as it helps you to tune quickly and quietly while making sure that the strings are in tune with each other and with the rest of the orchestra or ensemble. It's a great tuner otherwise.Tuning a violin is much the same as tuning any stringed instrument, with the notes ascending in perfect fifths as G, D, A and E, the latter being the highest in pitch. I hope enough viola players write to D'Addario to convince them to add 1mm more to the sliding adjustment. I like the tuner enough to continue using it but have to balance it between the pegs where it hangs loosely. I wrote to them and suggested they extend it just that tiny bit and they weren't interested in my comment. One of the rubber feet came off and was lost while I was struggling and it has slightly marred my instrument. It simply isn't big enough to clamp on as it was designed to do, though does have a sliding design to fit on various sizes. It clamps on the side of the instrument and swivels.ĭ'Addario's website says this is for violins and violas but it is about only 1-2 mm too small to fit on my ordinary-sized (15 1/2 inch) viola. Easy to tune with from small and tidy display and seems more reliable than my other electronic tuner (my teacher always retuned my viola at lessons with the other).
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