Appropriate temperament for violin

Question

I'm new to violin (and music in general). I am learning through the Suzuki method, but after I get down the fundamentals I hope to learn Irish and American fiddle tunes. I recently discovered an IPad app, called Sing inTuna that I thought would help me develop my intonation. With the app, the IPad displays the pitch of what it receives through its microphone and marks it as out of tune or in tune.

The setting allow for a just or equal temperament scale. Which is more appropriate my instrument and musical interests?

Answer 1

If you are planning to play with piano in future, I would definitely use equal temperament. To be honest, to learn to play in tune with the widest range of other musicians, equal temperament would be most useful too. And initially, as a beginner, you are unlikely to notice the difference much, so this would be another reason to choose equal temperament.

EDIT: It is just worth noting a couple of things though. Violinists usually tune their open strings in just fifths (which have an exact 2:3 ratio). Although I have suggested using equal temperament for learning to play in tune with your app, the most important thing is that you try to play exactly in tune, whichever setting you use. As a beginner violinist, the initial difficulties of playing in tune at all far outweigh the slight differences between just and equal temperament.

Answer 2

I recommend equal temperament, in particular with Suszki:

• When you learn to play in more and more keys it will be easier because they will sound and "feel" more similar to the keys you are playing in as a beginner. If you use just temperament you will get overly attached to Keys like G, D, and A major because the violin will be more resonant due to sympathetic vibrations.
• It will be harder to play in tune with a piano and/or ensemble.

Use the Tuner to Train you Ear to Equal Temperament

Every day, try tune your strings by hear from the an A440 generated by the app. Then see if you got the A to match. If you didn't correct it. Then tune the other strings by ear by listening for relative fifths (Tune E from A, tune D from A, tune G from D). Then use the tuner to see if you were off (using equal temperament).

When in an ensemble (or orchestra) you will generally tune your as a group to A440, which corresponding to violin's second highest string, the A string. From that, by ear, you then proceed to tune your other strings relative to that A (unless you happen to have absolute pitch, which I will choose to mostly ignore for this post).

Understanding the difference

If you use tempered fifths (equal temperament), you end up with the following tuning:

G3=196Hz, D4=293.7Hz, A4=440Hz, E5=659.3Hz

If you use perfect fifths, you will end up with the following tuning:

G3=195.55Hz, D4=293.33Hz, A4=440Hz, E5=660Hz

Your G and D string will be flat and your E string will be sharp in just tuning (from a equal temperament perspective). This will be more noticeable in certain keys (when you are start to learn stuff with more sharps and flats).

What about fiddle music?

Ya will use a lot of double stops, open strings, and harmonics. You will also often play in those keys that the violin likes (G, D, A for example). So just tuning is probably right for this, in particular when playing alone. However, I'm sticking to my guns and recommending equal temperament for the reasons mentioned. When you are ready for a lot of real fiddle playing, you can tune those nice open fifths, but learn Suziki with the equal temperament.

Whatever you do, understand the difference, tune by ear and verify with the tuner (not the other way around), and have fun!

Fingered Tuning

When working on your intonation while playing (not tuning the instrument), I would focus less on the tuning system and instead focus on consistency. This means that regardless of what tuning system your note actually is, make sure that the note stays the same throughout a section or passage. When the same note changes in pitch and isn't consistent, this usually what most makes something sound out of tune. There can be subtitles to this with different keys when not using equal temperament, so when learning using equal temperament will help you with the most important aspect of good intonation - consistency.

Answer 3

The standard tuning is tuning A to a reference, and tuning perfect fifths from there. That's what you need for double stops, and it's pretty standard when playing with others to avoid empty strings in slow playing, also because long notes are usually played with vibrato (actually, you can even play an empty string "with vibrato" by doing the vibrato on a related note, like playing G on the D string one octave above the actually played G string).

Tuning perfect fifths from A means that your G string will be four cents too low when compared to equal-tempered tuning. Four cents on a G3 string is a beating at less than 0.5Hz and pretty harmless, and everything else can be played fingered when playing long notes, short of double stops. The E string, when tuned as a perfect fifth to A, is two cents too high compared to equal temperament which is a beating of about 0.75Hz. Still mostly harmless at that pitch.

So in general the additional trouble of going to equal temperament is not worth the trouble, and professional orchestras don't do it either.

Answer 4

Many recommendations regarding intonation replied to this thread are wrong.

You're supposed to play the notes in accordance tho their context. For chords and double stops, you use either just intonation or equal temperament - otherwise they'll sound off. For solo melodies, you use mostly Pythagorean tuning and adjust expressively when needed. When playing in a polyphonic ensemble, you choose the temperament that rings the best with the rest of the ensemble - usually just intonation or equal temperament.

The main difference between Pythagorean tuning and just intonation is that within just intonation the 3rds and 6ths are tuned to perfect, small fractions, while Pythagorean tuning relies on stacked fifths and makes those intervals sour. That's why when soloing double stops you often apply just intonation over staying strictly in Pythagorean.

It's violin, not piano. You're not supposed to play it like piano. You're free, and expected, to adjust your intonation in accordance to the piece and performance context.