hi
I'm steve i am 11 years old and i play the violin but not even on grade 1
But i am also about to start the electric guitar as i do love my rock
But the real reason i'm making this topic is because i have bad intonation i was wondering if any of you could give me a few tips to improve it.
When i play the violin if i put my fingers down in the wrong place i cannot hear the difference

steve

How long have you been playing?

Are you taking lessons with a teacher?

One solution is to practise your scales. Before you play a tune always play the scale of the key the tune is in. That way you will get good grounding and feel for how a key sounds. And take note where each finger is placed in each key. At your stage that shouldn't be too many keys to deal with. Good luck. And sorry if you get this twice. My computer is playing silly games again.

Just to cover what the others have said, I'm guessing you have a teacher, but if not it would be a good idea to get one. Violin is very difficult to learn alone.

I agree that playing the scale of the key you are in before you play a piece is a good idea. My violin still makes me play the scale of the key REALLY SLOWLY before I play a piece (and I'm working towards grade 5). It helps though.

Try not to worry too much about not being able to tell if your note is wrong. A good musical ear takes a while to develop, and it will come with time and practice. I still haven't got it - I can just about tell if the note is wrong now, but can't tell which way it needs to go. It's just a case of lots of practicing and experimenting until you get it right.

Another thing to remember is that although by the time you get to the higher grades all instruments are about the same difficulty (says that to avoid woodwind players shooting her), but to begin with violin is a very difficult instrument to learn. It took me 6 years to get to grade 2/3 standard on violin, whereas with flute I took little more than 4 months. Just shows the difference - don't worry if people who started playing the same time as you (on different instruments) progress faster - you'll catch them up on the higher grades!!

Hi Steve!

I can't get my viola notes right first time either. I can hear the difference, but I just don't seem to be able to get the note true the first time. I've only been learning just over 2 months though and I find what the others have said here to be true - scales are a great help!

Hang in there, we'll all make it in the end and there are a fair few new violinists/violists here, so you fit right in!

Yeah, hang in there! Like others have said, it might take a bit for your ear to develop. Then as you get better, you'll look back and wonder how you had such bad intonation (At least, that's what happened to me)

Or if your like me, you can't get it in the right plce, even if you know it's wrong.

As others have said it takes time to develop a musical ear, but you can do things to make the process a bit quicker.

You could try using a chromatic tuner to help you to develop your ear. To use the tuner in this way you would play your pieces really slowly and check that each note is accurately in tune according to the tuner. In time your fingers learn to go straight to the correct place on the fingerboard. I would only recommend this method to someone who is having a lot of trouble as it is better to develop your ear just by listening.

Another thing that you can do is to check fingered notes against open strings. So for example you can check the third finger A on the E string against the open A string, or second finger G against the open G string. This way you should be able to easily tell whether or notes are in tune.

Yes i am taking lessons with a teacher and he comes to my house



I have been playing since January 2007



I have not learnt scales yet only pieces but today i have a lesson and i will ask my teacher to show me

In that case you have a long time to sort out your intonation - people who "get" it within 3 months of starting are rare! Don't lose heart

Thank you very much to Elizabeth and everybody else who is replying you are all very kind and i feel like i have friends here already

As Elisabeth says, there are a few of us who have just started the violin and viola at about the same time as you... check the 'starting violin' thread!

My intonation is also quite bad; I can normally get the first finger and any semi-tones spot on, but can I go to third or fourth finger spot on- no!



Slightly irrelevant smiley, but I just had to use it!

Haha, I suppose it's worse! Now that I've gotten better, I can now hear bad intonation very very well.

I can hear the right note fine and I know at once if I've got it wrong, (years of language learning, I guess, has given me a good ear). I think I just need to train muscle memory.

Yup, we'll all get there in the end, and I don't thihnk this smiley is irrelevant: It's a nice friendly, music makers party here, huh?

Well. My Teach said that if I hit the right note, it will "Ring..." which resonates with other open strings.

Of course this will only happen if my open strings are in-tune the first place...