Tips for playing in tune

One of the challenges of learning to play the fiddle is learning to play it in tune. The first step in this process is learning to hear what ‘in tune’ sounds like. Start off by learning to tune your fiddle by ear. If you’re not used to doing this, try it, and then use an electronic tuner to check if you’ve got it right. If you regularly try to tune by ear first, you will gradually learn to hear what the notes of the open strings should sound like. Going through the same process each time you do this is also helpful – start with the A string. If you can, tune this to a fixed pitch instrument, or a note from a tuning fork. Once you have the A in tune, tune the other strings using the open A as a reference. Tune the strings in the same order each time you do it (people commonly tune the A, then the D, the G, then the E). You might also find it helpful to always flatten the string before you try to tune up, so you are always tuning the note from flat to sharper. Once you think it sounds in tune, check it against the electronic tuner, to see if you have it right. The more often you do this, the more your ear will learn to hear quite subtle differences in tuning.

We tried out playing through the first part of Professor Delbert’s Birthday, the jig we learnt in the class last week. The jig is in A major.

Then we spent a bit of time working on our tuning. We tried playing some notes from the A scale, against an A drone. Alternate people around the circle played the open A drone, while the people in between played A, B, C#, D, C#, B, A. Then we swapped round. The people playing the drone were concentrating on playing with a clear  tone. Those playing up the scale were listening to the tuning of their notes against the drones being played on either side of them.

After this we tried out playing in smaller numbers. One person played a long note from the A arpeggio. The next person round the circle played a different note from the arpeggio along with it. Then the third person round the circle played another note from the arpeggio. The first person dropped out, and the fourth person then joined in with another note. We continued this around the circle, with everyone listening to their tuning in relation to the people playing around them.

The B part of the jig has a lot of string swapping – there are several notes alternating between the A and E strings, which can be tricky to play and keep under control. We looked again at the technique for using a wrist action to move the bow from one string to the next and back again.

Jig rhythm

We also revisited the jig rhythm, playing it with a dotted timing. When doing this, the middle note in each group of 3 quavers becomes shorter. It can vary from a little bit shorter than the adjacent quavers, to almost not there at all (we discovered homeopathic fiddle notes!). It’s important to make sure that the tune doesn’t speed up when doing this – if the middle of a group of 3 quavers is shortened, the first note needs to be lengthened by the same amount, to keep the timing of the tune consistent.

Timing

We also tried out alternate people round the room playing drones on an open D, while the people in between played a slow D scale. When we did this, we tried it with no one obviously taking charge of the tempo. Everyone playing the scale needed to be aware of what the other scale-players were doing, to try to play in time with one another. People noticed that when no one was ‘in charge’ it could be hard for some people to hear what was happening. So they were aware of watching other people’s feet (if they were tapping their feet), or watching bows or fingers moving, to keep in time. If you’re playing with other people, sometimes you might find yourself in situations where it’s hard to hear what other people are playing, so developing an ability to see what’s going on is a useful skill to help with playing in time.

 

We have one more class this term, then a week’s break for Easter. It will be possible to enrol for next term at the class next week.