First and foremost make sure your violin is perfectly in tune and check regularly because you are not doing yourself any favors to practice improving your intonation on an out of tune instrument.

Keep in mind that, when the strings get old they start to lose their accuracy and may go a little false. Which means they lose intonation accuracy. If you find that you are playing regularly and you’re playing on strings that are over five six months old, they could be the reason why you’re not too happy with your intonation.

When tuning the instrument start by using a tuner for every string and then eventually only use the tune for the A string and tune the D to the A, the G to the D and finally the E to the A.  Listen for the sound waves to lock in together and be in sync.  This is something you can actually practice to listen for.  Check your accuracy by checking each string with the tuner.

Listen for ringing notes – D’s, A’s, E’s,G’s.  Ringing notes that vibrate the open strings are the easiest to hear at first.  Eventually, you will be able to hear that every in-tune note has its own ring.

After A, E, D, and G your B’s and F sharps are going to be really easy to hear. You can even play your B and feel how that hits your ear and your F sharp. 

If you have an unstable left hand, it will create an unstable foundation for your intonation. Your fingers need to have some stability to help with consistency and accuracy. When we’re playing, we want to keep this hand as silent as possible.

A way to test if you have a stable left hand is simply to play a two octave G major scale in first position. Watch that your hand does not flip out as you go across the strings.

The next place to check within a balanced left hand is the distance between the one and four, the hand frame. In first position our hand frame on the A string is from the notes B to E.

It’s really important to check the ones and fours in every position. If you’re a more advanced player play octaves making sure that when your one and four come down together at the same time with perfectly in-tune octaves.

This really sets up the framework for excellent intonation to make sure that your hand is silent and getting trained properly between the one and four. You can do that exercise in every single position on the violin.

I would highly suggest working with a tuner in the beginning. This can be a very frustrating process so do turn it off when you get frustrated.

But when you do work with the tuner a big mistake is to only tune the note that you are playing when in all actuality you need to be practicing that same pitch from the note before so you can practice finger relationships. When using a tuner it is NOT a replacement for your ear.  After the note is in tune with the tuner – play the note many times to listen and feel.  Take your left hand away from the instrument and come back to play the note – double check with the tuner.  Start from the note before the out of tune note and play the pitch being practiced with the tuner to double check your progress.

Always know your note names and never think numbers. If you’re thinking your fingerings instead of the note names you really have no clue exactly how that pitch is supposed to sound. How does a one sound? How does a two sound? We don’t know. It could be played anywhere.

But how does a D sound? How does a G sound. Always think your note names, numbers are no help and use a tuner to just double check. 

Feel how the pitch affects your ear. The easiest note to start this with is “B”. Play the B – first finger on A, make sure it is perfectly in tune – use the tuner if need be- and feel how this pitch affects your ear. You will feel a slight buzzing, almost pressure in your ear drum. Once you feel this play the B one octave higher and listen for it.  Once you can feel this then it will be easier for you to hear other pitches if there are in tune. This is the starting point. The next pitch to feel this in your ear is an “F#” Same study – start with first finger on E and feel how it affects your ear. Next C# (The only reason for C# after F# is because I found with my students that F# can be heard before the C# for some reason. It is not based on the harmonic series. After you can hear those notes and feel them in your ear explore other sharps – D#, and G#.)

Typically when you learn the violin, you learn the pitches. You see the note on the page. You know what finger, what string and you play along but if you don’t have a direct relationship to that pitch and how it sounds, it will be really hard to know if you’re really in tune or not.

An excellent exercise to sit with a pitch for at least three minutes a day. Pick a pitch. Start with A and play the pitch for three minutes a day. While doing so be aware of what comes up. Maybe a memory, maybe a feeling in your body, maybe you feel that in a specific place. How do you feel it in the ear?

 I have an excellent practice strategy for this. iIve called it the pitch exploration and it’s a journaling process through the pitches. Check it out and see if it’s something that would be a good addition to your practicing to help you improve your intonation. It’s completely 100 percent immediately downloadable so you can get started right away.