4 ways to practice intonation
Intonation is a lifelong journey, and something that even the professionals still practice and improve. In this article, you’ll learn four ways of practicing intonation, ranked from easiest to hardest.
Intonation refers to the pitch of your notes, which is affected by where you place your left hand fingers. In this article, you’ll learn 4 ways to practice intonation in order from easiest to hardest.
There’s actually a way to help your intonation without even practicing 😉and that is by listening to music often. Listen to your piece, listen to other classical music, listen as often as possible! This will help train your ear. Think about it this way-if you can’t hear that a note is out of tune, how will you be able to fix it?! There is such a fine line between in tune and out of tune, and by listening to music, you’ll be able to discern the difference more quickly.
1.Practice with a tuner.
There are several free tuner apps out there, but this is the tuner that I use. Practicing with a tuner is going to be the easiest way to work on intonation, since the tuner will tell you what note you’re playing and if the note is sharp or flat.
2. Checking with your open strings.
This is slightly more challenging because it does require you to be able to hear notes in different octaves. To check with your open strings, any time you play a G, D, A, or E, play the corresponding open string to see if they match.
3. Listening for the natural ring or resonance of your instrument.
The notes that ring the most are those that correspond with the open strings (G, D, A, or E). The best note to use to help you hear the ring is G , 3rd finger on the D string. The note should keep going even after you stop playing it. That’s resonance! This is the violin’s way of telling you that you are in tune.
4. Practicing with a drone.
This is the most difficult way because it does require some ear training. To practice with a drone, make your tuner play out the tonic of they key of your passage, then compare all of your notes to that drone.
