Hello

I recently was given a violin as a gift. Since I have some history with music I thought I would start teaching myself the violin while I search for a teacher.

I have tuned the violin with an electric tuner. I am starting with D major and my open D string sounds good getting a green light, so first note E with first finger, this i found placing on the internet as well as math to place the first finger but the note was not right. I user the tuner to get the correct placing which is far off from the suggested placing. But now it has been difficult to get consecutive green lights on the E, its been a few weeks now and still stuck on geting 2 consecutive green lights in some sort of time signature.

Any suggestions?

You may tune all the strings with a tuner. There is a nice video in the source page in the link where an electronic violin tuner is used.
Once you tune the violin, you can memorize the position of fingers for which ever scale or get some fret stickers ( can be purchased online or in store) which will guide you where to place your fingers for each scale.

All violin tuning

thanks for your response, My open strings are correctly tuned I am asking about the first note E on the D string with regards to finger placement.

I think it will be very difficult to carry forward by pressing each finger and then verifying with the tuner. Look for finger positions in a violin scale book or in the web and start with a scale.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e3/Violin_first_position_fingering_chart.svg/300px-Violin_first_position_fingering_chart.svg.png&imgrefurl=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violin&h=343&w=300&sz=38&tbnid=wquNoHkfGZ0uiM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=79&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dviolin%2Bfinger%2Bpositions%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=violin+finger+positions&docid=XSBubHvPiu3DbM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=TCzuTqOjGOGO0gHK_aikCw&ved=0CC0Q9QEwAQ&dur=1406

If you put your finger down and the tuner (or preferably your ear) tells you it is flat then move the finger towards you. If sharp then away. When it sounds right then it is right. Remember there are perspective effects and when you are playing, it looks very different to when you look at the photograph.

If you are absolutely sure that your finger is in a vastly different place to the photograph in the book then there are a number of possibilities:

The action (height of the bridge) may be different to the instrument in the book. I could bore you with the maths as to why this would make a difference, but I won't.

If your instrument is an old instrument then the strings may be worn. Its very unlikely to be so bad that you would notice.

They may have used the wrong photo in the book, it does happen sometimes.

Hope this helps.

<Added>

Another thought, how badly does the tuner say it is wrong? Remember that they are more sensitive than you ears and the difference between right and apparant wrong is less than the thickness of your nail and much less than the thickness of any marker that you could put on the fingerboard, so don't even think about trying to remember exactly where the finger goes down. As far as I understand, that is one reason for doing vibrato i.e. so that the correct note will be in the range of the vibrato so to speak. Also you have to learn to use your ear so that (even when you can play the violin so to speak) you can adjust when you do put your finger in the wrong place. I know this sounds confusing, but that is one reason to get a teacher.

However you do it, it is going to take a long time to practice and get right. It may be as well to spend SOME of your practice time playing the whole scale and concentrating on the fingering (if you can bear to). That is confusing as well. The one that catches most people out is that on the d string, the 2nd finger is a long way from the 1st and on the A string it is close to the 1st. If you keep trying, it will gradually get better. The better you get, the more confident you get and the better your tone gets etc.

Thanks for responses

The violin is brand new, so I take it the strings are new.
As for the tuner it has a 20 and 40 marks on the arc. The note E is flat with 4 or 5 bars from the green light.
After some practice I have it pretty close to the green light, it does not sound off. so far F# i can see is getting closer to the tuner mark. I do hear that it "sounds" right and with a bit of vibrato it hits green a lot.

My concern is that the placements need to be a "green light" note as apposed to corret placing.

I posted this in my own thread, I actually made an account to respond to you specifically and instead made a thread, but...

http://images.bidorbuy.co.za/user_images/742/450742_110411174959_Dontfret2.jpg

this is a product called Don't Fret and is very cheap, available anywhere (3 dollars?)

If all open strings are in perfect tune, then these lines are precisely where your fingers need to land to play in perfect pitch. It's much better than the 'tape' that's advised, or struggling with a chart. But all tools for beginners have their downfalls, you may not develop a proper sense of 'pitch' naturally, through practice and finger-memory, since you'll be visually playing with aid.

but, i hope that helps and you don't give up!

That does look good, it has been awhile so my placing is a lot better.
I also noticed playing with a pianist shows I was in tune. I have since learned of getting the right note. when I got another violin with thinner strings, it has a slightly higher placement.

Your link is just a picture though do you have a link?

It's better not to use a tuner to check fingered notes, because you might be standing there for a while waiting to get a green light.

If you are a beginner, I'd recommend getting a learning system accompanied with a play-along cd. If you play along with the music, you will hear whether or not you're in tune.

Plus, it never hurts to find a private teacher!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ3xVwapwwc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oRE4mHxsOo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxfR4Rdjz1s