Forget Getting Real, Get Relative

I few days ago I received an email from a gentleman in India. Being well acquainted with physics he followed what I had to say about resultant tones and tuning very carefully.

But he did have a question.

He noted that we can achieve perfect tuning of the open strings by the resultant tones – in the case of the ‘A’ and ‘D’ strings played together, a ‘D’ one octave below the open ‘D’ is produced when the two notes are tuned perfectly.

‘But how do you find a note like middle ‘C’,’ he asked, ‘when there are no open strings to measure with.’

Well, if you combine that ‘C’ with the ‘A’ above it you would need to hear an ‘F’ two octaves below the ‘C’ for it to be in tune, relative to the ‘A’.

One of these days I’ll make a chart with each interval on it and the resultant tone generated when the interval is sounded. Interestingly, because of the vibrational patterns of the violin itself, sometimes you won’t hear the resultant tone itself, but some overtone of it.

This phenomena comes into play, and can be very helpful to you, as you focus attention on double stop playing.

You’ll hear me saying more about it when I release Volumes 3 and 4 of the Kreutzer series toward the end of February.

So, while I’m fine tuning the double stops in etudes 33-42; you can continue fine tuning your detaché, martelé, up bow staccato, shifts, string crossings, breathing, visualizing, and counting with Volumes 1 and 2.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop