Violin Video Lesson: Achieving Great Intonation - Part 1

Hi, and welcome to VirtualSheetMusic.com's Meet the Expert. My name is William Fitzpatrick, and I am professor of violin at the Hall-Musco conservatory of Music, which is located on the Chapman University Campus. I am, as well, director of MusiShare in Irvine, California. Today, I thought we'd begin a series of discussions about pitch or intonation. Now, when we start to think about pitch or intonation, we have to understand a fairly basic thing, which is that pitch, or being in tune or playing in tune, well, it depends on the note prior to the note that you're trying to get into. There is no real, absolute C-sharp or absolute A. For example, an A in the United States is at 442 cycles per second, thereabouts, while in Europe, it could easily go to 406 or 407. You see, there's a huge disparity between the single note A and where that A is in the spectrum of all of the notes that we're playing.

This idea of relativity with regard to pitch is very important to understand, as well as something else, and this is really important as a base of information, a base of knowledge about playing in tune. This is the scale. You see, when I started to teach, I went and I asked all of my learned colleagues, those who I thought really, really had students who were really doing well, I asked them a single question, "What one element is responsible for the success of their students?" To my utter, utter disbelief, they all answered the same thing, "Scales." I went on a mad tour to try to figure out why scales. When I was young, I really, really hated and despised playing scales. It took me quite a long time to understand why we needed to in fact play scales, and it wasn't just to warm up.

Let's begin this by by talking about a very integral part of a scale, or at least that part of the scale, which is important for us as violinists to understand how to do a little bit of theory. We'll start there. First, we need to talk about tetrachords. Tetra means four, four notes. In a major scale, between the first degree and the second degree of the scale, there is a whole step. Between the second and third degree of the scale, there is a whole step. Between the third and the fourth degree of the scale, there is a half step. This pattern represents the lower tetrachord. The upper tetrachord, fifth degree to the sixth degree is a whole step, six to the seventh degree is a whole step, seventh to the eighth degree is a half step. In the lower tetrachord, there is a whole step, whole step, half step, and in the upper tetrachord, a whole step, whole step, half step. In between the two tetrachords, there is a whole step. That is a major scale.

Now, to help us to understand how to use the tetrachords that we just found out about on the piano, we need to understand that the same things exist, the same uses of the half steps and whole steps, on the violin. If I'm going to go and do an A-major scale, whole step, whole step. That pattern, if I take it like the tetrachord and do the same thing on the E string, why, I end up with a major scale. Now, one of the things that's really important to understand is something my teacher from when I was four and a half, five years old told me, because she said, "When you've got a whole step, it's happy. When you have a half step, it's sad." Now, if we use this as a basis of understanding, it means if I'm playing a minor triad, it's sad, or a major, it's happy. I can start to hear how the pitches become organized on the violin because, in fact, on the violin, it's only half steps all the way through, all the way up.

I think you will see a fingerboard that will come up now, and you will see on that fingering board exactly what I'm talking about. It's all about the half steps. I know this is a little tedious, but suppose I wanted to do a one octave scale starting with the first finger on a B flat. What would I do? Whole step, whole step, half step. Not only can I hear the half steps, but I can see it with the patterns, with my eyes. I can hear it, I can see it, I can feel what it feels like in my head. If I do that whole step, whole step, and the same thing on the E string, I have my scale. One of the things I love doing with the little kids is I'll have them move their finger and go, "Okay, do the same thing here." If they follow the pattern, they have a scale. "How about here?"

Wow. They have just learned to use their ear and to think it through with an idea and come up with a scale that is in tune, because the half step and the whole step, it remains constant, regardless to how far or how close your fingers are as you cut in half or bring higher your finger to cut the string length. Now, I think you see where I'm going with this. For example, let's move it along and talk about a three-octave scale. Now, for this one, if I'm going to use my patterns... Let's be sure we understand what I mean. Those tetrachords, but the tetrachords can be whole, whole, half; whole, half, whole; half, whole, whole; whole, whole, whole. They are limited, what we can do. In a very funny way, we can do, half, half, half, but that's not very practical with our four fingers, or we could do half, whole, half, which was that harmonic minor scale.

Now, what happens if we play a major scale? On the G string, it's half, whole, whole; whole, whole, whole on the D; whole, whole, half, but we're going to shift. After three, whole, whole, whole; whole, whole, half, but we're going to shift after two, and then shift again, whole, whole, half. Why, with those tetrachords now, or with the idea of those patterns, we can describe/define a three-octave scale. Now, before we move on, are we understanding what I'm saying? These patterns, if I play a B-flat major scale, what if I want to play B major? It's the same thing, half, whole, whole. C sharp, D, it's absolutely the same pattern if I'm doing the same fingering, of course, which I advise my students to do. Now, at least to me, it's obvious that by understanding those half steps, I have now begun to understand one way to play better in tune.

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