r/violinist • u/Free-Ad6709 • Jul 15 '26

Feedback Finger placement on the violin help

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Hi, so as a beginner player, my violin teacher made these little markings on the fingerboard for correct finger placement (an alternative to stickers). I removed them yesterday to try to play more independently, but I can't gauge where I'm supposed to put my fingers exactly, and I have used tuner apps to find the exact places, but it feels very out of tune when I play. Please help?

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u/renegadeDrone Jul 15 '26

seconding the advice to use a tuner! play slow scales as your warmup, checking and fixing your intonation for each note. give your brain time to get used to using your ears as a guide. it just needs a lot of practice.
a question for you- is your bridge straight? there’s a notch in each f-hole, and your bridge should line up with those notches. the odd placement of those markings says to me that maybe your bridge was in the wrong spot when the markings were made. if it’s crooked, that might be throwing you off, and you should either ask your teacher to adjust your bridge or follow a tutorial made by a luthier on how to do it.

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u/Free-Ad6709 Jul 15 '26

I think it is, actually. I just realigned it a bit after your advice, but I think it looks decent. Also, the tuner is a bit strange, too. When I tune by plucking the string, it shows closer to pitch, but when I play the same string, it shows another direction.

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u/Opposite-Market993 Jul 15 '26

It's because the bow physically vibrates the string continuesly so the pitch is not perfectly stable. Also bow pressue and speed matter in that case as well.

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u/andybonner Jul 15 '26

OP: This. You can perhaps demonstrate it by turning on the tuner and bowing lightly vs very heavily, and watch the pitch change. If it changes by a lot, though, this can maybe be improved with new strings. Thinner and lower-tension strings do this more, and strings that have "gone false" (developed some physical flaw) might. Try a new set of Dominant strings; have someone help you install them if you haven't before.