Tuning a Hardanger Fiddle

• Now you are reading for the understrings. Some fiddles have 4, others have 5 of these understrings. From the highest understring (that is near the top high open E string) to the lowest understring (that is near the top low open A string), the pitches are A F# E D and if you have a 5^th understring, it is tuned to a B.

• The easy way to tune is to remember Grieg's Morning. Strum the strings like this: A F# E D E F# - A F# E D E F#. This is probably where Grieg got the opening notes!

• BUT - again here is where people get confused. Remember that the hardanger fiddle is a step up from violin. So, the ACTUAL PITCH of the understrings is B G# F# E and if you have a 5^th understring, that is tuned to C#.

• Use a piano or a tuner to get the understrings closest to the pitch you need. Then, to check for resonance, pluck your top open strings and see if the understrings vibrate. The more they vibrate, they better the resonance, so make minor tweaks to the tuning pegs to maximize the resonance

• Plucking your top open E should make your E understring resonate

• Plucking your top open A strings (both low and high) should make your A understring(s) resonate.

• Plucking your top open D should make your D understring resonate

• Check the interval between two strings by bowing across two of them and adjust the tuning, if necessary (e.g. bow A D, D A, A E).  Tweak the understrings, if necessary.

• Now you are all in tune and ready to play!

Overall, remember that you only refer to the actual pitches (B E B F#, etc) while tuning. When you are reading music or describing the arrangement of strings, refer to them in regular violin tuning (A D A E)

• As you turn to the music, you will notice that the tune transcriptions are written as if you are playing a violin. It would be too confusing to transpose everything a whole step up and people with a previous violin background would have a lot of trouble with fingerings. For example, they know that the 3^rd finger on the D string is always a G and written as such. If instead, they see an A, they will play it as an open string.

• The low A string (the violin G string) - a special case. The bass string that is the violin G and the hardanger A is most often written in the notation described above. But because the interval between the open strings is now between A and D vs. G and D, your 3^rd finger on the G will be the same note as an open D.

• However, there are a handful of tunes that you may encounter, where only the G string is written transposed a whole step up. The result, in my opinion, is mass confusion. For example, you see the note B and you think that you have to play it as the 2^nd finger on the G string, but in reality you are to play the first finger on the G string (A). This is because the open string is written as A, and thus all the notes on that strings are moved a whole step up. It is very hard mentally, because your eyes and your fingers are used to the normal violin notation. My advice is to use white out and fix those transcriptions.

• The hardanger fiddle has over 20 different tunings. Each tune transcription will have tuning for the top open strings and the bottom understrings written at the beginning.

• Look at the notes and tune accordingly. Remember, these tuning notes will be written as if you had a regular violin, BUT the actual pitch would be a whole step up.

• Some common tunings (open strings are written from lowest bass to highest treble). Understrings are from the highest to lowest (I am not giving you the extra low 5^th string):

• G D A E - yes just like the regular violin. But that necessitates one understring change (A G E D) vs F#. So your open G should resonate with your understring G.

• Troll or huldre tuning - A D F# A - no change to understrings

• Another troll or huldre tuning - A E A C# or A E A E. But that necessitates one understring change (A F# E C#) vs D.  Your open C# should resonate with your understring C#

• If you think through the tunings, you will see that the reason the understrings need to be retuned is to resonate with the changed top open strings.

Maintenance

• The jokes are that the hardanger fiddlers spend half of their time tuning the instrument and that it's called a hardanger, because it is so dang hard to tune.

• Old instruments, especially, get out of tune very fast. Weather changes are a factor, so do not expose to extremes, put a dampit humidifier (that green thingie that fills with water) in the body during the winter. Use peg dope for stubborn pegs.

• If you feel the fiddle does not resonate as much, sounds off, stop playing and retune. More often than note, it is just minor tweaks of the pegs/finetuners for the top and under strings.

• When you tune, do not hold on to the neck and upper body of the fiddle. On some old instruments, the stress of tuning may break the neck.  As you tune with the pegs, pluck the strings near the bridge.

• Ask your luthier to put a small understring bridge in the pegbox. That keeps the understrings from twisting between the top strings and makes tuning easier.

• While you are at the luthier, have them put violin fine tuners on at least the E or both A and E strings.  That helps with the minor tweaks of the open strings.  Get the finetuners that go into the tailpiece.  The ones that sit on the string break the string.

• Understrings are a huge pain to replace and you may need a professional to do it. Tweezers and good eyesight or glasses are essential.