Violin tunings
Standard tuning ships in the app. These are the tunings you retune FOR — a session, a piece, a pitch standard.
Scan a code with your iPhone camera — or open the link — and Nitpitch offers the tuning: load it once, or keep it. Without the app, the link shows the same details you see here.
Old-time & fiddle cross-tunings
Cross-tunings put the open strings into the key of the tune, so drones and double stops ring under the melody. Fiddlers swap these constantly — often per tune.
Cross A
A3 E4 A4 E5
AEAE — the classic cross-tuning for tunes in A. Both bottom strings come up a step; the fiddle rings like a banjo.
https://nitpitch.app/t#djF8dmlvbGlufDU3LDY0LDY5LDc2fHx8Q3Jvc3MgQQ
Old-time ADAE
A3 D4 A4 E5
Only the G comes up to A. Halfway to Cross A, for D tunes with an A drone underneath.
https://nitpitch.app/t#djF8dmlvbGlufDU3LDYyLDY5LDc2fHx8T2xkLXRpbWUgQURBRQ
Sawmill
G3 D4 G4 D5
GDGD — "cross G". The top two come down; modal G tunes ring against the open fifths.
https://nitpitch.app/t#djF8dmlvbGlufDU1LDYyLDY3LDc0fHx8U2F3bWlsbA
Dead man's
D3 D4 A4 D5
DDAD — the G drops a fourth to D, the E down a step. The Bonaparte's Retreat sound; big open D drones.
https://nitpitch.app/t#djF8dmlvbGlufDUwLDYyLDY5LDc0fHx8RGVhZCBtYW4ncw
Calico
A3 E4 A4 C♯5
AEAC♯ — an open A chord across the strings, for Black Mountain Rag and its cousins.
https://nitpitch.app/t#djF8dmlvbGlufDU3LDY0LDY5LDczfHx8Q2FsaWNv
Historical pitch
Standard fifths at another reference. These carry the reference pitch with them — loading one moves your A.
Baroque A=415
G3 D4 A4 E5 · A=415
A semitone under modern pitch — the working standard of period ensembles.
https://nitpitch.app/t#djF8dmlvbGlufDU1LDYyLDY5LDc2fDQxNXx8QmFyb3F1ZSBBPTQxNQ
Classical A=430
G3 D4 A4 E5 · A=430
Between Baroque and modern: the pitch of the classical-era orchestra, common in period Mozart and Haydn.
https://nitpitch.app/t#djF8dmlvbGlufDU1LDYyLDY5LDc2fDQzMHx8Q2xhc3NpY2FsIEE9NDMw
Vienna A=443
G3 D4 A4 E5 · A=443
Many European orchestras sit at 442–443. If the oboe says 443, this is one tap.
https://nitpitch.app/t#djF8dmlvbGlufDU1LDYyLDY5LDc2fDQ0M3x8Vmllbm5hIEE9NDQz
Scordatura repertoire
Pieces that ask the violin to be strung differently. Retune, play, and load Standard back afterwards.
Danse Macabre
G3 D4 A4 D♯5
Saint-Saëns' solo part flattens the E to E♭ — Death's fiddle gets its tritone against the open A.
https://nitpitch.app/t#djF8dmlvbGlufDU1LDYyLDY5LDc1fHx8RGFuc2UgTWFjYWJyZQ
Mahler 4 solo
A3 E4 B4 F♯5
The second movement's solo violin, tuned a whole step up to sound "wie eine Fidel" — harsh, like a folk fiddle.
https://nitpitch.app/t#djF8dmlvbGlufDU3LDY0LDcxLDc4fHx8TWFobGVyIDQgc29sbw
