intonation: the control of overall pitch level and individual pitches in relation to other relevant...

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INTONATION : The control of overall pitch level and individual pitches in relation to other relevant pitches.

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Page 1: INTONATION: The control of overall pitch level and individual pitches in relation to other relevant pitches

INTONATION:

The control of overall pitch level

and individual pitches in relation to other relevant

pitches.

Page 2: INTONATION: The control of overall pitch level and individual pitches in relation to other relevant pitches

Good Intonation is:

•Properly controlling the pitch level of every note played, relative to the pitch level of any note(s) played immediately before, and any note(s) played simultaneously.

Page 3: INTONATION: The control of overall pitch level and individual pitches in relation to other relevant pitches

Group Tuning Before Making Music

• The purpose of having everyone in the ensemble tune their instrument to the same reference pitch is to get roughly close to the same overall pitch level, so that fine tuning each note as you play will be easier to accomplish! This is merely a starting point for real tuning.

Page 4: INTONATION: The control of overall pitch level and individual pitches in relation to other relevant pitches

When tuning your instrument in a group

setting you should:1) Remember that the temperature and

humidity of the instrument, and the playing environment, as well as embouchure formation and conditioning, significantly affect overall pitch level. Therefore, you should always warm-up before tuning your instrument to a reference pitch.

2) When the reference pitch is sounded, do not begin playing immediately. Listen to the sound long enough to hear it in your mind.

Page 5: INTONATION: The control of overall pitch level and individual pitches in relation to other relevant pitches

3) When tuning your instrument, DO NOT adjust the pitch by changing your embouchure, hand/finger position, etc. These are means of fine tuning individual notes. The purpose of group tuning is to get the overall pitch level as close as possible to the others with whom you will be playing.

4) Make all adjustment to your instruments’ overall pitch level by changing the length of the sounding chamber, or the tension of the vibrating object. (Remember the principle Longer = Lower & Shorter = Higher) Also, be aware of how much instrument length change is required to significantly affect pitch.

Page 6: INTONATION: The control of overall pitch level and individual pitches in relation to other relevant pitches

5) Ideally, group tuning should be done on a pitch that is a known to be a good note for every instrument. However, there is no single pitch that is a good choice for every instrument. Therefore, a group should tune to several different pitches, focusing on the instruments for which each pitch is a good note, when that note is sounded. (A good note would be one that is easily played with a good clear tone, and is close to the center of the overall pitch level of the instrument being tuned.)

Page 7: INTONATION: The control of overall pitch level and individual pitches in relation to other relevant pitches

6) Be certain you are using a correctly formed embouchure, when checking the tuning of your instrument. Avoid playing notes at the extremes of your pitch range, unless you have fine control over those notes.

7) Be certain to maintain a steady volume and flow of air when tuning your instrument.

Page 8: INTONATION: The control of overall pitch level and individual pitches in relation to other relevant pitches

8) Take care not to move your jaw, tongue, fingers/hand, or anything else that can affect the pitch, or volume of your instrument, while you are tuning your instrument to the reference pitch.

9) Once your instrument is tuned as closely as possible to the overall pitch level of the group, THEN you can work on adjusting (fine tuning) the pitch level of every note you play.

Page 9: INTONATION: The control of overall pitch level and individual pitches in relation to other relevant pitches

Fine Tuning

• Note: If you as a player can not independently adjust each of the tone controlling variables, you will not have control of your level of pitch. (See presentation on TONE for an explanation of tone controlling variables.)

• Fine tuning is accomplished by making small adjustments to your embouchure, finger position, hand position, jaw position, air flow etc.

Page 10: INTONATION: The control of overall pitch level and individual pitches in relation to other relevant pitches

The Two Planes of Pitch Fine Tuning

• Horizontal – Melodic

• Vertical – Harmonic

• As a member of an ensemble you must be aware at all time of the nature of your part.

• You must know if it is melodic or harmonic, and tune accordingly.

Page 11: INTONATION: The control of overall pitch level and individual pitches in relation to other relevant pitches

Horizontal or Melodic Tuning

• When you are playing a melodic musical idea you must hear it in your mind and be certain that each interval of pitch change is correct. When a stream of pitches moves up and down, each move should be an exact distance (Interval)

Page 12: INTONATION: The control of overall pitch level and individual pitches in relation to other relevant pitches

Vertical or Harmonic Tuning

• When you are playing a note that is a part of a chord or other multi-pitch sonority, you must fine tune your pitch level for each note played based on its’ relative highness or lowness as compared to the other pitches in the sonority at that instant.

• Harmonic tuning is best accomplished by correctly spacing the various pitch intervals in a multi-pitch sonority using (just intonation)

Page 13: INTONATION: The control of overall pitch level and individual pitches in relation to other relevant pitches

JUST INTONATION

• Just intonation is based on the Harmonic Series as defined by Pythagoras. His theory of sound states that there is a natural mathematical ratio for every interval. These intervals are not exactly the same as equal temperament tuning gives us. Therefore, pitches must be adjusted in order to make the interval sound correct. It is the distance between the various pitches that matters, not the exact highness, or lowness as indicated by a chromatic (equal tempered) tuner.

Page 14: INTONATION: The control of overall pitch level and individual pitches in relation to other relevant pitches

Pythagorean Illustration of Harmonics

Page 15: INTONATION: The control of overall pitch level and individual pitches in relation to other relevant pitches

The Harmonic (Overtone) series with indications of the

natural deviation in cents from equal temperament tuning.

Page 16: INTONATION: The control of overall pitch level and individual pitches in relation to other relevant pitches

The sum of an interval and its’ inversion is 9, except for an

octave

Page 17: INTONATION: The control of overall pitch level and individual pitches in relation to other relevant pitches

Pitch Interval Adjustment Table(Changing Equal Temperament to Just

Intonation)Pitch Interval Interval Distance Adjustment in Cents

(1 cent =1/1200 of a 8va)+ 50cents is up a ½ step- 50 cents is down a ½ step

Perfect 5th + 2 cents

Perfect 4th - 2 cents

Major 3rd -14 cents

minor 6th +14 cents

minor 3rd +16 cents

Major 6th -16 cents

Major 2nd + 4 cents

minor 7th - 4 cents

minor 2nd +12 cents

Major 7th +12 cents

Augmented 4th -10 cents

diminished 5th +10 cents

Perfect Octave No adjustment

Page 18: INTONATION: The control of overall pitch level and individual pitches in relation to other relevant pitches

Ideas to remember:

• Most tuning problems in a group are actually misplayed/wrong pitches.

• Good Intonation is about interval distances, not an exact frequency of vibrations/second. Therefore, if two people are playing an interval, and both adjust their pitch in order to make the intervallic distance correct. It does not require the player with the upper pitch to adjust as much. (In other words they should compromise on pitch level to make the interval sound correct.)

• Tuning with equal tempered instruments, such as keyboard instruments, and keyboard percussion, can be difficult at times.

Page 19: INTONATION: The control of overall pitch level and individual pitches in relation to other relevant pitches

NOW… TUNE IT OR DIE!!!