Klarinet Archive - Posting 000620.txt from 1999/11

From: "David B. Niethamer" <dnietham@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] ensemble intonation
Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1999 21:45:36 -0500

on 11/15/99 10:06 AM, Richard Bush wrote:

>Spend time with a tuner. While a tuner will only show you how your instrument
>lines up or varies from an equally tempered scale, it will tell you some
>important things about how you play and what notes on your instrument are
>consistently sharp or flat. We all tend to become conditioned to our own
>tuning.
>In some instances, we might get very use to hearing some notes as being
>OK, when
>in fact, they are not as well in tune as we think they are.

May I suggest going one very useful step further? Get Larry Guy's
"Intonation Training for Clarinetists" and/or Tom Labadorf's article
(once was on Sneezy - is it still?) with exercises. Both of these involve
playing intervals against a sounding note from the tuner, which for me is
the best sort of pitch training. Unless you plan to do a lot of playing
with piano (or xylophone!), playing "stop the needle" with a tuner is
next to useless. First of all, you should be trying to figure out what
the right pitch **sounds** like (as opposed to what it *looks* like!).
Second, D in D major is different than D in Bb major, which is different
than D in B minor, and you have to learn to hear the difference.

Larry Guy has an interesting exercise. He has you match the pitch of the
sounding tuner, then, (using your third hand!) changing from sound to
meter (visual). I discovered from this exercise that I tend to hear
pitches on the high side - less than 5 cents high, but high nonetheless.
Interesting.

You can get Larry's book from him, or from Gary Van Cott (see Sneezy?)

Jim O'Briant wrote:

>I've been playing in amateur and semi-professional ensembles for about 40
>years (including some with very good players), and in every one of them
>there have been times in which we were not in tune with each other.

I'm always amazed to hear one of the major orchestras, either live or in
a broadcast, and hear that to some degree or other they have the same
problems we do. One of the most annoying - as the brass get louder they
get sharper. Even in Chicago, where they all go sharp together, and sound
gloriously in tune with each other. When they quit, the woodwinds and
strings are flatter (and guess who sounds bad!)

>If I
>ever find myself playing in an ensemble in which everyone plays in tune all
>the time, I will know as a certaintly that I have died, gone to Heaven, and
>taken my tuba with me....

First of all, good tuning goes from the bottom up, and thus starts with
your tuba!

And if I may be permitted a joke at your expense, if I die and find
myself in an ensemble with a tuba, I will suspect that I have not made it
to heaven! ;-)

Cheers!

David

David Niethamer
Principal Clarinet, Richmond Symphony
dnietham@-----.edu
http://members.aol.com/dbnclar1/

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