 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Jeff H
Date: 2001-01-24 12:21
Last night while I was staring at my tuner, the following question struck me: What exactly is a cent? Is one cent equal to a certain change in pitch, is it a certain fraction of a half step or is it just an arbitrary unit used to gauge how sharp/flat you are from the intended note being played? Curiously, I asked two friends who were music majors and they had no idea. How many cents (+/-) from the "true" note is considered to be "in tune"?
Thanks
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Author: Eoin McAuley
Date: 2001-01-24 14:24
A cent is one hundredth of a semitone (half step). So if a note is more than 50 cents flat, it is closer to the next note below. This explains why tuners show +/- 50 cents.
Most people involved in music can hear a pitch difference of 10 cents but few can hear a 5 cent pitch difference. At a choir practise, when the choir of 100 people were presented with two notes, one 5 cents flatter than the other, only about 10 people could correctly identify which note was flatter.
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Author: William
Date: 2001-01-24 15:11
Eoin is correct. If you can play a scale and be within 2 cents + or -- or every note, you will sound perfectly "in tune" to everyone around you. Additionally, it is important to realize that absolute perfection on every note you play would not be desirable in the "real world" of performance as the laws of accoustics do not allow notes in diiferent keys to necessarily vibrate at the same frequencies. That is why the piano uses a "tempered" scale rather than the accoustically correct "just" scale. Good "intonation" in an ensemble is really "good cooperation" rather than absolute, "tuning meter," perfection. Good listening, and good clarineting.
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