 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Cindy
Date: 2002-05-11 00:27
I am very used to being a high chair, so have had a ton of experience tuning to a tuba, and the rest of the orchestra. In my orchestra now, I sit second chair, and the girl ahead of me insists on tuning to the tuner and the tuner alone. The oboe generally is not perfectly in tune, so the first chair clarinet is generally quite off. But, in parts where it is just the clarinets, if I am in tune with the orchestra it sounds really bad because of her, so I generally am told not to play (we double parts) Should I tune to her and be completely out of tune with the orchestra? Or tune with the oboe?
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Author: Micaela
Date: 2002-05-11 01:09
I think the solution is to tune the oboe- give him/her the first clarinetist's tuner, everyone can tune to that and they'll all be at one pitch. I don't know if that will work with your orchestra's politics, though (some oboists can be sensitive about their As). The oboist in my orchestra is always hooked up to a tuner as she tunes the group (unfortunately ignoring the fact that it tells her she's always sharp, but that's another story...).
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Author: Sneakers
Date: 2002-05-11 04:27
When playing alone with the other clarinet you will need to tune to the other clarinet, otherwise you will continue to be asked not to play. That may create some problems with pushing in or out on your instrument, which perhaps you can solve by making adjustments while the full orchestra is playing and your absence while adjusting your clarinet might not be noticed. Hope that makes sense!
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Author: Ken
Date: 2002-05-11 04:35
How about a click barrel so you can easily make the adjustment when needed. All you will have yo do is know how many clicks there are between the two different tunings. This could be a better solution then getting involved with "politics"
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Author: jez
Date: 2002-05-11 10:17
Flexibility is everything. If you're doubling in unison with the 1st clar. it's your job to be in tune with her. Tuning machines are sometimes misleading. You should make sure the A 440 (or whatever) is correct but don't expect every note to be right on the machine. Things can vary with context or preference. Use the machine to find the pitch of a note you need to tune to, but don't necessarily expect it to be in the middle.
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Author: Aussie Nick
Date: 2002-05-12 06:15
Speak to the conductor and let him/her know what is going on and how it is off-putting for you. Ask him/her to mention it to the entire wind section next rehearsal. Surely the conductor would notice though, if it's as bad as you make it out to be.
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Author: Bob Thomson
Date: 2002-05-12 08:35
1) Our principal oboist always tuned to an electronic device, but held her note for us, with the device in front of her. Within a fairly short time, our ww section tuning was poor.
2) When our second oboist tuned us, she used her electronic device briefly for herself then put it away. Our tuning remained stable.
As both are very good players we wondered why the above happened.
Conclusion. When tuning to a device as in 1), the oboist may have been striving unnaturally to attain the marked "centre" of range note, and we in turn, were striving to match her. As the rehearsal progressed her embouchure relaxed, flute retuned, clarinet retuned and mayhem ensued.
Using method 2) 2nd oboist - although she checked she was close enough to the "centre" - she tuned us "naturally" with relaxed approach, and being tuned to that, the ww section only occasionally had to tweak individual instruments, for say clar/bassoon duets etc.
Suggestion -
1) Use tuning devices only briefly to check initial pitch as they override natural tendencies for instrument timbres to have an effect on tuning.
2) See if you can reprogramme the tuning device to be a Geiger counter - would have much more meaningful and humanitarian uses.
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