 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Morrigan
Date: 2002-11-23 02:31
Today in a clarinet tutorial, the tutor was talking about practising your tuning, just like you do anything else. I must admit, it was a new concept to me, I'd never thought about it in that way!
What are ways to practise your tuning skills?
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Author: bob49t
Date: 2002-11-23 07:09
You didn't say whether this was to blend in with other orchestral wind players or as a personal tuning device to correct individual foibles of one's own clarinet eg pulling the barrel, mid joint, bell etc. Sound interesting - can you expand on the tutorial ? (I'm not your tutor trying to see if you learned anything !)
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Author: Aussie Nick
Date: 2002-11-23 07:40
I have a Korg metronome which also plays a rather loud concert A. I tune to this (and also with my tuner) before and during most practice sessions, and as I warm up I'll check where my pitch is again. I also use my ears alot particularly around the throat notes, middle register C, C#, D, D#, and I also find high C (2 lives above staff) a bugger to bring down. But gradually I've become more aware of what to look out for, and it's all about using your ears, and compromising pitch. If you're aware of all these intonation problems your individual instrument has, it's alot easier to adjust when it comes to playing in ensembles or with piano. Sorry I probably didn't tell you anything you already didn't know.
Just an idea, maybe also practice tuning a little sharper/flatter and trying to deal with it by compromising to bring the pitch up or down. It might help when you are in a performance and don't have alot of time to pull out or whatever is needed... ? Tell me if I'm rambling
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Author: Robert
Date: 2002-11-23 12:15
Ask a friend to make a chart with you: You play all the notes on your clarinet, without adjusting tuning. Your friend checks all the notes on the tuner, and writes down how many cents sharp or flat you are on each note. That gives you an idea of the tuning problems on your own instrument.
I agree with your tutor that practising tuning should be an important part of everyday practise. Learning to hear and adjust to small tuning intervals takes practise. The next step is to practise hearing tuning differences, rather than just "seeing" them on a tuning machine. I practise using an electronic keyboard. I program it to play certain long notes, and I practise various intervals against these notes. I also program it to slowly play bass lines of pieces that I'm playing, so that I can tune my melody to the bass line. You need to adjust various intervals to varying degrees to get them in tune.
Of course, playing in tune with a fixed tuning instrument isn't the same as playing in tune with other musicians. You should play as much chamber music as possible with wind and string players, and learn to adjust to the tuning peculiarities of other instruments.
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Author: d dow
Date: 2002-11-27 17:22
I have one suggestion in order to really get your tuning into a higher standard. Work very hard on the throat g to the ocatave above g conncetion. the octaves in this throat register are particularly challenging and you may find here is the register where good embouchure and throat voicing can affect greatest change in pitch in the sharp throat register.
the other thing is to be able to play quietly without going sharp, this is a really trickly challenge and working with string instruments can really inform one as to the tendiencies of your own tuning in this matter...
. I think getting octave connections are quite vital and very helpful in getting the blend and color you would like in your sound.....
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