 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: johng ★2017
Date: 2012-03-12 17:07
I have been trying an intonation software package called Tuning Meister and wanted to share my experience. My interest in intonation improvement goes back quite a ways. Since I play some Eb soprano clarinet, that gives me more impetus to explore how to play better in tune. One thing I have always wished for is the ability to see intonation tendencies in a graphic form rather than the fleeting fashion one gets with a tuning meter.
I have no financial interest in this software whatsoever.
Tuning Meister uses the sound card interface that is standard in most computers. I used it with a laptop that has a built-in mic and it works very well, both for me and also at my music store studio with my students. The program can be downloaded in full trial version (90 days) at http://www.tuningmeister.com
The program produces a real-time graph showing the notes played and how the note compares to a pitch standard. I used the A440, but that can be adjusted. The program is quite adjustable for many variables if you want, but I just used the simple defaults. You can watch the graph as you play, and also save the complete file to watch later. In this way you could play a passage without looking and then review the graph to see how well you played in tune.
When I introduced it to my students, they were fascinated and impressed by the technology – most kids are. But I was happy with how intensely they worked with the program with their own playing. They were all amazed at how their intonation varied from one note to the next and also within each note itself. We experimented with different notes by range and volume to see the differences, as well as different ways of beginning notes. The wave form graph was also quite interesting to them and gave me a good chance to talk about various wave forms and how they reflect the type of sound they were playing at the time.
One thing I noticed myself was how well this points out the variability in pitch within each note, especially at the note beginnings and endings. Also, it gives one a chance to study how various ways of using the tongue to begin notes show up as “noise” that can be controlled somewhat. I don’t think people hear these things in their own playing and seeing it in picture form is instructive.
This is a windows program, but apparently it can also be used in a Mac, according to the tutorial.
John Gibson, Founder of JB Linear Music, www.music4woodwinds.com
Post Edited (2012-03-12 17:13)
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Author: EEBaum
Date: 2012-03-12 18:51
A really great piece of software, from what I've tried of it. It's PC-only and I'm on a mac without bootcamp or parallels at the moment, so I'm not actively using it. It's the only thing I've used that could accurately give me a picture of my pitch tendencies on contrabass clarinet.
-Alex
www.mostlydifferent.com
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Author: johng ★2017
Date: 2012-03-13 15:42
I was messing around with this program a little more and discovered: 1) if you use a vibrato, you can see the amplitude or width of the vibrato along with speed and smoothness. 2) if you are practicing your best Rhapsody in Blue upward gliss or your El Salon Mexico downward gliss, you can see how smooth or bumpy it is, 3) if you are playing very fast notes, you can adjust the scan speed to see more of each note. 4) it is equally responsive to very high altissimo notes as it is to the lowest notes. Some tuners do not do well with the very highest notes.
John Gibson, Founder of JB Linear Music, www.music4woodwinds.com
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