Author: oboi
Date: 2015-02-03 06:27
I am an amateur who plays in lots of ensembles of varying levels. Conductors will sometimes call out pitch issues and ask individual groups/sections to play their notes. Often it's on a chord and they ask each section to come in one at a time as to hear the harmony. That I believe will make people conscious of who's around them. But ultimately, the onus is on the player themself, I believe. I'm always conscious of my pitch and play with the tuner a lot, and also LISTEN, and able to instantaneously adjust. I do wonder, however, if I am more in the right at times and am adjusting to other players who are actually more out of tune.
One of the dangers that I find in playing in amateur groups is that depending on the group and how pitch-sensitive they are, it can wreak havoc on one's own sense of tuning. In some of the less advanced groups, it's true that most people aren't listening to each other. They're not aware of dynamics, don't have a clue what's happening in other parts and are too busy working on notes to notice pitch. I've struggled at times to know WHO to follow. Who do you follow when the principal or the bulk of the orchestra is off? What do you do when pitch veers off to the point of not being able to adjust? At that point, I think the conductor needs to step in. Working on single notes won't work. Telling the group to be conscious of their pitch and to work with their tuner at home will help. Making sure the principals know what they are doing and having the orchestra follow them is important. Getting them to listen to recordings how they fit in with everyone will help. But yeah, I find this to be one of the most trickiest issues in amateur playing. Pieces can always be played more slowly or things followed more metricly to ease difficulties. Easier repertoire can be chosen. But pitch will always be the major concern in a less-skilled group.
Like technique, being pitch-aware is a skill borne out of years of practice. It's not going to get any better unless the individual works on it (preferably with a teacher, which many adult amateurs don't have anymore). A conductor can only go so far. As an oboist, in addition to knowing your instrument, we have a double whammy of needing to to adjust to finicky reeds. I know a lot of pitch variances depend on my particular reed, but I have also learned the peculiarities of my instrument and also the specific notes which always cause me problems. Day by day I am working at making my notes sound in tune regardless of what my reed presents me. I am getting increasingly aware also of my own faults which lead to the pitch instabilities. In good small ensembles, I run into very few major pitch issues. Even though the absolute pitch may not be exactly A-440, the whole piece sounds in tune because everyone is conscious of it and can adjust.
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