Baltimore Recorders.org

About Intonation

Playing in tune is not as simple as playing a given fingering. Many aspects of the manner in which you play a note will effect its tuning. Breath pressure and air temperature were mentioned on the page about tuning. The instrument itself is another important factor. Some instruments are tuned at a=440 and others are tuned at a=442. Some are constructed in equal temperament while others are in meantone or other temperaments. More significantly, there is also variation in the intonation of each pitch. That is to say, some instruments have notes that are out of tune when you use a regular fingering! This intonation is known as the scale or scaling of the instrument. In general, an instrument would need many keys to be perfectly in tune. Even modern flutes with their abundance of keys do not play all of their notes in tune. As you can imagine, recorders have many notes that are not in tune as they have few, if any, keys. It is not ideal, but it means that you have to adapt by changing the fingering or lipping for the out of tune notes. For recorders, the ideal solution is to compensate with changes in fingering, as they are more stable than breath pressure. This usually involves half-hole fingerings, in which some holes are only half covered.

Intimately connected with the topic of intonation are that of timbre and dynamics. The timbre of a recorder is dependent on breath pressure. At certain rates of flow, the instrument sounds it best. It sings. As we know, the dynamics are also related to breath pressure. Thus, a corollary is that a given recorder will sound its best at certain dynamics. Lastly, and most importantly, the ideal timbre of one note, may not be at the same breath pressure as another note on the same instrument.

Obviously you want to use an instrument that is reasonably close to being in tune. It needs to produce the proper pitch when you use the standard fingering. You may have a nice looking wooden recorder. However, it may not actually be made very carefully and the fingerholes may not be in the proper positions or the correct size. It is important to evaluate the tuning of your instrument. Warm it up and tune it to a given note. Play a note and listen to it. Vary your breath pressure, and listen to the change in timbre. Find the timbre that rings, and truly resonates. Remember the breath pressure you used to obtain that tone. Check the pitch of that note with that breath pressure against a tuner. Write down the result. Then go on to the next note keeping the breath pressure constant at the level that made the resonant tone. Are all of the notes in tune? Repeat the process several times to help account for variation in your playing technique. This should provide a very good idea of the scaling of the instrument.

It is sometimes possible to correct the intonation of instruments that are not in tune by modifying the instrument. If it is not badly out of tune, the fingerhole may be slightly enlarged by filing the top part of the fingerhole, or filled in slightly with beeswax. If the tuning is bad, then it may be necessary to fill in all of the holes and drill new ones. It is best to leave these activities to professionals, as they can turn your poorly intoned instrument into a piece of firewood.

In addition to evaluating the tuning of the instrument, it is very useful to evaluate your own intonation. Record yourself playing a piece of music that you know well. Check the recording against a tuner. Are the notes in tune? Make note of errors in intonation and use alternate fingerings or change your breath pressure. Are the errors in intonation in a consistent direction, for example, is the high G always sharp? If a note is sometimes sharp, and other times it is flat, then it is useful to work on breath pressure exercises. There are even gadgets for this sort of thing. The Breath Builder is a translucent plastic tube with a ping pong ball in it. If you exhale with an even breath pressure, you can float the ball at a given height. You can also obtain a visual cue of the rate of your breath from a small pinwheel. Practice blowing at a steady rate. Even small deviations can cause notes to be out of tune.

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