Baltimore Recorders.org

About Tuning

People frequently ask me about tuning. I will try to address the topic here from a practical standpoint and refrain from a discussion of pitch and temperament, which I shall leave for another page.

The temperature of woodwind and brass instruments effects their pitch. The sounds of these instruments are produced by vibrating columns of air. In addition to the length of the air column, the temperature of the air effects the pitch of the sound. For an air column of a given length, cooler air results in a lower pitch, and warmer air results in a higher pitch. The air we breath is usually much warmer than the surrounding air, and warmer than the instrument itself. Thus, as we blow into an instrument it gradually heats up. The instrument in turn no longer absorbs as much heat from the air that we exhale. Thus, as the instrument warms up, the air stays warmer and has a higher pitch. For this reason, we cannot simply tune before we start playing and expect to stay in tune, as the instrument will go sharp as it heats up. We need to warm it up first, or tune it twice, once before the warm up and once after it is warmed up. I advise the latter. On the other end of the spectrum some stringed instruments tend to go flat after being tuned. This has various causes, including the expansion of the string as it gets warmer, the string stretching under tension, and the body of the instrument changing from heat and humidity. The lute is famous in this regard. Thus, they too benefit from being tuned twice. Some instruments going sharp while others going flat has terrible consequences as you can imagine. I have never heard someone complain that a piece is perfectly in tune. It is always worth taking the time to tune as much as necessary.

Blowing warm air through a cold instrument has another consequence, condensation. Water builds up upon the walls of the instrument. It has the potential to effect the even flow of the air. Thus, it is desirable to warm up the instrument prior to playing it. Take it out of its case, handle it, put it under your arm for a few minutes.

Now that the instrument is somewhat warm, we are at the stage of being ready to begin tuning and playing. Tune the instrument to a tuner. On a recorder try tuning to the note with thumb and three fingers in the lowest octave. On the soprano recorder this is the G, on an alto it is a C. If the tuner indicates that the note is sharp, then pull the head joint out, using a twisting motion. If the tuner indicates that the note is flat, then push the head joint in, using a twisting motion. In general, when adjusting the headjoint, it is not being moved a great distance. It is usually not moved more than the thickness of a dime. Then check the pitch again, against the tuner. (I find that strobe tuners are very good in this regard, as their visual feedback is more precise than a needle tuner.)

One crucial aspect when tuning is to play normally, with your usual breath pressure and embouchure. Many people do not blow as hard when tuning, and thus when they blow harder when playing they are sharp. I cannot overemphasize the importance of playing 'normally' when tuning. It is essential.

Not all notes on an instrument are necessarily in tune! Some may be perfectly in tune, while others may be sharp and still others may be flat. This is known as intonation, and is a topic for another page.

With experience you will learn how to tune by ear. Listen to a reference pitch, such as that provided by a tuning fork or a tuner, and then play the instrument. If you are not perfectly in tune, you will hear what are called beats. These are pulses of sound that are created from the combination of the two sound waves. If you are close to being in tune, the pulses will be very slow, less than once per second, and will be longer in duration. If you are far from being in tune, then the pulses will be fast and can almost sound like their own pitch. Consult a digital tuner and learn what it sounds like for a note to be just a bit flat or a good bit sharp. This is an essential skill to acquire.

Once you have completed the initial tuning, continue to warm up the instrument by playing it. Sightread a piece. Once everyone's instruments are warm and not waterlogged, then the ensemble can tune as a whole. This is the second and crucial tuning. (Keep in mind that if people switch instruments during a concert or playing session then it is necessary to retune. It may even be necessary to retune twice if the other instruments are cold.)

Certain instruments are less able to adjust their tuning conveniently, these include organs, harpsichords, and oboes. Thus, the rest of the ensemble tunes to match the pitch of these instruments. Have one of these instruments play and hold a note. One by one the other instruments play a unison or octave and adjust the pitch to match that of the reference instrument. Once this gross tuning has been made, play a fifth and listen for the difference tone. This is a quiet tone that is an octave below the lower tone of the fifth. Thus, if the reference pitch was a middle C and you played a G, the difference tone would be an octave below middle C. This third tone is a psychological phenomena rather than a physical one. There is no physical third sound wave, and thus is not visible on a spectrograph. Rather it is created by our perceptual system. (You may also be able to hear a fourth tone, which is the major third of the chord.)

If you are inexperienced, it can be difficult to tell whether you are just a bit flat or a little sharp. This can lead to a lot of fiddling about trying to tune. One basic method to avoid this is to tune too low and raise the pitch slowly until you are in tune. If you overshoot, start over by tuning too low. This method is particularly important on stringed instruments, as if you decrease the tension on the string to bring it into tune, it can continue to slip, and go flat.

Keyboard instruments sometimes employ stretch tuning. Lower registers are tuned slightly lower, and upper ones slightly higher. This is to compensate for our perception of pitch. If a keyboard is providing a reference pitch, it may be important for them to play a pitch in your register to ensure that you are in tune.

On the recorder, breath pressure effects pitch and loudness / dynamics. There is no way to effect one without effecting the other. If you are going to play a piece want to play more softly, then tune at pitch or ever so slightly sharp, so that when you blow more softly than usual you are still at pitch rather than being flat. If you want to play louder, then tune a bit flat, to give yourself room to blow harder and raise the pitch and the volume.

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