How to improve your intonation

Matt Ward

 General

 All of us have been playing an instrument for several years and by now know the meaning of being flat or sharp.  However, even at this level, I have found that some players still have trouble remembering what the correction for each is.  A simple mnemonic to help you remember is to recall that the bigger (longer) an instrument is, the lower it plays.  Therefore, if you want to make your instrument play fractionally lower (which would be the case if you were sharp), then make the instrument fractionally longer...pull out on a slide or joint.  Conversely, if you want to make your instrument slightly higher in pitch, make it shorter...push in.

Adult amateur musicians typically don’t practice enough to maintain a consistent embouchure.  This complicates tuning because they are likely not to play the same note twice the same way!  When they were playing every day in a school organization they probably had much more consistency.  Now, fatigue sets in early causing the player to pinch or let air slip out the corners of the mouth, or press the mouthpiece harder against the lips, etc.  One consequence of this is that even if a mid-range note (which is what we usually tune to) is registering in tune...the pitch may go way out of tune as the range goes to the extremes in either direction. 

Of course the best solution is to practice enough to regain consistency.  But, we all know that isn’t going to happen (with most of us).  So, as a regrettable but necessary substitute, learn what your tendencies are.  Do you pinch and go sharp as you climb to higher notes?  Do you play flat in the lowest register?  Perhaps, from prior warnings of these tendencies you have fallen into a habit of over-compensating and are actually doing the opposite.  The only way to find out is to test yourself with an electronic tuner.

Years ago, the Strobo-tuner or Strobo-Conn were the very expensive electronic tuning devices that schools used but individuals couldn’t afford.  Recently, there has been a boom in miniaturized tuners that are very accurate, easy to use, and CHEAP!  They can be purchased now for as little as under $20.  Everyone in our organization should invest in one.  With it, you could check your personal tuning at discrete moments periodically during a rehearsal.  You could tune yourself prior to the rehearsal and be assured you are tuning to A440 instead of matching pitch to the person next to you who just may be the most out of tune player in the ensemble at the moment.  Equally important, you can check your consistency throughout your range at home.  Find out what notes on your personal instrument and with your individual playing skill need to be “humored”.  If there is a certain valve combination that is consistently out of pitch, you can adjust the slides to those valves.  Woodwinds finding notes in a certain range out of tune may be able to improve them by adjusting the joint just above the offending tone holes.  There is probably no single factor that could be more effective in improving our intonation that the investment in a personal tuner now that they are so affordable.

Manufacturers design their instruments so that, when played properly under normal conditions (72° ambient temperature with instrument and player warmed up, and using a tuning based on A=440cps) the instrument should have some room to be adjusted both in and out.  In other words, you shouldn’t find that all the slides or joints are shoved all the way in.  If this were the case, you would have no way to adjust if you were flat to the group you were playing with.  (You would have no way to push in and raise the pitch). 

Temperature affects tuning!  First of all, the instrument must be “warmed up” internally by the players breath.  Generally, this is achieved as the player warms ups by playing on the instrument prior to the rehearsal.  Otherwise, it will play flat initially and gradually rise in pitch as it warms up.  Or, if it should by chance be in tune before it has warmed up, it will rise in pitch until it ends up sharp. 

If you should get to a rehearsal late and don’t have the opportunity to warm up, the instrument can nevertheless be warmed up by breathing into it.   When breathing into the instrument, woodwinds should close all holes and brass instruments should push down all valves to force the warm air through the entire length of the instrument and through all the additional tubing that is added when valves are depressed.  Double horns should alternately switch back and forth between the F side and Bb side to make sure tubing on both sections of the horn have been warmed up. 

It is also necessary  during long tacet intervals to keep the instrument warm while the rest of the group is playing.  In this situation the discipline in school groups of lowering  wind instruments from playing position to lap level during measures of rest...while it appears pleasing to the audience...invites faulty intonation at every re-entry.  The vibrating air column in a wind instrument begins to cool the moment it is removed from contact with the player’s breath.  The longer the tacet passage the cooler the instrument will become (unless kept warm by the breath) and the more certain that the re-entry will sound out of tune.

Secondly, regarding temperature...when the ambient temperature of the environment in which you are playing is significantly higher or lower that the optimum 72° the instrument will go sharp or flat respectively.  The effect is the same as putting warm air into the instrument.  That is, warm air on the outside does the same thing as warm air on the inside...it causes the pitch to rise on wind instruments and pipe organ.  Unfortunately, it does not affect all instruments equally.  The larger the instrument, the more affected it is by temperature changes.

Ironically, the tuned percussion instruments (which produce their tone by striking rather than by wind blown through them), including the piano, do not sharpen with temperature rises...they flatten!  This can cause an unavoidable intonation problem within an ensemble if everything starts out in tune, but the hall increases significantly in temperature during a concert (which frequently happens due to the radiation of audience body heat combined with stage lights).  This is all the more reason wind players should not simply allow their instruments to continue to drift upwards in pitch, thinking it’s happening to everyone else, too. 

Conversely, if the temperature is extremely cold as might be experienced in an outdoor concert, the wind instruments will tend to go flat and the percussion (chimes, bells, to some extent xylophone) will be going sharp.  The reason for the inconsistency involves more physics than you want to know.   The electronic organ is unaffected by temperature changes.

The amount of influence the temperature has on wind instruments is proportional to their size.  The smaller instruments are affect the least, the largest instruments are affect the most. 

Applied to a normal concert situation, the large instruments thus govern the tuning level, because of the prominence of their bass tones and their foundational importance in the harmonic structure, despite the fact that they sharp more when the temperature increases than smaller instruments.  When players of small instruments sense the feeling of being comparatively flat, they react in any or all of three ways:

Another effect which is common to all wind instruments is the tendency of the player to go sharp as the volume increases.   Unless the player consciously adjusts to avoid it, the instrument will go sharp as it crescendos a single note from soft to loud.  Conversely, it will flat as the volume goes from loud to soft on a held note.  The player must make a conscious effort to avoid this tendency. 

Some instruments are more notorious for this than others.  Clarinets, flutes and piccolos are very susceptible.  Mid-ranged instruments are moderately susceptible, and low pitched instruments are least affected...but all are affected.

All wind instruments have alternate fingerings for many notes.  Sometimes the alternate fingering will produce the more in tune pitch for your particular playing technique.  Become aware of your optional fingerings and test them with a tuner to see if they work better for you. 

It is not necessary to adjust slightly out of tune notes during rapid passages.  The note will be gone before the discrepancy is noticed.  Furthermore, attempting to adjust for it in the rapid passage may cause more problems than it solves.  Therefore, there is no need to use alternate fingerings that cause awkward fingering sequences in the rapid passage. 

When you are going to play a note for tuning purposes, to help assure that you will play it your normal way, approach the note from below by playing a four-note scale ending on the note you want to tune and holding it.  For example, play G-A-B-C and hold the C.  Or, play C-D-E-F holding the F.  When you have plenty of time to fine tune your instrument at home, you should experiment by checking notes by approaching them from above as well as below.  After starting a fourth below the intended tuning note and observing the intonation on a tuner, immediately play it again by starting a fourth above the note and descending by scale to the same tuning note. 

Observe your tendencies and try to adjust to where the tuning note is in tune from either direction.  Do the same test with various notes in various registers.

There are, of course, other factors that affect intonation:  breath support, embouchure, posture, the quality of the instrument...but this brief discourse deals only with adjustments that can be made to the instrument itself.

Woodwinds

Woodwind instruments other than the flute could be made more nearly in tune in the upper register through the use of a register key for each different note.  However, to provide a different register hole and key for each tone hole would result in mechanism too cumbersome for practical use. 

Therefore, the makers of these woodwind instruments have found it necessary to compromise.  Thus, on the clarinet we find the lowest tones in the chalumeau (low) register often slightly flat and certain sections of the upper register tending toward sharpness.  Throat tones on most clarinets are less resonant than other notes but on all clarinets they are more sensitive to tuning through barrel adjustment.

Ideally, woodwind players should acquaint themselves with the tuning characteristics of their individual instrument (and their own tendencies when playing).  By discovering which notes then to speak sharp or flat of normal frequency, the player can then acquire the habit of “humoring” these tones into agreeable intonation.  Should certain notes on an instrument respond objectionably sharp or flat, limited correction may be accomplished by raising or lowering the pad immediately below the faulty note.  Raising the pad sharps while lowering it flats the note.  The raising or lowering of pads may be effected by decreasing or increasing the thickness of the corks which control the alignment.  Intonation errors on fingered holes may be reduced by holding the finger down close over the sharp hole or the next hole toward the bell.  Applying some tone-hole liquid, shellac, or adhesive tape on the side of the tone hole toward the mouthpiece will flat the note above this hole.  Enlarging a tone hole with a drill is a last-resort method of sharping the note above it, but any cutting operation should be executed by a competent repairman and then only upon expert advice. 

In tuning the clarinet, remember that the throat tones are the most sensitive to barrel adjustment.  It is regrettable that tradition has decreed tuning the Bb clarinet to its C or B (sounding Bb or A) which are two of its least sensitive tones to barrel adjustment.  The proper amount of “pull” is best determined by sounding and adjusting to the sensitive throat tones.  For example, tune the written F (bottom space of treble clef) by adjusting the barrel.  As suggested for all instruments, approach the note from below by playing the last four notes of the F scale (C, D, E, F).  This will help assure that the final note (F) which you hold for the tuning check will be played in your normal manner.  Do not humor it; correct it by lengthening or shorting the instrument via the barrel joint.  Manufacturers have wisely provided all clarinets and other woodwind instruments with a small tuning leeway.  Typically, the barrel joint would be pulled 1/32” to 4/32”.  Woodwind instruments, as with the brasses should rarely be played with tuning barrels closed completely.  When an instrument is so adjusted it can be tuned in one direction only...lower.  If you find you must consistently push the instrument all the way together, you may need to swap the barrel for a shorter one, or have a repair shop shorten your barrel by perhaps 1/16”.    If you are consistently pulled way out, some clarinetists use tuning rings at the barrel joint.  These are add-on rings that fill the gap and can be provided by a good repair shop.

Changing mouthpieces can also affect the tuning.  It may be worth experimenting with various mouthpieces to find one that best compliments the tuning “pull”.  Obviously, a different mouthpiece may alter the tone quality of the instrument as well.

Flutes can bend the pitch by rolling the mouthpiece inward or outward on the lips.  Rolling it inward flattens the pitch; outward sharpens it. 

Woodwinds should periodically have their instrument put in a competent shop for adjustment.  Springs, corks, and pads must be adjusted for proper seating and key alignment, thoroughly cleaned inside including register hole and mouthpiece. 

Brass

Without going too deeply into the physics of sound production, let me simplify the explanation of the inherent problems on valved brass instruments:

Each valve adds a length of tubing to the basic “open” length of the instrument.  Brass valve instruments can be constructed so that single valve tones will sound satisfactorily in tune.  But combining two or three valves provides tubing whose combined length is slightly short of that required for good intonation.

If all three valve tubes were processed the proper length for producing correctly tuned single valve tones then a tone produced on all three in combination would be sharp by more than a quarter of a step. 

The second valve adds the shortest amount of tubing so its use in combination with either the first or third is very minor.  However, the combination of the first and third valves is noticeably sharp.  And the combination of all three valves together is sharper still (see previous paragraph). 

Some trumpets and cornets have had either a finger ring adjustment on the third valve slide, or a trigger thumb adjustment on the first valve slide (or both) to be applied when using the valve combinations that tend to play sharp.   These devices should be used on the low notes that use the first and third combination or all three in combination.  Trial and error must be employed for the individual player to discover how much the slide on the third and/or first valve should be extended to pull the note down into correct pitch. 

The notes affected are the written D at the bottom of the treble clef, the C# just below it, and the rarely played G and F# below that. 

On instruments that don’t have the trigger or ring slide to be quickly operated on individual notes, the manufacturer industry has adopted another method for reducing discrepancies in the combination valve tones by slightly flatting single valve tones in order that plural valve tones will sound less sharp.  This is a compromise system. 

One method lowers the 1st Valve by 18 cents (there are 100 cents in a half-step such as from C to C#), it lowers the 2nd Valve 12 cents, and the third valve by 27 cents.  Remember the combination of two or more valves is not cumulative (flatting it 18 + 12 + 27) because the opposite effect of sharping takes place when valves are used in combination.  It merely reduces the extremes of the sharping on combinations.

Another compromise method used by some manufacturers especially on cornets is to make the first and second valves only 5 cents flat (so in combination they will be sharp by only 1 cent).  Additionally, the third valve, which is seldom used alone, can be made 21 cents flat and in combination with the first or second will only be 7 to 8 cents flat, but does make the combination of all three at once 28 cents sharp (over  quarter of a half step).  The justification for this system is that there are only two notes that use all three valves at once...the lowest note on the instrument (discounting pedal tones)...low F# (very rarely used), and the low C#.   This low C# is used often enough though that the player must devise some way to pull it down into pitch by altering the embouchure (or, in the case of the horn, curling the hand further into the bell...more on this later). 

There have been other variations on compromising, but these are the most common. 

Brass instruments should keep tuning and valve slides lubricated and in good operating condition and properly “pulled”.  Water keys should be tight, valves and trombone slides must be kept non-leak, major dents removed and instruments and mouthpieces kept clean inside.  If it has been more than a year since you took your instrument apart and reamed it out with an appropriate brush, soap and water, then it is well overdue. 

The nearer the mouthpiece a dent occurs in the tubing, the more it will affect the playing.  A dent in the bell is insignificant, but a dent in the lead pipe could play havoc with the intonation. 

French horns should remember to tune both sides of the double horn.  Too often, when an ensemble tunes up only one note is used, typically concert Bb.  If possible, tune to it on the side you usually play the note (probably the F side), then quickly switch to the Bb side and tune the note again (making the appropriate change in fingering to produce the same note). 

Also, horns are unique in that the player keeps a hand in the bell.  The placement of this hand is crutial to both tone and intonation.  The player can sharpen or flatten the pitch by moving the hand in the bell.  Curling the hand so as to narrow the opening will flatten the pitch.  Conversely, opening the hand to permit less constriction will raise the pitch slightly.  Of course, the horn player knows that closing the hand completely so as to have the heel of the hand actually touching the opposite side of the bell from the fingers causes the “stopped” horn effect which, rather than flatting, actually causes the pitch to go sharp by approximately a half step.  This is because the last few inches of the bell are no longer part of the length of the horn as far as the vibrating air column is concerned.  In effect, the horn has been shortened by those few inches.  As with any instrument, shortening the length of the instrument raises the pitch.  When playing “stopped” horn, the player must mentally transpose the written notes down one half step to compensate for the fact that the reduction in horn length is causing the pitch to raise one half step. 

The fifth partial (mode of resonance) on all brass instruments tends to be flat.  For example, a trumpet can play a pedal tone written C (the fundamental also called first partial), the first overtone (second partial) is one octave higher C just below the treble clef, the third partial is G second line, the fourth partial is C third space, the fifth partial is E fourth space E...which will be flat when the other notes are in tune unless the player intentionally humors it up.  If the trumpet player depresses the second valve, all notes are lowered by a half step.  Now the fifth partial becomes Eb...which will also tend to be too flat even though his other notes played with the second valve are in tune.  And so on with the progression of more valves.  All brass instruments have this same tendency, including the trombone.  Some manufacturers design correction for the fifth mode of resonance, but this operation usually sharps the sixth mode.  Again, the personal use of the individual electronic tuner with testing of your instrument at home can verify whether you have certain notes that will always need favoring even though the majority are in tune. 

I know it can be mind boggling to think about all these factors and no one, not even professionals, think about all of them all of the time.  It’s hoped that, by simply becoming aware of the many factors that influence intonation, the individual can occasionally make some individual adjustments that will, in time, become second nature.  Anything learned at all, if applied, will help our collective intonation.

Some information in this treatise taken from the book “Tuning the School Band and Orchestra” by Ralph R. Pottle,  and “Wind Instrument Guides” by Mark H. Hindsley (both treatises self-published).