Instrumental Tuning and Design - Proper Tuning Approaches
Modern
musical instruments, manufactured by responsible firms, have benefited
enormously from investments in acoustical research and design consultation with
artists. The overall standard of wind instrument manufacture has never been
higher and the area of greatest improvement is to be found at the student
level. While superior materials and expert craftsmanship contribute to making
some older models highly desirable in the eyes of knowledgeable players the
advent of computer aided design and assembly has brought about vast
improvements in performance and pitch consistency for quality modern
instruments across the board.
Tuning
Most
markets around the world aim for A = 440 (UK, USA, Australia) or at most A =
442 (Europe). Austria is an exception where A = 444 or 445 is still a
preference. Instrument manufacturers design their products to perform at these
pitches under ideal conditions of approximately 72 degree Fahrenheit / 22
degrees Celsius, (i.e. room temperature). In practice there remains quite a
lot for the player to understand and to learn to utilise to help her or himself
to accomplish truly playing in tune.
Comfortable,
room temperature conditions are rarely found in performance situations but since these are what
are utilised at the design stage an instrument must be able to be played both
above and below the intended ‘ideal’ pitch in order to accommodate adverse
conditions.
Flute –
the head cork must be in the correct position – check this with cleaning rod
line - it must show up in the middle of the embouchure hole. The headjoint
itself is usually pulled out from the fully ‘pushed-in’ position approximately
3-5mm (sometimes more) depending upon blowing style, angle of air stream and
embouchure. Too far out and the player is must compensate for flat low notes,
splitting tones and a dull high register – too far in and the compensation is
all downwards with the lip and blowing angle. Overblown octaves, harmonics of
12ths and double octaves should all nominally ‘line-up’ when tested. The player
must then handle smaller adjustments for pitch accuracy and tonal colour. The
general tendency of the flute is towards sharpness especially in the upper
register and when playing loudly. Pitch will sag when playing soft without
great care and good air support from the player.
NB – on
all other instruments the tendency is for pitch to sharpen when playing more
softly.
Clarinet
– Instrument manufacturers intend that a clarinet, when pushed all the way in,
should play sharp. Student instruments are frequently supplied with shorter
barrels to allow for tuning to fixed pitch instruments (i.e. a piano or
keyboard) when played by inexperienced beginners. Therefore, when played by
better players and especially once warmed up, the barrel should be ‘pulled’
usually 1.5- 2.5mm. This will bring most pitches into line but some additional
‘distributive’ tuning may be necessary. This is accomplished by pulling out at
the middle joint and or bell in more extreme cases. Sometimes a particular
mouthpiece will have a tendency to play sharp or flat and by changing this an
otherwise ‘difficult’ instrument will come into line. The Vandoren series 13
range was created with the desire to help players ‘bring down’ pitch to A = 440
where necessary. Professional players with well-developed embouchures and
settled playing concepts often use longer barrels in order to create the most
stable possible pitch platform throughout the full range of the instrument.
Key/pad venting height is a factor in the evenness of both pitch and tone
colour and must be sensitively examined for optimal playing. The clarinet’s
general tendency, unique among the woodwind family as it over blows at the 12th
rather than the octave, is towards flatness, with the exception of the throat
tones which are often sharp and thin and the upper register that is often
played with too much lip pressure and can tend towards sharpness. Middle Bb2
and upper C3 are particular concerns for many players. The addition of fingers
of the right/left hand (sometimes referred to as resonance fingering) is
often done to help the tuning of and enrich the sound of throat register A2 and
Bb2.
Oboe –
Most oboists count on their oboe to be as stable as possible so that their
tuning is done with the reed, often choosing the staple length and the overall
tied length of the reed blades specifically to match their instrument. The oboe
is highly flexible and playing fatigue and the condition of the reed will
continually affect pitch. In the correctly assembled position the reed should
be pushed completely into the receiver socket. This is the optimal playing
position. It is best practice to avoid pulling out the reed to try to adjust
pitch downwards as this creates other problems by introducing a ‘bulge’ to the
bore where the staple has been pulled back out of the socket. The player
handles small adjustments for pitch and tonal consistency with the position of
the reed on the lip and air support. The natural tendency of the oboe is toward
sharpness especially as tiredness sets in. Reeds tend to drop in pitch as they
tire or close up. The upper register, due to the difficulties of production, is
often quite sharp and care must be taken. Too heavy a reed will lead to
sharpness due to the effort of involved in producing a tone – too soft and the
sound will be thin and pitch will drift downwards.
Bassoon
– The bassoon is such a long instrument that corrections made by pulling the
crook out from the receiver socket, affecting as they do only the shorter wing
joint notes, are virtually pointless. The player usually has a choice of crook
lengths provided to them with their instrument and most will use a number 2
(crooks are available from a nominal 0 to 3, the higher number being longer and
therefore providing a lower pitch level). Distributive pulling at the joints
can help in a severe tuning situation (being sharp but needing to play at a
lower pitch) but keywork linking across the joints is a limitation as is the undesirable
introduction of a gap in the bore. Like the oboe pitch adjustments are often
made at the reed and this can be successful for the shorter tube notes,
principally E and F, but notes with a longer sounding tube length will not
benefit nearly as much from reed adjustment alone. The tendency of the bassoon
is towards sharpness, especially in the low register. This is an acoustic
choice for if the instrument were absolutely to pitch in ideal conditions it
would be impossible to bring up the pitch of the long tube low notes when cold.
Players become used to keeping pitch down by playing with a relaxed embouchure,
internal tongue position in the oral cavity and solid air support.
Saxophone
– The saxophone has very flexible mouthpiece positioning on the crook and the
resulting pitch is highly dependent upon good embouchure and air control from
the player. There are known acoustical compromises in the tuning of the sax but
as the general tendency is towards sharpness the player must be very careful not to
start with the mouthpiece position too far on the crook cork as all notes will
then be sharp, especially the high register. One should not pull off too far
either (a decision often prompted by an attempt to compensate for a poor
embouchure understanding and improper air support), as this will distort the
shortest notes disproportionately and throw off the balance of the response
throughout especially the low register. Players must work to learn to support
well and relax the embouchure as much as possible and when this is well
understood the instrument settles into a manageable and predictable pattern.
Tuning is highly influenced by mouthpiece selection and high baffle jazz
mouthpieces in particular often require great skill from a player to be able
play well in tune, as they will tend to tune more sharply.
Valved
Brass – If an higher range brass instrument (trumpet or cornet) has been
properly manufactured it will play it’s intended ‘ideal’ tuning pattern with
little mechanical adjustment beyond a pull of the main tuning slide and
secondary pulls for specific notes at the moveable 1st and 3rd
slides. The player must work within the acoustical limitations of the
instrument to compensate with the lips for small idiosyncrasies. The larger the
instrument the greater will be some of the known acoustical distortions and for
euphonium and tuba especially additional valves, compensating mechanisms and
tubing lengths are often added or manipulated to assist in obtaining better
tuning in all registers, especially the low register. The french horn, being a
very long tubing instrument, is played almost exclusively in the mid to upper
range of the available tones and as a result produces quite a stable pitch
platform. Never the less it does have some very distinctive tuning requirements.
It is fair to say that well made instruments are intended to be able to play in
tune with a consistent, minimal distributive pull of the valve tuning slides as
long as the player plays with a good embouchure and airstream and is prepared
to make further subtle adjustments with the bell hand.
Trombone
– Aside from a standard pull of between 1–2cm at the main tuning slide all the
rest of the tuning for a well-made trombone is accomplished between the slide
positions, the player’s embouchure and solid airstream. Some instruments have
their own individual acoustical ‘quirks’; but of all the brass and woodwind
instruments the trombone has the greatest ability to be played ‘in tune’ with
few mechanical limitations. The trombone relies more than anything on a
player’s hearing and relative tuning recognition for correct pitch placement as
well as the ability to consistently supply the instrument with the correct air
and embouchure balance.
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The tips and comments above are the result
of many years of providing help and advice, my personal interest and study, and
the teaching that I have done during my career. I have many colleagues and
teachers to thank for sharing their thoughts and suggestions on this and other
topics. In addition I am indebted to Woodwind & Reed, Cambridge ( www.wwr.co.uk ) where, in the course of
helping customers, many of these concepts have been refined and have proven
helpful.
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Thomas Dryer-Beers
