One of the most important aspects of playing an instrument is the tuning. If you can’t play in tune, no matter how good you get technically, you’ll never produce a really nice sound, particularly if you’re playing with other people. Playing in tune can be difficult, particularly on certain notes or over big intervals. So how can you improve your tuning? I’ve put together some tips that you can work on here.
There are quite a few exercises you can do to improve the quality of your tuning. Playing octaves with and without a tuner is a good start. You can also try listening exercises, where you don’t play a note until you are confident that you can hear the correct pitch in your head.
Tuning is definitely one of the most important things you can learn as a musician. You basically rule out any possibility of playing well in an ensemble if you are not able to control your tuning properly. You’ll also tend to find that your sound quality improves if you’re playing in tune. This is because you have the right embouchure to hit the resonance, so in general your sound will be sweeter and less airy.
When should I start concentrating on my tuning?
You might think that playing in tune on your instrument comes later, when you’ve mastered the basics. While this is true to some extent, you should start thinking about your tuning as early as possible. You’ll need to learn the notes first and concentrate on confidently being able to sound them all, but as soon as you’ve done that, you should think about tuning as a standard part of your practice.
The longer you put off learning to play in tune, the harder it will be. You can easily get into bad habits if you don’t get your tuning right. A problem with tuning will be a problem with embouchure, and this leads to other problems, particularly in terms of sound quality, as you progress on your instrument.
How do I know if I’m in tune or not?
You might be listening to your playing and thinking it sounds fine and just assuming the tuning can’t be too bad. But if you’re a beginner, it’s likely you don’t really know what you’re listening for. First, you need to train your ear to know whether or not you’re playing in tune. Then you’ll be able to hear it in your playing and start learning to correct it.
The easiest way to start training your ear is to get a tuner. You can get tuning apps on your phone, or if you’d prefer a physical tuner I would recommend the Korg CA-50: https://www.korg.com/uk/products/tuners/ca_50/. Then you can start off by playing some long notes while watching the tuner, trying to hold it as still and in tune as possible. Really listen carefully to what your sound is like when it’s in tune so you can start to recognise what in and out of tune sound like.
How do I adjust my tuning?
The obvious way to adjust your tuning is to adjust the length of your instrument. This is done by pulling out or pushing in on of the joins between parts of the instrument. Pulling it out makes the tube longer and therefore flattens the note, while pushing in does the opposite and sharpens the note. You should never assume that your instrument will be in tune on every note once you’ve done this though – this should be used to get your instrument in the right ball park and the rest is done with your embouchure.
Once you’ve got to grips with playing long notes in tune, you can start thinking about playing an octave tuning exercise. The exercise I have always used involves playing the lower note first and getting this in tune with the tuner. This must be in the fundamental octave of the instrument (the lowest octave). You then stop looking at the tuner, play the note that is an octave above and try to work out whether it’s in tune, sharp or flat.
When you first play the upper note, try not to change the tuning with your embouchure straight away. Before you change it, try to work out what your tuning is and then look at the tuner to see if you’re right. If you’re not, try to hear it once you’ve looked at the tuner. Once you have done this part, start working on getting the higher note in tune by changing your embouchure. Start off doing this while watching the tuner. If you find that you can’t get close to the correct tuning, try tuning by changing the tube length and then try again.
You might find that your notes on the higher octave are sharper than on the lower octave. This is common and you have to keep practicing with the tuner to adjust your embouchure accordingly. Try to really notice what changes in your embouchure when you change the tuning and try to replicate it better every time.
Another exercise you can have a go at is an interval aural exercise. You need to be able to play all intervals on the instrument in tune and the best way to do this is to hear it in your head. Try playing a note, picking a note some interval higher, say a fourth, and try to hear that higher note in your head. Once you’re confident you can hear it, play the note on the instrument, but not before. If you’re wrong, keep repeating it until you’re right consistently.
How do you play in tune with someone else?
Even if you practice your tuning a lot and you’re pretty confident that you’re playing in tune the majority of the time, it can still be very difficult to be in tune with someone else, especially if you’re playing in unison. If this is happening, you need to work out where the problem is. If you’re playing in tune with each other on some notes but not others, for example, the problem is inconsistent tuning, but if you’re consistently out of tune on every note, it’s just a shift in tuning.
Being consistently out of tune with each other on every note you play should be an easy fix. First, you need to determine whether it’s one or both of you that is out of tune. The easiest way to do this is with a tuner. If you have successfully trained your ear to hear tuning across any intervals on the flute, you should only need to tune on one note to be convinced of your tuning. Hopefully the person you’re playing with will be the same and once you’ve got this initial note in tune, you should be able to play in tune across the full range of the flute.
If you and the person you’re playing with are in tune on some notes but not others, it can be more problematic. This means that one of you has not learnt the skill of playing consistently in tune across the range of the flute. You can use a tuner to find out who has the problem, but the problem can’t be solved instantly. Whoever is struggling with their tuning just has to do practice with a tuner. Listening closely to each other while playing will also likely improve your tuning but it will take some time.
Summary
To sum up this post, you need to take tuning very seriously from when you first start learning your instrument. If you don’t learn this, you’ll always struggle with playing in ensembles and your solo playing will also be affected. I have given two example exercises you can do to improve your tuning and suggested a tuner that could be used for these exercises. It can be difficult to play in tune with another person, but if you have both learnt to listen to your tuning individually, it should be possible.