Intonation

Intonation

Learning how to play in tune with yourself and others should be a fun process for you. It takes patience and attention to detail, but the end results are life changing for your playing. First off, make sure you have a metronome and a tuner. There are lots of apps that exist today for these, but if you are willing to spend a little money, I recommend the TonalEnergy Tuner. This app lets you have the metronome and tuner going at the same time. You can also have the app play drones, which we will get to shortly.

First, make sure that your horn is in tune with itself and a tuner. There are many different types of horns with different tuning systems so it is best to get help from someone with experience tuning the horn the first time you do this. I also have found this video by Matthew Hogan useful for students to get an introduction to tuning the horn.

The best place to start is by learning your tendencies. Each note will require a little adjustment to get perfectly in tune and this adjustment can change depending on many elements including the range you are playing in and the dynamic you are using. Start by setting your metronome to quarter = 100 and just holding out notes at a comfortable volume for 8 counts with the tuner. Try different notes throughout your comfortable range. You can do this to the notes of a scale or an arpeggio if you need help deciding. The most important thing to keep in mind is to limit how much time you do this each day. This type of work is taxing on your embouchure and your brain so limit it to 5-10 minutes.

Once you are comfortable with just holding a note at a comfortable volume, it is time to add dynamics. Keep your metronome at 100 and we are still just going to be doing 8 counts, but this time we are going to start piano and crescendo to forte for the first four counts and then decrescendo back to piano over the last four counts. Focus on pacing your crescendos and decrescendos and watch what happens on the tuner. This is a quick way to learn how your tendencies change at different dynamic levels. You can also do this exercise in reverse, starting and ending at forte with the piano in the middle.

The next step is to add in articulations to this exercise. Same metronome speed and 8 counts, this time you are going to play quarter notes. Start with just playing all of the notes at the same dynamic level and then add in the dynamics just like before. It may be surprising what you see on the tuner at this point. Remember, each note has three parts: articulation, middle, release. Each of these parts needs to be in tune. If you want to make this exercise harder, extend it to 12 counts and then 16 counts.

You can also play these exercises with a drone. Find a tuner that has a drone or you can even use http://www.dronetonetool.com/ to play along with. Instead of using a tuner to visually adjust your intonation, you now have to use your ears and this becomes more like real life playing. No ensemble you play with is going to be perfectly in tune at all times and each note will need for you to use your ears to put it into place. It can be dangerous to use a tuner all the time to practice intonation. The way I like to work with a drone is simply have the first note of my scale droning and then practice each note of the scale against this first note to find where each interval sits comfortably with my ears. You can also do this with just arpeggios against the bottom note of your scale.

All in all, this should be a good use of your time. Along with helping your intonation, you will learn more about your tone throughout different dynamic changes and learn more about how your tongue can influence your pitch. Remember, do not spend hours doing this each day or you will kill your face. Just do your 5-10 minutes AFTER warming up and then take a short break before you continue your normal practice session.