Intonation Practice

[CJceltics33]

Something I definitely need to go to the next level is great intonation. I’m always, always sharp. I thought this may be a result of being too tense, but I tried singing down the scale and realized that I hear the note in my head sharp too. I’m going to continue practicing singing in front of a tuner. Any other tips to improve my intonation all over the horn?

[zaferis]

Ear Training. Sounds like you need to work on teaching your ear what is "in-tune".. singing with a piano & with someone that can guide you/keep you honest.

Then long tones, slow practice with a tuner on. Play duets with someone. When teaching, I often play along with my students, partly so they get the feel of playing full and confidently, but also to force them to play in tune.

A tuner exercise - pull your slide so far that you are flat/underpicth, force yourself to play there for a little bit, then slowly work your way up to 440.
Don't worry about how far out your tunig slide is.

Sit at a piano and play unisons, then strong intervals (4ths. 5ths, octaves) learn to hear them in tune. At first you may want to have the tuner on-hear and see the piano note, then match it - using the tuner to check yourself.

There could be an aspect of equipment involved: mouhtpiece, gap, instrument.
as well as approach.
What has your private lesson teacher told you????


A good tone will help. Good tone and playing in tune go hand in hand.
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[CJceltics33]

Thank you for the advice. My tubing slide is normally pretty far out, so my teacher adjusted it to half of what it was and told me to try playing that way. I believe it has already helped open up my sound and play a little more in tune, but I am still looking for further suggestions to really iron out the issue.

[drboogenbroom]

Buy "The Tuning CD" by Dr. Richard Schwartz. It is on I-tunes and Amazon. Follow the directions he lays out but do them humming, singing, and then on the instrument. I don't buzz along with it, but you could.

I use this thing in my personal practice and with private students and in full ensemble rehearsal of all kinds.

For 10ish bucks, it is one of the most powerful tools for developing intonation and listening skills.

Let me know if you get it and need more specific advice on how I use it.

Kevin
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By concentrating on precision, one arrives at technique, but by concentrating on technique one does not arrive at precision.

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[zaferis]

[JoseLindE4]

Slowly practice scales, arpeggios, passages, sing, play the mouthpiece, play anything really, against a drone pitch. Listen for the rub of each interval and learn how to make them sound as stable as possible. Bend the note around and see what happens. Do this without a tuner. Just listen. Record yourself doing this as well. Record yourself doing everything.

I like to use http://www.dronetonetool.com/ but you can find others, find them in good tuners, make your own, use an electric keyboard and use something to hold down the key, etc.

I'd start much slower than this, but here's a good example:


Link


Also, practice along with recordings of musicians you admire. They don't have to be trumpet players. Simple passages are best. Try to copy everything and make your playing disappear into theirs.

I'd avoid thinking in terms of "I play sharp so I need to play lower" but instead just learn the sound of in tune and chase it relentlessly.

[markp]

Ingrid Jensen uses an Indian Shruti box to practice intonation and ear-training with drones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXBiH5EL8x8

It looks like a more fun, interesting and useful tool than a regular tuner. I'm looking at one on Amazon for about $80.

[JoseLindE4]

I'm not familiar with those boxes. What's the difference between that and a good drone app or a web-based drone?

[Turkle]

I know people that swear by practicing with a drone to improve intonation. I've never had to do it myself, but I think it's at least worth a look.

Singers do all kinds of fancy ear-training exercises, so you might consult with a singer.
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[oxleyk]

[lipshurt]

I recently got one of those snark clip on tuners. I got it to check myself when playing live gigs with loud satge volumes and other obstacles to good intonation.

I find i really like it and and it helped way more than i would have imagined. I found that over the years i had gravitated to playing "down" on th epitch too much. On the moster oil brass chat with pandolfi he rants a bit on players playing under the horn, and says to put the note in the "taper zone" where the pitch goes when tapering to ppp. I was for sure not in the taper zone like that and could see it right away with the snark on.

I use the snark from the very first long tones and put it righ on the zero. Ten when doing drones you really see where the adjustments for harmonic content go. If you are the 3rd of a chord you see that it sound best one click under. What surprised me was the 5th is best a whole click over. Things like that were an eye opener.

On gigs it showed how much a horn section moves around especially early in the night. Putting it on th ezero instead of finding the other horn players (trumpet/sax/bone) locked everyone in WAY sooner and kept things that way. You still have to know where yu are against the chord structure so you still mainly by listening. If it gets weird, go with the zero though.

ALso eye opening was how TEMPERATURE affected the pitch. I even got a little digital thermometer to put on floor. If its 65 degrees, the tuning slide HAS to out 1/8 inch from 75 degrees. 57 degrees is a whole 3/16 inch in. I have not yet had to deal with hot stage that will be interesting.

Its also helped me a ton just to always be in the "taper zone" which i got by basically pulling OUT 1/16 inch from where i used to be. That put all my middled register notes higher in the slot, and my upper G etc more manageable. The weird thing was that my 5th harmonic D/Eb/E where SHARP fro years of thinking they were going to be flat, and years of pushing in the main slide and trying sit "down on the pitch".

That is a LOT of eye opening for a 12 dollar little gizmo.
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[Don Herman rev2]

FYI: Temperature (and humidity, for that matter) directly change the pitch by changing the speed of sound in air.
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[starkadder]

[lipshurt]

Snark is less than 20 bucks
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vintage Trumpet design enthusiast
www.meeuwsenmouthpieces.com
www.youtube.com/lipshurt

[cheiden]

I had a period where I played sharp because that's where I heard it. No matter how far I pulled out I continued to play sharp.

I think there's merit in the Stamp method that helps players play to the center of the horn's slot. That any playing a bunch in unison with a top pro reconciled all the worst of my intonation problems.
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[dstdenis]

Practice with a drone. An app is fine, if you play it through a speaker so you can hear it. The drone will improve your pitch awareness, which will stay with you when you play with others.

I recommend you do not watch a tuner. Use your ears and rely on your awareness.
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[HornnOOb]

[dershem]

[CJceltics33]

Thanks so much for all the feedback. Great ideas in here. I will add a drone to my practice, perhaps some long tones too. I’m going to sing and hum with the drone as well. I will try to incorporate a lot of this into my warm up and passages I don’t sound great on. Sing, hum, buzz, then play. I’m optimistic this will help enhance my tone quality as well. I am 90% sure that my problem is hearing the pitch sharp, so, ear training and familiarizing myself with playing the correct pitch will surely help. Can’t wait for the beneifit it brings.

What is the Tuning CD? What kind of things are on there? I’m a bit confused as to what it will be. Could you explain further? Thanks!

[drboogenbroom]

It is a set of drones that sound a tonic based on the equal tempered scale, and the fifth with just intonation aka an actually in tune fifth.

This makes it really easy to hear if you are in tune or out of tune, particularly humming or using head phones.

It is actually pretty simple. Set the track for the key you want, probably Bb to start and hum the Bb against the drone. Bend the pitch up and down slowly. As you bend the pitch, you will hear and feel waves or bests in the sound. The faster the beats, the further away you are from being in tune. The place where there are no beats is where you are actually in tune. Bend the pitch less and less as you hone in on the in tune pitch. Then do the same thing singing, then on the horn.

Once you can hum/sing/play the Bb in tune repeat the process with the following intervals in this order octaves, 5th, 3rd, 4th (some people like to tune the 4th before the third) 6th 2nd 7th. After this, either move onto a different key or go a head and do your minor intervals m3 m7 m6 m2 +4. Note that some of the intervals, like the 7th, will always sound dissonant, but you can find where the pitch rests with paitence.

Once you can do this play scale and interval studies, improvise, play melodies etc against the drone and try to move from in tune interval to in tune interval.

It seems like a lot, but in 5 minutes or so a day, you will find significant improvement in your ability to hear and imagine notes in tune.

Of course, if you can't get an in tune sound on the horn ie can bend the 3rd down far enough, this indicates an area of physical development and tone control that needs to be allowed to develop.

So far as the sound and effect, it is actually very similar to the Shruti box. Hope this helps. I really encourage the investment. It is a much better way to train the ear than a visual tuner. Again this can be purchased in a digital format for about 10-15 dollars and is actually on Spotify.

Kevin
_________________
By concentrating on precision, one arrives at technique, but by concentrating on technique one does not arrive at precision.

Bruno Walter