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best ways to work on pitch



 
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nate_baca
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 19, 2018 3:10 pm    Post subject: best ways to work on pitch Reply with quote

I am in the process of coming back and have found that my pitch is frequently off. I was wondering if you would be willing to share your best practices and drills that have worked for you to develop better pitch? What methods have been successful and what books or other resources have been helpful?
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MrOlds
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 19, 2018 4:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Here’s a link to a YouTube clip of Ingrid Jensen working with drones.

https://youtu.be/VXBiH5EL8x8

There is a drone tool for iPad called Drone Tone Tool.

I use the iPad app.
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cheiden
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 19, 2018 4:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The single most significant thing I did was the work I did with the James Stamp method under the guidance of a Stamp trained teacher. This got me in the habit of always optimizing the resonant center of every note. That coupled with the unison playing with someone with an impeccable sense of pitch improved my intonation immensely.
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Nixer
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 19, 2018 4:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Drone Tone Tool is also available via their website http://www.dronetonetool.com/
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dstdenis
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 19, 2018 6:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Using a drone while practicing helps a lot. I use the Tonal Energy tuner app to play a drone through a Bluetooth speaker.
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Rod Haney
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 20, 2018 9:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

dstdenis wrote:
Using a drone while practicing helps a lot. I use the Tonal Energy tuner app to play a drone through a Bluetooth speaker.


TETuner is an excellent tool and includes a harmonic anylizer a met. And many tuning methods. . I find it really helps to just tune with others so I can match their tune, most people don’t hold pitch real well and you gotta match what’s played.
Rod
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nate_baca
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 20, 2018 11:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks everybody for the replies. I am going to download a drone app and try it out. Based on the suggestions, I think I will try it with long tones to start and then work on some Stamp with it, then move onto some drills with friends to work on matching pitch.
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chuck in ny
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 25, 2018 4:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

dstdenis wrote:
Using a drone while practicing helps a lot. I use the Tonal Energy tuner app to play a drone through a Bluetooth speaker.



thanks dst. looks like a really impressive tool.
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Tpt_Guy
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 25, 2018 6:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Play duets. This will teach a more active approach to intonation. Practicing against drones and checking pitches against a tuner are very useful, but I find playing with other musicians indispensable.
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deanoaks
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 25, 2018 7:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Drones, duets, section playing, playing with recordings. Anything that gets you playing in real life situations rather than starring at a bloody needle telling you objectively useless information.
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deleted_user_680e93b
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 28, 2018 4:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

dstdenis wrote:
Using a drone while practicing helps a lot. I use the Tonal Energy tuner app to play a drone through a Bluetooth speaker.


I do the exact same thing, using the TE tuner app in this fashion is a lot better than chasing the needle and trying to play in tune, that almost ruined me.
the other thing that i do, that i stopped doing for a while is utilizing Matt Anklans sound files for my Adam routine stuff. He has leadpipe, long tone and opposing scale files to play along with, it has helped get back to normal after a short stay at the "always playing sharp" bar !!! and since i don't play enough at this time of year at gigs, i have started daily playing with all my Hal Leonard and Aebersold Stuff, of which i have hundreds of different books. So i open a different one up daily and just go thru them. It's just like playing with another band !! i record some of them and listen back. you know right away if your playing in tune.

Try a few of these and see what you think,

tom
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Trumpetingbynurture
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 29, 2018 2:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

There's an app called Intunator, which is good to tune you up and get you placing the notes in the right place on your particular trumpet.
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Craig Swartz
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 29, 2018 5:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Forget the technology, at least at first.

1. Sing the parts- out loud, and in the range in which it is written, not some low, guttural tone. When I was a kid, we sang all the time, in school "music classes" where we sang with a piano, not some idiot Disney CD, in church, even at home around my sister playing the piano.
2. Learn to hear yourself as you sing or play and make the minute corrections before you waver off. It still amazes me how many music students believe that because they have depressed the proper piston, key, or placed the slide just so, pitch will automatically be correct. The same is true for proper articulation and general overall style, If the right notes and rhythms were all we needed, about anyone could become a musician. Learn to hear yourself as others around you do.

Once you can do this, a drone may help. Before? I doubt it. Ditto for playing with other musicians, although if you are able to play with someone better than you who will be patient in helping awaken you to the fine points, that's always about as good as it gets. Good luck.
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Rod Haney
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 29, 2018 12:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Craig,
Thank GOD there are more ways than one to learn pitch. I cant match pitch with voice to save my life, but managed to learn pretty well by playing with others, I may be different from others but I’ve always been able to pick out the oscillations when I’m not in tune. I never learned a method to do it but just tried to eliminate the waves and it all seems to work just fine. I do agree that early training on voice and piano are great tools and don’t wait on a trumpet but I believe any method can work for you if you work it a bit.
Rod
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Paolinos
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 31, 2018 6:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Long tones with drones are a very effective way to practice tone development; try to maintain the same resonant sound through the entire lenght of the note, with a free flow and open throat.
Good luck!
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Craig Swartz
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 31, 2018 7:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rod, I believe the key is to keep working on the ear at any age. One thing I learned over the 40 years I taught instrumental music is how one hears initially. If they aren't used to singing, it mattered what one used to provide pitch. Often young kids had no clue to pitch on piano if they were to match with their voice. Even had difficulty determining whether one pitch was higher, lower of the same when 2 were given. But sing the pitch and they could often match it with you. It was a strange phenomenon for me but not them as they had little experience with it. It probably has more to do with timbre than pitch at first. Same kids also had problems hearing in octaves. It really altered the way I taught pitch recognition/relationship. It can be learned by most, it takes patience on the part of the teacher.
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dstdenis
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 31, 2018 2:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

While practicing long tones with a drone is fine, there are lots of benefit to practicing your usual melodic etudes and exercises with a drone too.

For example, suppose you're working on Arban exercise 47 on p. 21. It's in Bb concert; why not set a drone on concert F while you play it? You'll get the usual benefits from working on the exercise, plus your subconscious brain will learn to hear and adjust the various intervals to make them sound better.

I've found drones helpful for most any melodic exercise with a strong key center. It's just the very chromatic exercises or things with lots of key changes that don't really work well with drones. The more one uses it, the better one's pitch awareness will become.
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MrOlds
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 31, 2018 7:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
While practicing long tones with a drone is fine, there are lots of benefit to practicing your usual melodic etudes and exercises with a drone too.


+1

As your ear develops even the chromatic stuff can be done with a drone. Eventually You’ll be able to hear every interval in tune.

I recall the lightbulb going on when I discovered the first valve slide moves and is actually pretty useful.
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