[Dixielandjazz] Piano tuning - playing in tune

Fri Oct 6 09:58:48 PDT 2006

I'm not sure that this is the reason but when I was in college one of the 
profs said that the Russians tuned low because the cold temperatures  would 
ruin a piano or other keyboard if the strings were pulled up tight to A 440 
a lot like a skin head on a drum if left tensioned when the weather changes. 
The opposite could be true in a hot country.  I really don't know It could 
be the equivalent to a musical urban legend.

I do know that many concert band directors like to tune sharp. This gets 
difficult sometimes because young clarinet players just can't play in tune 
much less sharp.

Personally I hear a bit sharp and like instruments tuned up just a bit.

There is another thing and that's guitar tuning - Many guitar players play 
out of tune because they don't pull the B string slightly sharp.  This 
happens when tuning with a tuner which has no soul and is mechanical. 
Actually to play a guitar in tune you would have to retune for each key and 
each fret range that you are using.  Manufacturers try to compensate with 
different gimmicks on the bridge to adjust strings and fudge the tuning.

Bands and musicians often play the seventh tone of a scale flat.  If you 
don't believe me listen to a high school band play any scale.

Band directors make the mistake of teaching students to play and tune at the 
top of the pitch.  Correct tuning should be sharp and then the lip relaxed 
to play in tune.  That in effect creates a trombone like tuning range where 
the musician can play sharp or flat as required to temper his scale and to 
take in consideration of naturally occurring out of tune notes.  This is 
especially true of clarinet players who are taught to lock on to the 
mouthpiece and play at the top of the tone.  This causes biting, non 
flexibility and does not give the reed a good surface to vibrate against. 
It also causes clarinet players to thrust the tongue forward reducing the 
oral cavity and destroying the sound box effect of the mouth. Have you ever 
wondered why some clarinet players have a thin sound and others have a rich 
full sound.  That's why.  A clarinet player has to undergo serious re 
training and re evaluation of his embouchure if he is going to play sax or 
in a lot of cases clarinet well.  Most simply just can't do it.

One time a band leader sarcastically said I played clarinet like a sax 
player.  This was because I used vibrato and other things sax players often 
do.  Actually I think of that as a complement.  I told him back that I would 
rather be a clarinet player that sounded like a sax player than a sax player 
that sounded like a clarinet player.

By tuning slightly sharp I am always able to play in a relaxed manner, play 
in tune  and my chops don't get tired.  The only caveat is that you have to 
listen, listen, listen.  Remember you have just turned your sax or clarinet 
into a flexible instrument like a trombone capable of actually playing in 
tune.

Brass players are a slightly different breed with different problems. 
Usually they are straining to play the higher notes and they have no 
flexibility at all.  The entire emphasis is on making the lip tight often by 
applying pressure and this becomes an obsession.  Playing a brass in tune is 
easier if it's a little sharp which allows the player to back off a little. 
This simply doesn't work if the player doesn't have the muscle control to 
pull it off.  Again why do some trumpet players have a great sound and play 
in tune and others don't.  It's the ability to back off a little.  I think 
good players do this instinctually and it becomes so ingrained that they 
really don't know they are doing it.

I worked with a singer a couple of weeks back and she was pretty good.  She 
worked the crowd and did all the right things but she sang very sharp on 
everything.  Last year I heard a trombone player with the AF Academy band 
who technically was incredible but he played real sharp on everything.  He 
was so good at everything, but that, so I think he must hear sharp.

A lot of musicians just can't handle the fingering difficulties that extreme 
keys bring.  On the clarinet anything past the key of A requires that the 
player know the cross fingerings to play smoothly.  Sharp keys on the sax 
become easier if you use the articulated keys.

Reading the keys with multiple sharps and flats (like 7) is more a problem 
than playing them.  I do the Theme from Titanic intro (tin whistle flute 
part) on tenor in 7 sharps and the first time I did it there were mistakes. 
Other tunes that do this are Jump Jive and Wail out chorus and Bobby Darin's 
Mack the Knife which goes all over the place.   Shows are another place 
where wild keys are used.  Sometimes I wonder about scores that will move 
into six or seven sharps or flats.  Since singers audition for these things 
I would think that slipping the key up or down a half step would make no 
difference since you would simply take the person that could sing it in the 
up or down key.

I wonder also how many players use hand signals for keys when modulating in 
a tune --- one finger up = 1 sharp, two fingers down two flats etc?  I 
really don't but Steve Lilly with the St. Louis Stompers uses it all the 
time and I think it's very cool when I play with him.
Larry
St. Louis

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Kashishian" <jim at kashprod.com>
To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Friday, October 06, 2006 9:31 AM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Piano tuning

>
> Spanish orquestras tend to tune to 440+....all the way up to 444.  This 
> was
> the way the pianos were tuned in all the recording studios in the past,
> also.  Not sure now...
>
> Don't know the reason, either.  Maybe we just like to get a little higher
> over here!   :>
>
> Jim
>
>
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