Teaching Intonation in Concert Band – Part 1 (1/3/2023)

Teaching Intonation in Concert Band – Part 1

Ed Dumas

Teaching intonation in concert band is not an easy subject to approach with any students, but is an important topic that needs to be covered. Without good intonation, students will never be able to reach the great repertoire of an excellent band, and will always be destined to sound like a junior-level group.

It is one of the main reasons why I have become convinced that all band students should also sing in a choir, for there is no better way to find out exactly where a pitch belongs than by singing it. Singing in a choral setting is not always possible for all wind students, though, and even if it is, teachers will still need a logical approach to teaching intonation on wind instruments.

First, though, I have found a couple of very strong impediments to the teaching of good intonation in concert band classes. The first of these impediments is the lack of understanding of what intonation involves and does not involve. Too many times students just believe that by going through a “tuning-up” process at the beginning of a class, they are now “playing all the notes in tune.” They have come to believe that the instrument is quite accurate and that if they just put the correct fingers down, the instrument will place the note correctly. I have found that this belief needs to be shaken loose some to ensure the students begin to question their note placement, and therefore hopefully place them a bit better in the future.

That first impediment, the unshakeable belief in the correctness of their instrument, can be a difficult one to get around. I have found my own trumpet to be of value in helping students to overcome this errant belief. With my trumpet, I would blow three mid-staff “G”s for students, which is the easiest open pitch available on the instrument. Each G would be placed slightly lower than the previous one, and I would just ask the students which one is closest to “correct.” Most students could audibly hear the difference between them, and none of these students could see that I changed anything on my horn other than the sound coming out of the bell.

Most students would not have an answer to the question, which is really the only appropriate response. I needed them to understand that the appropriate placement for that “G” on my trumpet would depend on where the original tuning note was placed. If the original tuning note was placed higher, then the “G” should be placed higher as well. If the tuning note was placed lower, then the “G” should be placed lower.

This is the guts of the first problem with intonation, which is a better understanding of the differences between “tuning” and “intonation.” I would sum it up for students as “Tuning is what we do as a group of musicians to find one common pitch between us. Intonation is what you do on your instrument to make sure all the rest of the pitches are in the correct place with reference to that tuning note and the key centres we are playing in.”

To further illustrate this problem, I would then play a low “D” on my trumpet. Most trumpet players have been told that this “D” must have the third valve trigger pulled out a bit to find the correct placement of that note. By playing a low “D” and moving the trigger in and out, now everyone in the room can hear the difference between those pitches and this task must be done each time you play that pitch. For a good explanation of why physics says this is so, please check The Six Percent Rule.

I have sometimes asked students to use their tuners and check the placement of my low “D” pitch. By doing this, students can SEE the difference in sound as well as hear it. Now they have visual proof that the “D” is too high unless the trigger is used. You can also run this exercise with a few other instruments and pitches to help students shake their belief in the infallibleness of their instruments. Try using a mid-staff “C#” on alto sax, or the high “G#” on alto sax for this demonstration. Or, try using the high open “C#” on flutes, or the mid-staff “Bb” on clarinets, or even a top-of-staff “A” on trombone. (Note that the top-of-staff A on the trombone is most often a problem of the slide being put in an incorrect placement and not a fault of the instrument.)

Each of those pitches, along with many more, will show that between the players, there will be disagreement about where those notes should fall. That disagreement is what is known as “Bad Intonation” and not “Bad Tuning.”

Once students reach this point of starting to question note placements, they often begin to feel as if they are musically sinking into quicksand. What was once a safe and reliable way to play has now become a quagmire filled with dangerous places and unknown perils. They might begin to feel that the fun of making music is now slipping away from them. At this point, I have found that some reassurance is in order to keep them optimistic about their musical future. This reassurance would include an acknowledgment that all is not lost and that once they have become accustomed to placing notes a little more carefully, they will have even more fun making music every day.

Most students who love your band class will happily accept your assurances, but sometimes some few students need a bit more. When faced with this harsh reality that confronts them now, some students use a strategy of denial to just “make the problem go away.” By denying its existence, the bad intonation does not have to be dealt with.

This strategy of denial is similar for many students these days who face obstacles in learning, such as an inability to read, or a lack of memorization skills on the times tables in math. Just denying the problem exists means they do not have to confront it, at least for now. But, as you know, denial is not a solution that works, and only delays confronting the problem until it grows so large that it seems inescapable. Just like deflecting a deadly asteroid, it is better to confront these problems earlier before they have grown too large to be movable.

This now is the second impediment to learning better intonation in your concert band class. That is, students need to WANT to make improvements to their intonation. They need to become unsatisfied with “Good enough will do” when their “Good enough” is significantly away from “Correct.” To achieve this, I have found a series of recordings to be useful.

When my son, Drew, was in the UBC music program, I asked him if he would do a favour for me. I asked him if he would record a small tune for me on a keyboard in the music program that could be “re-tuned” to different tuning systems. Happy Birthday was the tune chosen as everyone who was expected to listen to this demonstration will have sung it at some point.

I wanted Happy Birthday performed in four or five-part harmony, and I wanted it first played in Equal-Tempered Tuning. I then wanted it played in True Tuning in that same key to illustrate how much better True Tuning is and how much more pleasant it is to listen to. Drew agreed, but then added some more versions to drive the point home even further.

Now if you are not familiar with True Tuning, consider that before J.S. Bach, each keyboard (harpsichord) needed to be tuned precisely for the work that was about to be performed. Some pitches would be moved up slightly while others would be moved down slightly to make each key center sound its best on that keyboard.

Over the extent of one evening concert, a keyboard would need to be retuned several times to be able to play the compositions in all of the keys desired. To make this possible, a performance hall would be equipped with several harpsichords so that one would be removed from the stage while the next one already tuned for the new key was then brought on. If necessary, keyboard tuning specialists would be employed backstage during the concert to then adjust the removed keyboard for another work to be presented later in the evening.

Equal-Tempered Tuning dispensed with all of these logistical challenges by tuning the keyboards by “Splitting it down the middle.” All the key centres, then, would be equally out of tune, but tolerable. Today’s musicians and the listening public have become so accustomed to this slight out-of-tune-ness that most people do not question it. Band teachers, though, most certainly must question this problem, though, if students are not careful where they place notes to find “correct intonation.” Being oblivious to “Equal-Tempered Tuning” cannot remain the same as being oblivious to “intonation.” One is tolerable, and the other can make you run out of the room screaming!

So, I have found that playing my son’s recordings of Happy Birthday to my students has exploded any possibility of them staying happily oblivious to intonation issues on their instruments. Drew ended up recording Happy Birthday five times for me. The first was done in Equal-Tempered Tuning and was performed in the key of C Major. The second used True Tuning and was also in the key of C Major. But then, the next three versions used different tunings, starting with Eb Major, F# Major, and then finally Ab Minor.

Note that each time the song was recorded, Drew used exactly the same fingerings on the keyboard as if he was still performing it in the key of C Major. He did not change what he played but rather changed how the computer recognized the tuning of his same keystrokes. This was done to simulate what happens when students do not pay attention to their intonation. The results were far better than even what I could have wished for.

Every time that students hear these recordings, their first reaction is that the second version in True Tuning is better than the original in Equal-Tempered Tuning. But then each of the next three versions brings successively larger groans from the students as they hear notes that are successively more out of pitch due to a further incorrect tuning system for the key that the song is performed in. The final version in Ab minor (with C Major keystrokes) never fails to have the students think that Drew changed some keystrokes when he performed that version, and I have to assure them that that was not the case. His performance was the same, and only the tuning system supplied by the piano and computer was changed.

From the day that students hear these recordings, few will ever again deny the need to adjust their instrument for far more than just one pitch while doing the process of tuning the band. Now they begin to fully understand the need to be aware of intonation placement all the time while they play. Of course, at this point, correct intonation is not assured, but rather a desire is created to begin the process of learning intonation and note placement. Learning better note placement is a long process that needs to be included as part of every rehearsal. In future articles, I will offer a few good strategies for tackling how to improve intonation with your students.

As a late Christmas present, if you would like a free copy of the “Happy Birthday Tuning Systems” recordings, please send me an email at [email protected]  I will be happy to send them to you to help your students learn a desire to improve their intonation!

Ed Dumas is a retired band director who taught his entire career in the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows School District. Ed is now retired and living with his lifelong partner Laurie, and their little dog Sprocket in Parksville, BC. Ed & Laurie also work as Mid-Island reps for Tapestry Music while enjoying music in retirement.

You can find Ed’s other writings for the MusicED Blog at: https://www.tapestrymusic.com/news.aspx

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