V.com weekend vote: Do you use an app or separate device for tuning and/or metronome?
It's true: if you need to tune your fiddle or use a metronome, all you really need is your phone - you can get an app for just about anything and everything! This is wonderful - and I would love to hear about all the apps that people are using these days for tuning, metronome and other functions.
That said there is still a place in the world for mechanical and electronic metronomes and separate tuning devices that don't requires the computer or phone. They aren't all that expensive, after all! And the reasons for using them do go beyond habit or just being "old fashioned."
Here are a few examples: first, students who are children can benefit from having a separate tuner/metronome. As a teacher, I've encountered situations where a parent has a tuner and metronome on their phone or computer, but this means that the student is dependent on the parent's phone or computer for that aspect of their practice. It can be very empowering for a student to simply have his or her own metronome or tuning device that is completely untethered to a phone or computer (which is in demand for so many other reasons). Having their own tuning device and/or metronome eliminates the need to ask for the parent's phone or computer - which is usually going to be an interruption for the parent. It allows them to practice on their own and experiment with using the metronome and tuner, with little or no supervision needed.
Another situation is simply if one wants to get away from the phone and its distractions during practice time. If you open your phone to turn on the metronome or tuning app, there are any number of messages, notifications and temptations that might lasso your attention - before you know it, 15 minutes or more of your practice time have elapsed!
That said, there are still many helpful and interesting apps that musicians find useful, and they do just keep getting better. There is the convenience factor, as well as the fact that a number of apps are free or low in cost.
For this vote, please share what your current set-up is, regarding tuners and metronomes, and then share any thoughts the comments. What works for you? If you use apps, which ones have been most useful? If you use more traditional devices, what works best in that regard? Or do you use a combination?
I was inspired for this vote by a V.com discussion this week requesting recommendations for a metronome/tuner device that was not an app. If you have an idea for the weekend vote, please e-mail Laurie Niles!
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I use an app for tuning, but I use a separate Korg KDM-2 metronome so that my phone is available to record myself while I'm playing with a metronome or a drone.
Sometimes I use an A-440 pitchfork.
I don't use a metronome. I tell people that; "I don't need a metronome to tell me how fast I want to play this" JQ-- arrogant, Luddite dinosaur.
Wittner tuning fork for A string then tune the fiddle to itself.If I'm in a loud environment a Snark for the A
Old school Franz electric met.
I use the ClearTune app for tuning—which also allows for entering a custom temperament, and changing the A to 441.5 or 415 or whatever. Recently I started using the metronome in the ForScore sheet music app, which I use for all my sheet music along with the AirTurn pedals. For a while I didn’t even realize ForScore had a metronome, but then my trusty Seiko metronome started getting rhythmically wonky. At first I thought it might just be the results of a long day (my own exhaustion), but no, it was indeed the metronome.
I definitely see the advantage for young students to have a handheld metronome with a sounding 440 A. That said, these days practically every young person has a phone, and the metronome/tuner app options are many!
The Tonal Energy app, while using up battery power rapidly, is a really helpful way to show students the difference between a pure/just third and a third in equal temperament. It will sustain either option in any octave, and offers timbre options as well, such as “violin” or “cello.”
I owned my tuner/metronome long before I finally agreed to get a "smart" phone. So I stuck with it. And, like Joel, I don't use the metronome much anyway. mostly to check printed metronome figures in the music before disregarding them.
"A separate device for both." I use a Korg TM-60 tuner, set to 440. I also have an A=440 tuning fork; but I seldom use it, because the electronic device sustains the tone as long as I need it, while the tuning fork sound fades after a few seconds. I don't often use the Korg's metronome feature - except to check, for a few seconds, how a given tempo will sound. Then I shut off the device and just play.
Side note: Outside of practice hours, I often catch radio news updates at the top and bottom of the hour. The tone that a lot of networks sound at these two points is 440.
I don't really use an electronic tuner for personal preference reasons. If I need a metronome, I either use the one built into my digital piano or an app on my phone, whichever is more convenient.
I really like the "tap tempo" feature of the metronome app.
I use Tonal Energy for both Metronome and tuner, but I do have a pretty loud Intelli IMT-301 that I like to use for chamber music when it's needed every once in a while. I've also been meaning to try the tunable app that I've been hearing so much about, as well as perhaps trying one of the offerings from Boss such as the DB 30 or DB 90.
I use the Peterson iStrobosoft app in my iPhone, and I have a few different metronome apps. The iStrobosoft has the ability to tune the violin in perfect fifths and not equal temperament, if you wish to. I cannot tune my violin as accurately by ear as I can with the iStrobosoft, something that I kind of regret, but it's simply a fact. I also have a clip, made by Peterson, that I can clip to my bridge and plug the cable into my iPhone. This allows me to tune perfectly in any noisy environment if need be.
One analog device that I have and love is a heavy A-440 tuning fork on a resonator box, made by Wittner in Germany. It has an included striker, but I rarely use it. Instead the way I use the fork is as a reality check. I ask myself the question "is my A-string accurately in tune?", and I can check that simply by playing the A-string. When it's accurately in tune the tuning fork on the resonator will vibrate sympathetically and loudly, even from 20-30 ft. away. Nice! They're expensive and seem to be hard to come by in our modern times though. I think they're seen as an anachronism now, and I'm not even certain that Wittner still makes them anymore. Not everyone tunes to A-440 anyway.
Also, with metronome apps in a phone, you can use a bluetooth earbud, maybe just one in your left ear to protect your hearing somewhat, and have your metronome beat as loud as you wish.
I just use the metronome in Audacity to synch my multitracking.
Cleartune (an app) for tuning, and Musician's Practice Hub (another app) as a metronome. Sometimes I use a Wittner mechanical metronome.
Korg CA-40 tuner and Wittner Taktell Super Mini mechanical metronome - old school.
Anyone who needs a _super_ loud metronome should get an app and then plug the device into an amp with a 10 inch speaker. Blasts!!
@Jan - thanks for the suggestion. I suspect it is cheaper and more convenient to get the Matrix metronome.
both metronome and tune to plastic keyboard yamaha e373
I don't do apps; I'll give up my flip phone when they pry it from my cold dead fingers. If playing in time with others isn't enough, I have an old mechanical metronome I can dig up - but it's been years since I last did that. For tuning, I use a tuning fork - which has no batteries to wear out - and tune the other strings in perfect fifths from there.
Yes, I'm a Luddite - which is ironic considering that I've been making my living as a computer programmer for 50 years. But I've always believed in Thoreau's principles: Simplify, simplify.
I mostly use a tuning fork (which I didn't use to need, but my abolute pitch has become somewhat unreliable) and some 20th century metronome or other (I can't locate it at the moment to report further), but if I've mislaid what I want to use, then I google up something on my laptop.
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February 11, 2024 at 10:34 PM · I would probably use an app for both, but I need a metronome that can wake the dead in the next county so that I can hear it when I play viola. I have a relatively inexpensive Matrix metronome for that, the loudest I could find at a reasonable price.