Clip-on tuners or regular electronic tuners
I have cleartune on my iPhone, which does the job in a calm environment. However, I get frustrated when the dial shifts back and forth when there are ambient disturbances that are hard to avoid. I had a normal Korg electronic tuner that went haywire not so long ago. I had this tuner unused for a decade.
What are your thoughts on the clip on type tuners offered by D'Addario, Snark etc that sense the vibration through piezoelectricity. Are they better than regular chromatic tuners?
Replies (18)
Ears and a single pitch source, such as a tuning fork or pitch pipe, are all that are needed, together with ear training. Relying on eyes to tell you if you are in tune is never going to train your ears.
A few years ago I attended the finals of an international harp festival in Ireland. The six finalists tuned up in the green-room before individually coming on stage to play their pieces, but when arriving on stage it was necessary for them to do a brief tuning check because of the different temperature and humidity compared with the green-room. Five of the six checked by ear. The sixth checked her tuning using an electronic tuner; the judge's face suddenly looked like it was carved from stone, and people in the audience were whispering to each other.
Coming now to the performances, those of the five who tuned by ear were beautifully and resonantly in tune, and it was difficult for me, a non-harpist, to distinguish between the performances at that level. In stark contrast, the electronic tuner lady's harp sounded vilely out of tune, and this in itself ruined the quality of her performance and her chances. It was therefore no surprise to everyone that she was placed last and evidently decided not to attend the awards ceremony. It was a sad occasion for her, but I hope she learnt something important and acted on it.
You might consider one of these. It's a pickup that plugs into your iPhone, so you can tune in a noisy environment when needed. https://www.amazon.com/Peterson-PitchGrabber-Mobile-Tuner/dp/B014L9CCHO/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1488324703&sr=8-4&keywords=Peterson+tuner
And Trevor, don't principle oboists in modern orchestras typically use electronic tuners to prepare their instruments, then share that pitch with the rest of the orchestra? (I might be wrong about that, but it's my current understanding.) Physics, and the limitations of human hearing suggest that tuning can be done more accurately with the best digital tuners. I tune my violin "a" with a strobe tuner app in my iPhone, then the rest by ear. The tuner has the ability to switch to perfect fifths for violin tuning, but I seldom take advantage of that.
I use the D'Addario micro clip on tuner made specifically for string instruments. I find it works very well, but I just use it to bring the a string to pitch. I tune the rest of the strings by ear. It's cheap too!
Mark, yes, principal oboists often take their initial A from an electronic tuner, using it as single pitch source. Later on in the proceedings it is likely that the brass and woodwind will have gone sharp, so now we retune to a slightly different A from the oboe. Of course, everyone is using their ears, and not watching the deviation of a needle on a dial.
If we're performing a piano concerto the orchestra takes its tuning from the piano's A. When I play in a band that has a fixed reed instrument (button accordion or piano accordion) then we tune to that.
I remember many years ago a conductor at the start of a community orchestra rehearsal giving a tuning A from an electronic tuner to the whole orchestra. What caused the orchestra to collapse in a fit of giggles was that he was waving the device rapidly to and fro in front of the orchestra, thereby generating an interesting Doppler pitch effect. He didn't do it again!
I most often use an electronic tuner for the A although I sometimes just tune even that by ear/memory (I have perfect pitch and on the occations that I have checked it was always very close). When giving others an A before a quartet rehearsal or a string section rehearsal in the orchestra I always use the tuner to make sure we start of with a good A.
I hate oboists who think they don't need a tuner; they give one A to the lower strings then turn around and give a different A to the violins.....
I always tune before the oboes do their thing because I warm up. I use the D'addario clip on because it allows me to tune while the brass are practicing and blaring in a way which drives my Korg to uselessness. So, another vote for a clip on, at least for orch tuning. In other contexts, I use the Korg.
I had a chamber orchestra rehearsal this evening, and it occurred to me that we didn't have a tune-up - nobody played an A to the orchestra for reference. Beforehand, people were getting instruments out of their cases and generally warming up, and, in particular, our deputy leader, who will be performing the Bach E major at our next concert, was warming up with passages from the concerto. The conductor raised his baton as soon we were all seated at 7.30 on the dot, and we started with the Bach (no time-wasting idle chat with this conductor!). We were all in tune, and if anybody hadn't been you can be sure that our conductor would immediately have raised the issue.
[edit added March 2] On reflection, I think that on this occasion the leader forgot to give us the tuning A he usually does (it's a string orchestra), possibly because he was busy talking to the conductor and the soloist immediately before the start. Anyway, it suggests something good about the orchestra's preparation and warm-up.
I find it's hard to tune when there are a bunch of people all around me trying to tune too.
I use the Metro-Tuner from Shar which clips onto your scroll. It even fits my big viola scroll, but just barely. It's their catalog number STM501 -- but it looks to be out of stock and not searchable from their own search box, could be discontinued. If I were shopping now, I'd get the KLIQ UberTuner, currently on sale for $25 at Amazon.
One suggestion -- keep a spare battery in your case. Your tuner might turn on but it can give you weird results if the batteries are low. Mine takes one of those nickel-sized calculator batteries.
Every time I coach a violin section either from the youth orchestra or a local high school, I explain to them that they must tune *quietly*, bowing gently at the tip. This is for two reasons:
1. Loud aggressive tuning can actually affect the pitch of the strings while you are trying to tune them.
2. Loud aggressive tuning also makes it impossible for your neighbor to tune.
I appreciate that Mary Ellen but it doesn't work for me because if I am tuning loudly surrounded by people who are tuning loudly, then I cannot hear myself because they're being loud. If I am tuning softly surrounded by people who are tuning softly, then I cannot hear myself because I'm being soft! i just can't win that one. But please understand I'm probably borderline for needing hearing aids, and my left ear rings constantly.
I play in a string orchestra and we tune from the first cellist. He is able to tell me his exact frequency (usually 221) and then I can set my tuner for 442. Our conductor likes violas ans cellos to draw up their C strings ever so slightly, although I think you'd need to have a very delicate solo section accompanied by one cello playing open C to notice that. Pro string quartets who rehearse together may find such tweaks beneficial but I wager intermediate amateurs don't.
I think that tuners should be for absolute beginners only to get a rough sense of intonation. Beyond that, it very quickly becomes a crutch that inhibits more refined hearing of intonation, as it appears from the other posts. Sometimes it prevents the development of any sense of pitch. What could be worse than not being able to tune your instrument without a tuner? I know a guitarist who uses it as if his life depended on it. He tunes every string with it. The really sad part is that he usually has no idea which note or chord he is strumming, even while his hands are on the instrument. He can't tell the difference between major and minor. When we played together, he usually asked me what key he was playing in, and what notes he just played, and such. On different days, he would come in playing tunes in different keys than the previous day, not knowing it until I told him. He would also usually sing with very poor intonation. Whenever I asked him to figure it out for himself, in hopes that I would not become his personal tuner, his guesses were never even remotely in the ballpark. When I tried to tell him that his ear needed some serious work, he would always say that he either wasn't smart enough, or that he wasn't born with it, and thought that there was no progress that could be made.Very sad.
I use everything/anything (as suits the occasion)...except for the tuning fork...never became comfortable with that one.
I don't trust my ear. I can hear if something is off...but can't always figure out why. Not all of us are blessed (?) with perfect pitch.
Great intonation and tuning your instrument do not require perfect pitch. Those are seperate, learned skills. Only in the most extreme cases (amusia), is it impossible to get a handle on it. For tuning you need to know interval relationships, and learn how to notice that open, resonant sound of in-tune strings. For violin, for instance, you just have to know what an in-tune perfect 5th sounds like, and be able to match a reference pitch in order to tune. Recognizing the actual notes themselves while away from any kind of reference is irrelevant. Tuning with a tuner will actually make the strings slightly out of tune with each other, since the tuner strictly relies on equal temperament. For intonation in general, it is also about very precise interval relationships, and a feel for how notes "ring", for lack of a better word. Context is everything. Just being able to recognize when, for instance, your microwave beeps on a C has nothing to do with the "in-tuneness" of that C in context. This is not to mention the motor dexterity and muscle memory required to put your fingers in the right place every time.
To answer the original question better, if you have to decide between one of these horrid devices ( oboists could just use a tuning fork ), I would go with the clip-on. You get to literally have it on your instrument. Much easier to keep track of from what I have seen.
If you're trying to tune to perfect fifths, most tuners won't do the job for you as the'll be tuned to equal temperament. I've gotten lazy with DaTuner for Android, which supports multiple temperaments and has at least one which matches perfect fifths. Holding a smart tuner with noise rejection to the body of the violin might work, but the D'Addario micro would probably be a lot less trouble, and cost less money to replace when it falls off the violin.
If your tuner also displays the +/- cents of the note from equal temperament, then you can use it to tune the strings to perfect fifths.
Get the A string to within 1c of 440. The tune the E string to +2c, the D string to -2c and the G string to -4c.
This trick can also help you learn how to tune perfect 5ths by ear. Use the tuner to get the strings set to perfect 5ths, then double stop adjacent strings while playing with the peg or fine tuner for one of the strings. You will begin to recognize when a string is tuned sharp or flat of perfect 5th.
NA, the secret to the tuning fork is to either have one of those resonator boxes or hold it against your scroll, then it is loud enough to produce a pitch you can tune against.
This discussion has been archived and is no longer accepting responses.
Violinist.com is made possible by...
Dimitri Musafia, Master Maker of Violin and Viola Cases
Johnson String Instrument/Carriage House Violins
Subscribe
Laurie's Books
Discover the best of Violinist.com in these collections of editor Laurie Niles' exclusive interviews.
Violinist.com Interviews Volume 1, with introduction by Hilary Hahn
Violinist.com Interviews Volume 2, with introduction by Rachel Barton Pine
February 28, 2017 at 11:27 PM · On Youth Orchestra rehearsal nights I tune upwards of 60 instruments in a noisy, frantic environment - clip-on tuners work best for me. Those with acoustic tuners have difficulty with all that noise in the air. I've never actually checked the clip-on against an oscilloscope for dead-on accuracy but everyone gets tuned to the same tuner so the sound of the orchestra is about as even as one can get for a youth orchestra.
While I'm at it, I adjust bridges (just love those young musicians who put the bridge on the floor to attach the shoulder rest), replace broken strings, re-wind improperly wound strings (thanks dad), loosen fine tuners that are slammed down all the way, tighten the loose chin rests, et cetera. I also acknowledge the young musicians who take good care of their instruments - a bit of praise helps a lot.