Reprinted with permission from the Spring 2017 issue of the Utah Music Educators Journal.
Anyone who has ever played an instrument with strings recognizes that tuning is a constant battle. It can be a real challenge to teach tuning to students. My approach may be somewhat unorthodox, since most of my formal training was as a brass player and piano tuner. While certifying as a Registered Piano Technician, I gained many insights about how to listen and how to tune. I’ve developed the following method during the last few years while teaching orchestra, ukulele and guitar.
I teach Stages 1, 2, and 3 in the first term, Stage 4 in the second, and Stage 5 in the third. Stage 6 is a bonus for advanced guitar students. Even with a class of 20+ students, I am able to assess the entire class in a couple of sessions by having small groups or individuals work in practice rooms. They open the door when they’re ready for me to assess, and I spend most of the session scrambling from room to room and filling the vacant rooms with new groups. I’ve been very pleased with the results.
Stage 1: Mastering the Physical Technique
Beginning students are often very nervous about manipulating the instrument’s tuners, probably from a fear of breaking a string. To overcome that, I require that all of my beginning and intermediate players’ violins/violas/cellos have some type of fine tuners on all four strings. If the fine tuners aren’t working, I require that they have them repaired or replaced.
Besides adjusting the tuners, it’s critical that players can generate good tone on at least one string. It’s too hard to hear intonation problems through squeaks and irregular tone, so some remedial work is often required.
Cellists have a special problem since they can’t easily manipulate the tuners and the bow at the same time. I teach them to tune off the decay: they play a quick tone and come off the string with the bow, then adjust the tuner with the right hand during the decay phase. During this stage, I have students experiment with tuning and practicing the actions of tuning, like bowing and twisting the tuners simultaneously. I finalize the tuning of their instruments for them before beginning rehearsal.
Stage 2: Hearing Interference Beats and Identifying “In Tune”
Some students don’t understand what they’re listening for when tuning, and there is a subset of students that may not be able to hear interference beats at all. Many musicians tune their instruments by eliminating interference beats. These beats can be demonstrated by using a pair of tone-generating electronic tuners that are de-tuned from one another or by de-tuning one instrument while another holds a constant pitch. I’ve used both ways, but I’ve found that the rich harmonic tone of a real instrument is generally easier for students to hear. [There are some tone generators and apps that can produce a complex tone, an option that may be worth pursuing.]
I like to model the change from out-of-tune to in-tune before asking the students to identify it, as it’s a new perception for some of them. After I’ve established what in-tune sounds like, I typically have the students close their eyes and raise their hands when they feel the two tones are in tune. I use words like “smooth” or “constant” to describe in tune and “rough” or “wavy” or “shimmering” to describe out-of-tuneness. It can be hard to describe the physical phenomenon of interference beats using words alone, so modeling is critical, as is some way of assessing students’ perception. I like to have them nod their heads in time with the beats (with their eyes still closed) so that I can see who can identify the beats.
I also like to point out how the timbre changes and “opens up” when the two tones are in tune. There’s a physical change in loudness because of the constructive interference. It also becomes difficult to aurally separate the sounds of the two instruments when they are perfectly in tune. Students may identify these changes more easily than the interference beats. It’s our responsibility to open their ears to these sound qualities that we often take for granted.
Stage 3: Adjusting while Listening to a Single String
Once a student can identify in-tuneness, I have them tune a single string to a partner’s string. They work in groups of three. Student 1’s instrument becomes the tuning note. Student 2 detunes a string and plays with a good tone. Student 3 adjusts the tuner on Instrument 2 until it is in tune with Instrument 1. They then rotate assignments once all three agree that the instrument is in tune. This process eliminates the struggle of generating good tone while adjusting the tuner. It may be skipped for fretted or plucked instruments, as there’s no bow involved.
Note that I do not let the students use the tuning pegs until they are very proficient at using the fine tuners. If an instrument needs a larger adjustment, I do it for them.
Stage 4: Adjusting while Listening to and Playing a Single String
This exercise is the same as Stage 3, but the students work in groups of two. Student 1 plays a tuning note while Student 2 untunes and then retunes his instrument, then they switch.
In all of these adjustment exercises, I model and then encourage students to use a consistent, fairly fast, and smooth tuning motion. It’s very easy to do on a guitar and not too difficult on the other instruments. Turn the guitar tuner about a quarter turn low. Quickly and smoothly tune it up to the given pitch. Most students are much more accurate doing this than doing a series of very small adjustments. The analogy I give is a person walking towards a wall: she walks briskly but slows down just before touching her nose to the bricks. The small-adjustment method seems to intimidate kids into never wanting to go too far. The ear can tire quickly for beginners, so they lose track of where their pitch is relative to the given pitch. The fast motion alleviates that problem. If they miss the pitch, I have them come a quarter-step low and try again. Most are successful after a couple of attempts.
As a note, I initially developed these exercises using an electronic tuning note, hoping students could work independently. However, the students have been much more successful using a partner’s instrument as a source tone. I believe it has to do with the richness of string tone and the similarity of tone between the two instruments.
Stage 5: Tuning Pairs of Strings
After a student can successfully tune a single string to a partner’s string, I have them tune to themselves, starting with a single pair of string in the mid-range of the instrument. I check to see that all of their strings are in tune before starting the exercise, after which they de-tune one string at a time. Over the course of a few sessions, I give them several options to experiment with, in this order:
- Unison frets (for fretted instruments). On the guitar, the 5th fret on the A string gives a unison with the D string, with similar patterns on the other strings (beware the G-B interval, which is different than the rest, and often trips up students). This can be pretty easy to hear for beginners, though this method has a couple of disadvantages:
- The left hand has to move from the fretboard to the tuner and back again. If they miss the correct fret, they can give themselves the wrong tuning note.
- It is possible to deflect the string and play a “bend”, which will affect the tuning.
- Coincident harmonics. For strings tuned in fourths, the 3rd harmonic on the lower string (located at the 5th fret) and the 2nd harmonic on the upper string (at the 7th fret) coincide to create a unison two octaves above the lower string’s fundamental. For strings tuned in fifths, use the 2nd harmonic on the lower string (7th fret) and the 1st harmonic on the upper (12th fret or string mid-point). If good technique is used, these partials sing very clearly and beat very distinctly when out of tune.
The trick to helping students find success with this technique is helping them use a long, fast bow and then helping them find the harmonics. Left-hand-position muscle memory development is key in developing proficiency: the finger spacing can be learned by feel and will be much faster than looking at the fingers every time. For all instruments (but I’ve noticed especially on the guitar), placement of the bow or pick is important. If the string is played anywhere near the same distance from the bridge as the finger is from the nut, the desired harmonic will be muted. So, if a student can’t get the harmonic to sing, have them change the placement of the bow or pick closer to the bridge.
- Open string pairs. The biggest advantage to this technique is that the left hand is free to work the tuners without ever having to touch the strings. The disadvantage is that it can be a challenge for students to hear the in-tuneness of two open strings. Some perceive the sound “smoothing out”. I like to whistle the coincident partials (two octaves higher than the lower note for fifths, two octaves higher than the upper note for fourths) to steer their ears in the right direction.
After tuning all the pairs of strings, I encourage students to check their work using one of the other techniques. They may find they need to make minute adjustments. I have also found that some instruments just don’t respond well to one or the other of the techniques. So, if a student can’t seem to get it, try out their instrument to see if you can do it. I’ve found a couple instruments where the open string pairs won’t agree with the harmonic pairs.
With all of these techniques, I have students start in the middle of the instrument’s range and work out. I prefer to start guitarists by leaving the G string in tune and moving out from the middle. It’s in a more comfortable range for the ear to hear, and starting in the middle leaves a lower chance of compounding errors from the low end of the instrument to the high.
Stage 6: Re-Tempering a Fretted Instrument
One inherent disadvantage of frets is that they create equal temperament, that wicked tuning compromise we make because of wanting to play in all 12 keys. That said, most guitarists won’t play in all the keys, but will mostly stay in the northeast quadrant of the Circle of Fifths. So, we can cheat a little to make the instrument sound better in our preferred keys. The same technique will double-check and improve a basic tuning.
Once the baseline tuning is in place, I help advancing students improve their tuning by checking intervals throughout the instrument. As mentioned above, I like to start with the G string, partly because it’s in the middle of the instrument’s range, but also because it’s in the middle of the part of the harmonic spectrum we’ll likely use. After establishing G, I check to see that the G on both E strings match it (3rd fret). I then check that the open A matches A on the G (2nd fret). I can check the B against the E (perfect 4th) and C on the B (1st) should match C on the A (3rd). If that’s all working, I can set the D string using E on the D (2nd) against either open E and make sure it agrees well as a perfect fourth between the A and G strings. I then check D on the B (3rd) against the open D as an octave and against open G as a perfect 5th.
That process may seem tedious, but it’s pretty fast with some practice. Besides being an excellent exercise in identifying pitches on the fretboard, it will result in a very harmonious-sounding guitar and this cycle of checks is an excellent exercise for intermediate and advanced students.
By methodically bringing students through this six stage process, they will become accurate and efficient at tuning, allowing more time to be spent on rehearsal. The constant battle of tuning can be won, once students become independent and teachers are no longer needed for help.
