Questions tagged [intonation]
Marks questions discussing the precise control over pitch that musicians exhibit as part of their technique; also used to describe the tuning of one's instrument or one's system of tuning.
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B -> C and E -> F, No Sharp?
The keyboard has these notes:
A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#
Why do B and C and E and F not have a sharp note between them? If they did, the keyboard would look like this:
A A# B B# C ...
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Electric guitar doesn't keep tuning on the first frets. Anything I can do about it?
I can tune the open strings properly to any note I want and they keep the tuning for days, but as I press my fingers on the first 2 frets the tuner shows the notes slighly flat, as I go up the scale ...
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Why won't my new guitar play in tune?
Just recently, I finished building a guitar from a kit I had bought. It seemd pretty straight forward, and everything turned out fine, just with one issue. When I play an open string, the tuning is ...
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Just intonation with Fluidsynth
Is there a way to get fluidsynth to play in just intonation, or more generally select the intonation of this soft synth?
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How can i improve my intonation on violin?
I'm sure the right answer is "practice more" but there's a limit to the amount of time I get to do that. Are there any obvious techniques or quick exercises I can use to improve my intonation? Even if ...
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Does good intonation alone really make you "louder"? If yes, why?
I have multiple times heard this claim, from very different sources.
There certainly seems to be some correlation between intonation and "loudness", in the sense that ensembles with great harmony ...
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Low B keeps going out of tune
My seven string guitar has a problem. The low B constantly goes out of tune. Whenever I bend it, I immediately have to re tune it. The place I bought it said it was probably the nut but I am not ...
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Can the fan fretted design on guitars acheive pythagorean intonation?
If not then what kind of guitars/fretted string instruments can?
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Intonation problems with a low b string
I just got a Warwick Thumb NT 6 and my b string is still sharp on the 12 and 24th fret but I cant tighten the screw anymore. What should i do? is it normal for the top few frets to be really out?
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New set of strings on (bass) guitar with no adjustable intonation
When I restringed (re-strung?) my electric guitar, I had to take it back to the store because I belatedly realized that the intonation would have to be corrected.
Now, I have two acoustic guitars and ...
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Just intonation with Finale Human Playback?
Is it possible to hear a piece in Finale in just intonation using the "human playback" mode and the built-in Garritan orchestra? If not, what is the best way of doing this, other than live performance?...
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How do instruments with discrete tuning play chords alongside those with continuous tuning?
I was taught that when playing a triad, the third should be played sharper and the fifth flatter than the notes would sound on an instrument tuned to equal temperament, such as the piano. However this ...
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Does string length affect intonation?
Does string length affect intonation? Like on a Les Paul Jr. that has a wraparound bridge but intonation is still flat. If I use a Bigsby type tailpiece to correct the intonation would that correct ...
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Slightly tone-deaf?
I'm incredibly depressed. I have always wanted to be a musician and for the last 5 years I have learned various scales, chords in each key in various positions up and down the neck of the guitar and ...
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In Pythagorean tuning, what's the frequency of the tonic of each key?
When playing a fretless instrument (like violin), what frequency should be used to tune beginning of each key?
I believe that for A major and A minor, 440Hz is the tonic. What will be the frequency ...
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Should the dominant-seventh chord in just intonation use 9:5 for its seventh, or rather 16:9?
It may be just out of habit, what with the 12-edo temperament all around us, but anyway: I find the dominant-seventh rendition 20:25:30:36 sounds extremely harsh. In particular, the tritone from the ...
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Guitar string not in tune with itself
I have a knock-off telecaster made by Stadium. The strings on it refuse to be in tune with themselves (the G and B strings especially). I hooked it up to a tuner and tested the intonation. The G ...
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What file format does timidity's -Z (or --freq-table) option require?
I'm trying to figure out how to use the "-Z" (or "--freq_table") option of timidity to assign specific frequencies to midi note numbers, but there is no clear documentation online.]
How do I specify ...
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Is there a sound theoretical reason why a capella choirs "drift off" of the starting pitches in a piece?
Is the "comma pump" an empirical problem, or merely theoretical?
It's a standard music theory exercise to show that certain chord progressions don't actually quite work. For example, in the I-IV-ii-V-...
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Guitar intonation issue - still flat but screw as far as it'll go
I am having a serious issue with my guitar and looking for some help. I recently had the guitar set up in a shop and in order to get the intonation right the guitar tech had to adjust some of the ...
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Is my mandolin broken?
I read here that playing a string on the 12th fret will produce a note that is an octave above the note produced by playing the same string open (with no frets held down). For instance, if the bottom ...
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Can we tell by ear if a piece is in sharp or in flat without relative or perfect pitch?
I remember a masterclass where the piano teacher commented a piece from Chopin with something like "and after this modulation we enter the world of sharps".
This left me wondering if it was a poetic ...
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What frequencies should the violin and viola be tuned to?
I'm using this app to tune my violin, it supports many temperament options.
What I want to do is tune the A string to 440Hz first, then comparing the other strings sympathetically to the adjacent ...
- 2,003
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Natural vs tempered semi-tones
I am reading "Fundamentals of Musical Composition" by Arnold Schoenberg. Chapter XI, page 99, states:
Chromaticism is difficult partly because the natural semi-tones differ in size from the ...
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How does string gauge affect intonation?
I have a problem with intonation adjustment on my g-string on my Epiphone Les Paul. It's correct now but the bridge saddle cannot be adjusted any farther in range.
I need to change strings but I don'...
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Does an adjustable bridge need to be parallel to the frets?
The other day I was working on my guitar (Line 6 Variax JTV-89) that had some intonation issues.
I noticed that I couldn't move the saddles in a position that would be satisfying (I was at the minimum ...
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What is the savart unit in Persian music theory?
I was heard about Savart unit in Persian music that divides a chromatic interval into smaller units.
Persian musicians using an interval smaller than the chromatic intervals, called: Kron. they ...
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Which electric guitar strings have the least (pitch) bend
When playing my electric guitar, the pitch of notes varies depending upon how exactly the strings are fretted; this is particularly a problem with strings that are barred by the first finger, since ...
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Why Is Just Intonation Impractical?
I've read about the debate of "just intonation" vs 12-tone equal temperament. And nowhere it was clearly stated why just intonation is impractical. Here are my assumptions. Please let me know if I am ...
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How can I improve my note accuracy and intonation?
Over time my pitch has improved simply through singing more, but I still have some problems with being a bit off sometimes (or way off on very high or very low notes). It helps if I focus on a ...
user28
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Why choirs consistently go flat or sharp in certain keys
As a long-time chorister, I've always wondered what drives choirs to flat or sharp out of certain keys. For instance, the choir I sing with consistently fails to remain in the key of F, whereas ...
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