Topic 7 Free Inquiry Post
A concept I chose to focus in on a bit this week was intonation. Being “in tune” is referred to when playing with others but because I am playing by myself, good intonation is what I’m after. Being a flute player, I am no stranger to good and bad intonation. Flute is a hard instrument to tune as no part of the instrument goes into your mouth so most air blown goes nowhere. This makes it very finicky to tune, especially with others. Not to mention that any slight change in air speed or even body movement can change pitch. All of this is to say that I am no stranger to struggling with tuning and intonation. Fiddle is interesting to me because all you have to do to change a pitch is move your finger up or down. This gave me the idea that it would be very easy to achieve good pitch but that’s not necessarily the case. Often for beginners, teachers will put little strips of tape across the sound board so that students know where to place their finger. This can be really helpful for learning finger placement.
This week I practiced the tune Tennessee Waltz. After learning it, I played it with a tuner to check my tuning. As I don’t have the tape on my fiddle, I am relying on muscle memory for my finger placement. Luckily I am a musician and have developed an ear for intonation, though sometimes it can be frustrating when learning a new instrument because it is more difficult to make it sound how I want it to sound.
Here is a screen recording of my tuner app beside be playing the beginning of the Tennessee Waltz. You can see as I will stop to replay a note or section when it is out of tune. I fix the intonation by shifting my finger up or down slightly. Sometimes the smallest change in finger position can over correct the pitch. This is a very tedious procedure but is important to include periodically during practice to make sure no bad habits are being enforced and to discover common patterns.
This piece is still a work in progress but here is the first half of the tune after practicing with a tuner: