Tim and Matt make up Akropolis’ surprisingly harmonious oboe-sax duo. They’ve played alongside each other for six years this January, learning more about one another than they ever wanted. Primarily, they’ve learned how to tune and blend two seemingly disparate instruments. One of the instruments is metal--one is wood. One is conical--one cylindrical. They have different reeds, key systems, histories, and personalities. All these differences can be put aside, or taken advantage of, to form the colors which have endeared our audiences to the reed quintet “sound.” But in order to do this, Tim and Matt must agree on one simple principle: playing in tune. And like everything in Akropolis, we’re taking a fresh spin on it, so this blog’s going to focus on smartphone tuning apps. We’ll review our four favorite tuning apps and help you get the most out of them. We hope this entry is fun and informative for the musicians and non-musicians alike in our audience.
First, Tim and Matt share why they use an electronic tuning device (we’ll call it a tuner), and how they make it effective in their practicing and development as musicians.
Tim: A tuner, like it's cousin the metronome, is my best friend and worst enemy. The tuner is always right, and it’s my belief that I’m never too good for the tuner. Professional musicians bring out tuners regularly, especially in the oboe world, as the “crow” of our reed must be at a very particular pitch. The tuner therefore serves as a necessary tool in the art of reed making, and a tuner is the only way oboists truly know if our reed is "up to pitch." I also use drone pitches (completely steady, sustained pitches) every time I focus on interval practice by setting the drone to whatever key I am working on and making sure that 4ths and 5ths are perfectly in tune, that 3rds are 13 cents (a unit of measure in musical pitch) flat, etc...I also use my tuner to help hone my skills on the expressive tools like crescendos, diminuendos, and vibrato (this is a big one).
Matt: I started my tuner adventure in college and used only drones for two years. I would spend hours each day playing every note on the instrument with the drone. Starting in tune, ending in tune, in every octave, at every volume and articulation. Soon I felt I was starting to get to know my instrument. On saxophone, I’ve found that if a note is in tune, then the tone is usually good. If high register notes are bright and strident, they’re probably sharp (too high in pitch), and if they start with an uninviting sound, the pitch is probably poor at the beginning of the note. Now, smartphone (and other) tuners prove this to me visually. An in-tune note probably starts and ends appropriately, and it is the result of proper embouchure and voicing practices. In other words, playing in tune is the result of proper training, but also can inform how to get to a good sound.
How do you bring personal tuning practice to your ensemble playing, such as with Akropolis, an orchestra, or another ensemble?
Tim: The oboist in any ensemble is required have a tuner at all times because he/she is the one who gives the tuning pitch at the beginning of rehearsal. After that, it's everyone's responsibility! To plan for the unpredictability of real live tuning, I will set a drone to be pitched at 441 or 442 Hz on occasion instead of 440 and monitor how my body changes to adjust to this. There will be orchestras (e.g. NY Phil, Boston, Detroit, etc.) or chamber groups that prefer to perform at a pitch center that isn't 440, or who might do so accidentally. You might also run into a situation where the piano at a venue will be tuned a little low or high, and you can’t just call the piano tuner to come in a change that. The main point is, if you’ve trained properly, it shouldn't matter what the pitch center is. Consistent tuner practice where every note is based on the fundamental of that chord will teach the ear what’s right and wrong. Professor Michael Haithcock, one of Akropolis’ mentors at the University of Michigan, always preached, “tune the tune” (we knew what he meant), and that one should always tune according to where the notes are in the chord.
Matt: To me, tuning is really a physical exercise. After working with drones and tuners, I’m trusting myself to guess correctly with my mouth, throat, and air before playing a note, and more importantly, trusting my body training. In an ensemble, I’m confident, but always assume I’m wrong. Knowing how to adjust to pitch is just as important as guessing right in the first place. I try to find a middle point between tuner practice and ensemble rehearsal where I can try this out. I’ll play along with a drone or tuner, then play without it for a few moments, and look back and see how I did. If I’m high in pitch, did I hear the difference? This is when one really starts to hear what “in tune” is. But what if I have a rehearsal tomorrow?!?!? Well, remember, everyone is (hopefully) trying as hard as you. Be courteous and be patient, but have high standards. Tuning cannot be compromised.
Now, let’s look at Tim and Matt’s top 4 smartphone tuners! We’ll give you the highlights about each. We don’t have room to review every smart phone tuner (just the ones we use), so if there’s one you recommend, let us know in the comments section.
iPhone: yes
Android: yes
Price: $2.99
We’ve yet to find an tuning app that shows as much detail about your sound as this one. As you play, the tuner makes a line representing your pitch, and draws your sound for you. It’s fun and informative. Perfect for vibrato. This app will show you things about your sound that you just can’t hear without seeing it first. The metronome will play while the tuner is on, which is a great feature. The metronome interface is a little clunky but gets the job done. The tuner is very responsive and changes pitches along with you very quickly. It’s so sensitive that it might even get frustrating, so for every day tuning, or just to check in with a tuner, it’s probably not the best idea, but for very close tuning and vibrato work, we highly recommend it.
iPhone: yes
Android: yes
Price: free
The Cleartune app is a wonderful tool to use for the musician who is looking for a simple tuner. This app may not be able to show you a visual representation of your vibrato, but it is extremely sensitive and can easily show you how much you are fluctuating in pitch. It uses the standard needle interface depicting the amount of cents you are away from being in tune on the top of the screen and a wheel on the bottom of the screen to show you how far away you are from the pitch that is being played in relation to the next closest note. This app is great for practicing stability, and, like Tunable, one can calibrate the tuner to tune at 440, 441, 442 and even 415 for all you Baroque musicians out there! There is no metronome included with this app.
iPhone: yes
Android: yes
Price: free
This app is called “Pano Tuner, not "Piano Tuner," which hasn't stopped Matt from calling it by the wrong name for two years. Anyway, it's wonderful for wind playing. This app is nothing fancy, but it makes the list because there is simply no app faster to respond to note changes than this one. It will follow all your notes up and down fast passages, and so it’s incredibly valuable for informing you whether every note in a melody is really in tune. If you want to get picky, you can change it from Equal Temperament to Just Intonation (to know that you’re referencing the melody notes correctly), but you have to pay for that feature. Sometimes we think that it knows when we’re changing notes, it moves so quickly. You’ll really enjoy that. Use this app when you want to work on large intervals especially, or tuning through rapidly changing notes. No metronome included.
iPhone: yes
Android: no
Price: $3.99
This app has it all! (including a green smiley face for when you play in tune!) From drones that use real, good quality instrument sounds to a metronome that includes almost any subdivision you could ever need (including different groupings of 7/8 and 5/8 time signatures), and graphs that are able to show you the quality and consistency of your attack, there is nothing that the TE Tuner doesn't do. With the tone generator, you can construct sustained tones, using just or equal temperament, with any instrument from violin to organ. This is great for figuring out how to blend with other instrument timbres. One of the most helpful features about this app is the graph that shows you everything from the quality and consistency of your articulation (are you making the same attack every time?) to the stability of your pitch.
Like Tunable, this app also has a recording option, but with the addition of uploading your own recording. The TE tuner will then analyze the recording as if you were playing live. Scary? Helpful? Painful? All of the above. There are so many great features to this app that one could write a thousand words about it. It is the most advanced of its kind, so if you're someone who loves to play with gadgets, this app is for you! The interface is definitely not the easiest to navigate, and I would say that it comes with a slight learning curve, but it is well worth the effort. Even for the technological faint of heart, we still recommend taking a look at this app for fun (and for the smiley face of encouragement). If you're an Android user, this is only one more reason you should switch to iPhone.
Conclusion: All these apps have a purpose, and instead of using just one, get them all and use them for whichever function you need. Use them to inform what you already know with your ears. Use them to transition into playing with others. They making tuning a little more interesting. Have fun!
Thanks for reading and let us know if you have any favorite tuning suggestions of your own!
-Tim, Matt, and Akropolis