Hi all..

Can you please give me some info on tuning and intonation?

Greatly appreciated

Hi,
Can you be more specific? What kind of information do you need, in particular?
I can offer some general advise:

o Get a tuner. They aren`t that expensive and are extremely useful.

o Use the tuner to get a general sense of where each note on your instrument tends to fall. Then you can make adjustments depending on which note you are playing. For example, with my instrument I tend to be sharp for most notes in the extremely high range, but know that and routinely adjust for it.

o You may know this already, but just in case: you can pull the barrel out or push it in a little to adjust the whole instrument. If you are in a group or something or even just tuning with a tuner, you will want to do this routinely. Be sure and warm up before hand or it will change. In a group, one person should play a note like a mid-range C or a G and everyone can adjust to that.

o Again, you may know this, but remember the intonation will change as the temperature of the instrument changes. So try to get a consistant temperature, for example, play on the instrument for a while before tuning. And tune again every so often, especially after taking a break or something.

o Again, you may also know this, but you can adjust with your mouth. Tighten to raise the pitch, loosen to lower it. Just a slight adjustment; not too much or you`ll end up with other problems.

o There`s some alternate fingerings that are better than others. You can get a sense of which ones are the best by trying them out with a tuner. Some are notoriously out of tune and intended only for convenience when no other fingers will work well. You can also make up your own fingerings in some cases (adding a key here or there). I play most of my extreme upper range (on E flat clarinet) adding an extra key or two to keep it better in tune.

o Every clarinet can be different. You should get a sense of that in order to get your intonation right. Perhaps go through a complete range on your instrument with a tuner.

Hope that helps. Let me know if you had something more specific in mind. And what level of knowledge you are looking for.

Thanks

Gary

Hi Gary,

Thanks for that. I knew some info already, but some was useful I know a fair bit but I can know more, espcially where you say you have to know the instrument before you play and adjust beforehand, so you know where the instrument lies? and also about fingerings to adjust intonation, I can do a bit with adjusting embouchure but fingering I could know more. i think genrally my throat notes are flat so how can I help that, high c is flat, high f is flat, and clarion is sharp. and is there any way to improve yor use of embouchure adjustment?

Also I find G and A just above staff has intonation problems but I`m not sure whether they are flat or sharp? is this common, do you have any suggetions re this

To help play the throat tones in tune (middle G up through B flat) I`ve been told to hold down the keys on the lower joint. This tends to make it less airy, and helps fix my problem of playing them sharp.

Generally when players go flat in the upper registers its because of a lack of air support. Make sure there`s a strong flow of air going through the instrument. Your reed may be too strong as well, which could be demanding too much air of you and causing this.