Tuning your Instrument

About Perfect Pitch

Some people have what is referred to as “perfect pitch”, which is really a very highly refined pitch memory. These people can name notes that they hear, and can often hear even tiny variations in a pitch from the standard A= 440 Hz reference. Perfect pitch can be learned — particularly if you start young, but even older people can develop it with practice.

I happen to think that perfect pitch is overrated. While convenient, it can also be a liability — what is essential is not that you play in tune with a theoretical piano, but with the musicians that surround you! If it annoys you that they are not playing in “perfect pitch”, or you insist on playing “perfectly” while the overall pitch of the ensemble is higher or lower, it is you who will stand out as being out-of-tune.

However, it is good to have a consistent starting point, and a tuner, while not absolutely essential, is a very important and useful tool. Fortunately, there are simple smart phone & tablet apps that are both very inexpensive and do a great job.

Why use a Tuner?

A tuner is indispensable for understanding:

  1. Where to position your main tuning slide
  2. How the pitch of your instrument changes as it (and you) warm up
  3. The pitch tendencies of specific notes and finger combinations — including alternate fingerings — on your instrument
  4. The way pitch changes in different registers of your instrument
  5. How pitch tends to change on a note between playing loudly and softly
  6. How to correct pitch with your airstream, support, tongue and lips
  7. The effect of various mutes on the overall pitch, and the pitch of specific notes
  8. How your pitch changes as you tire

When and How to use a Tuner

I use a tuner primarily when I am warming up: during mouthpiece buzzing, long tone and pedal tone exercises. I will also occasionally check notes in the course of practicing — particularly solos, such as when I am playing softly in the low register after strenuous high passage, or when using a mute, or when I sense that a note sounds sharp or flat. If the note is consistently wrong, and it seems too much work or too risky to “lip it” into place, I will often choose to use an alternate fingering for the performance.

Tune a Warm Instrument

You will notice that, as you warm up, the overall pitch of your instrument will go up — become higher (sharper). This is particularly acute for marching bands and other outdoor performances in cold weather, and is due to the warming of the metal. Make note of how much you have to move your main tuning slide from when the instrument is cold to when it is warm. Many bands start by tuning cold instruments; don’t assume that your instrument will remain in tune as you warm up. One way to mitigate this is to blow warm air through your instrument for several seconds before you tune, and during long rests to keep it warm.

Using the Valve Slides

There is not a professional player in the world who does not make liberal use of the first and third valve slides to tune 1-2, 1-3, and 1-2-3 valve combinations, especially in the low register. These valve combinations (without using the slides) are inherently sharp due to compromises between the lengths of valve tubing and the need to make first valve and second valve fingerings in-tune with the open horn. 

Why is this? Fundamentally, each valve makes the instrument a bit longer by diverting the vibration into an additional length of tubing, thus lowering the pitch. The exact lengths of each valve tubing are designed to add a fraction/percentage to the length of the open (no valves pressed) instrument, thus lowering the pitch (remember, a longer instrument is a lower instrument) as follows:

  • 1st valve: (open +) 2 half steps (1 whole step), as from G to F, or from C to Bb
  • 2nd valve: (open +) 1 half step, as from G to F#, or from C to B natural
  • 3rd valve: (open +) 3 half steps, as from G to E, or from C to A

A more detailed, mathematical explanation of this phenomenon can be seen in the section How Trumpets Work / What the Valves Do / Pitch Tendencies of Fingerings – the Math.

Example: 1st + 2nd valve combination

The instrument with first valve pressed (e.g. when playing an F) is longer than the open instrument. Adding the second valve to the first valve adds a smaller percentage of the length of that longer instrument than it does to shorter, open horn. We therefore move the first valve slide out a bit to make the combined tubing slightly longer, putting it back in pitch. 

Because third valve is typically used in combination with the 1st valve, the 2nd valve, or both 1+2, instrument manufacturers often make the 3rd valve slide just a bit longer than needed to lower the note 3 half steps from the open horn. While this means that the 2-3 combination is often nicely in-tune, it also means that playing an E (for example) with just the 3rd valve may tend to be flat. Unfortunately, it is not enough to make the 1-3 and 1-2-3 combinations in tune, so we must use the first and/or third valve slides to tune these combinations.