It’s simple; you play a note into the tuner, and it tells you whether you are sharp, flat, or in tune.  If you are out of tune, then you adjust your pitch until the needle indicates that you are in tune.  Job done; end of story; ’nuff said… right?

If this has been your approach to using a tuner, then you haven’t been getting the information you need from this extremely useful tool.  In fact, you may even have been hurting your own playing in the process.  “But I make sure I always peg the needle when I tune,” you reply, “This article can’t be talking about me!”  Ironically, it is the needle-peggers that need this article the most.

When you make the decision to play “in tune” with the tuner, you are committing yourself to many things.  First and foremost, you are committing yourself to the equitempered scale, the same one that a piano is tuned to.  At first, this may seem a good and logical thing to be committed to, but a closer look points out some of the problems that this presents.  The equitempered scale was designed so that we could play in many different keys, with no retuning required for the new key.  However, the purest sounding intervals and chords are not generated using an equitempered scale.  To make a chord ring, the members of the chord must be pried from their equitempered homes and moved slightly in one direction or another.  For instance, a perfect fifth on a piano is not nearly as perfect as a fifth can be.  In order for the fifth to resonate with absolute purity, the fifth needs to be raised from its equitempered position.  Given that the perfect fifth serves as the foundation for all Major and Minor chords, it becomes obvious that this one adjustment will affect a huge percentage of music and, as a result, your music making ability. 

Fortunately, most players make the needed adjustments for chords to "ring" quite naturally.  For those of you that would prefer not to leave things to instinct, though, there are a few quick and easy rules that you can use to make various chords sound their best.  As I have already mentioned, any time there is a perfect fifth, the fifth should be raised relative to the root.  In addition, the third in a major chord should be lowered slightly, and the third of a minor chord should be raised slightly.  Following these simple rules will lead to chords that sound purer and more resonant. When we use a tuner, however, it is possible to let it override all of this by simply concentrating on centering the needle.  This results in chords that lack sparkle and vibrancy.  For example, if you are playing a melody that contains an E over a C major chord, then that E will need to be slightly low in order for it to sound in tune.  The tuner, however, will tell you it is flat: about 27 cents flat to be precise.  Conversely, if you are playing an E over an A major chord, then the E will have to be raised in order for it to sound in tune.  The tuner, however, would disagree with your assessment and inform you that you are in fact playing the E sharp.  Don’t listen to it!  It is not always your friend.

Okay, so now you know that you may have to “disagree” with your tuner in order to play certain chords and melodies in tune, but the adjustment is simple.  You deftly adjust the appropriate members of the chord the correct amount, and everything is fine.  Any other information you get from your tuner can be counted on for its utter infallibility.  The machine rules the day again, right?  Well… not exactly.  There is more to the fallibility of the tuner that needs to be discussed. 

If you are accustomed to playing a note and then looking at the tuner to determine whether you are in tune or not, it is possible you are being misled to a surprising degree.  Even if we don’t consider any of the “chord effect” intonation issues mentioned above, our tuner may be giving us information that is downright deviant.  How can this be?  Simple.  A tuner is designed to determine the frequency of a pitch.  It then compares that frequency to the “correct” frequencies programmed in its memory and shows you the result with its indicator.  How can that be deviant?  Well, in truth, it isn’t deviant.  The tuner isn’t giving us inaccurate information, and it isn’t intentionally misleading us.  The problem really arises in its ignorance or, truthfully speaking, in ours. 

One thing no tuner has a concept of is how centered any particular note you play may be.  If, for instance, you pull out your slide to where your instrument is tuned 30 cents flat, and then you play 30 cents sharp, the tuner will register a beaming “you-are-in-tune!”  The truth, though, is that we are anything but in tune.  We are actually 30 cents flat and sharp at the same time!  The instrument is flat, but our technique is sharp; both things need to be corrected.  The answer is obvious: push the slide in, and play in the center of the note, rather than pinching everything sharp.  But if we follow our tuner’s indicator and leave everything alone, we are headed for sure disaster.  To be fair, this is clearly much more our problem than our tuner’s, and we need to accept the sole responsibility of playing our instrument in an efficient and centered manner. 

At this point it should be clear: your tuner is not always giving you accurate information.  So the question becomes, what do we do about it?  Do we simply give in to that urge to throw it on the floor and gleefully trounce it with our repeated jumping?  After all, we now understand that any information it gives us is highly suspect and potentially damaging!  Again… not exactly.  Take off your spiked shoes and listen for just a bit longer.

Your tuner should still hold a prized place on (or near) your music stand.  It is important to remember that a tuner is a tool: nothing more, nothing less.  It does not think or judge; it simply provides data.  It is our job to interpret that data and use it in one way or another.  Our ability to interpret needs to be learned and refined so that we can use this tool to our benefit, rather than our detriment.  If you play a note into your tuner and it indicates that you are sharp, then you should think about the role of that note in the melody or chord in which it occurs. You should pay attention to the way you are playing the note and see whether it is the horn or your technique that needs to be adjusted.  Also, don’t forget that tuners can be calibrated.  It could be that the ensemble you play in tunes to A=442hz.  If your tuner is calibrated to A=440hz, then when you practice with your tuner, your horn will register as sharp.  This, of course, is only partially accurate.  The tuner has no clue that you have been tuning to an ensemble that plays at A=442; it simply tells you that you are sharp compared to the A=440 that it is set to.

In the end, pitch is relative, as is the information we get from our tuner.  Playing with good intonation is an art of relativity.  Your pitch needs to be good relative to other players, other chord members, and even relative to yourself.  So resist the urge to huck your tuner directly into the trash.  It can be a very effective tool for clearing the oft-muddled waters of intonation.  But it will be up to you -- your mind and your ears -- to make it serve any use whatsoever. 

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