What Does Intonation Mean and Why Is It Essential in Music?

Estimated reading time 4 minutes

Introduction

Have you ever wondered what the word intonation means? In music, it’s an important part of performance for many instruments, and it impacts all instruments to one degree of another. Keep reading What Does Intonation Mean and Why Is It Essential in Music? to learn more.

This post uses musical terms. For definitions, see the Glossary at the end of the article.

What Does Intonation Mean: First Let’s Define the Term

“What does intonation mean?” Intonation refers to the pitch precision in a tuning system for vocalists and instrumentalists:

In other words, vocalists need to sing their pitches accurately and instrumentalists need to adjust their pitches accurately on their instruments.
For fixed pitch instruments (e.g., piano, organ, xylophone, etc.), the instrument gets tuned by professionals. These instruments are tuned to equal temperament, which is done either at the factory (e.g., organ and xylophone) or by a piano tech twice a year. However, instruments like the guitar get tuned up by the player before they play.
Conversely, flexible pitch instruments (e.g., vocals, violins, brass, and woodwinds) adjust their pitch as they play, making it an important part of performing for them.

What Does Intonation Mean: How Exactly Does This Work on String Instruments?

“What does intonation mean?” It works differently on fretted strings vs fretless strings:

The traditional strings: The violin family has no frets on the fingerboard. So, these players can make micro adjustments in their pitch by adjusting where they place their fingers.
Fretted string instruments: There are a lot of factors that affect the pitch of the notes on guitar and guitar-like instruments. However, one of the most important is the placement of the frets.
When a guitarist adjusts the open strings with reference to fretted notes, it forces the guitar into equal temperament.

How can traditional string players achieve good intonation?

Fingering on the violin is critical for good intonation. According to the Bornoff Approach, the fingers should be spaced into whole steps (a gap between the fingers) and half steps (no gap between the fingers).
However, ear training is also important for young and beginning violinists so that they can learn to make micro-adjustments to their pitch.
In addition, the bow’s speed and pressure can affect the tuning. If the bow is played too hard, it (in effect) bends the string’s pitch sharp. When applying more pressure, the bow will need to travel faster across the string and vice versa. Therefore, string players should use medium pressure and a fast bow when executing double stops.

How can fretted string players achieve good intonation?

If a guitarist uses an electronic tuner (or the traditional method of using the frets to get in tune), that’ll be good enough for most people.
However, many alternate guitar tunings exist where guitarists have “sweet tuned” the strings, making the chords sound better.
You’ll find this in blues, rock, folk, country, and Hawaiian guitar styles.

For more information on how to sweet tune fretted string instruments

What Does Intonation Mean: How Exactly Does This Work on Woodwind and Brass Instruments?

“What does intonation mean?” Woodwind and brass players are all going to need to focus on their embouchures, because the embouchure affects both the tone color and the pitch.

The term embouchure refers to the shape and pressure of the lips.
Specifically, on most instruments more lip pressure will make the pitch go higher and vice versa. (However, flute players will need to roll the flute slightly towards and away from the lips to adjust their pitch – called rolling in and rolling out.)
Also, brass players have the additional ability to adjust their pitch using the tuning slides.

Young woodwind and brass players can also benefit from good ear training.

What Does Intonation Mean: How Exactly Does This Work for Singers?

“What does intonation mean?” Choruses and a cappella ensembles adjust both their pitch and vowels to achieve good vocal blend:

In vocal music, vowel and pitch adjustments are two sides of the same coin. Singers adjust their pitch to make the tone color more vivid but will also adjust their vowels to match the notes in the harmonies.
However, proper breath support, a relaxed, high soft pallet, and “singing into the mask” are also important.
In addition, singers must avoid sliding between the notes, especially when coming from a lower pitch (called scooping the note). While some styles of music scoop notes (e.g., Bob Dylan), scooping generally will not do good things for a vocalist’s tuning.

Vocal ear training exercises

What Does Intonation Mean: How Exactly Does This Work for Electronic Keyboards?

Retuning electronic keyboards must balance the needs of both melody and harmony.

Various tuning systems have tried different ways to strike this balance on keyboard instruments:

Supplemented Equal Temperament has its own unique version of this balance:

Final Thoughts on “What Does Intonation Mean and Why Is It Essential in Music?”

Why is intonation essential to music?

Because if you’re out of tune, your music isn’t going to sound very good.
This is why ear training exercises play a vital role in developing good listening skills for flexible pitch instrumentalists and vocalists alike.
Similarly, guitarists and keyboardists (on synth) have many options beyond just equal temperament.

Have fun singing and playing!

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