Estimated reading time 7 minutes
Table of Contents
Introduction
Does singing in tune seem like a mystery with no clues? Knowledge is power. Read more to find out how a harmony’s length impacts singing in tune.
- The post 10 Elements that Impact Singing in Tune looked at ten factors that affect harmonic tuning.
- In today’s post, we’ll look closer at the seventh element from 10 Elements, where we’ll talk about background information for learning how to sing in tune.
- If you’d like a practical lesson on singing in tune: Singing Major and Minor Harmonies in Tune.
In addition, this post will be useful for violin, woodwind, and brass players as well.
This article uses musical terms. For definitions, see the Glossary at the end of the post.
Evidence from Science that a Harmony’s Length Impacts Singing in Tune
Hypothesis: The Quote
The longer you hold a harmony (whether you sing in a choir, chorus, or a cappella group) the better you can tune up. Let’s look at the evidence from science that shows how a harmony’s length impacts singing in tune.
In his violin tuning study, Charles Shackford talks about the impact of long-held notes on a chord’s tuning:
As with fifths, long-held thirds and tenths show a narrower spread than those used in passing. (Shackford 1:189).
He then goes on to say:
…one wonders if perhaps the tendency to reduce the size of a large major third with time originates with the resultant tone effect and that, long enough held, these intervals in the hands of sensitive musicians would all be nearer to 386 [i.e., a just tuned major third] than to 400 cents. (Shackford 1:189).
Read on to find out what this means.
Breaking Down the Quote
Reading the above quote makes the subject sound very technical. It’s a challenge. Just like in National Treasure, we have to solve a riddle so we can reach the goal: to find out if a harmony’s length impacts singing in tune.
So, let’s break it down into simpler language:
- A cent divides up the half step into 100 parts. Thus, the cent gets used a lot to measure instrument tunings. (The distance from a white key to the very next black key makes a half step on the piano keyboard.)
- The major third of a chord has a vital role in tuning Western music. Shackford makes a point of mentioning the major third for this reason. (The third spans three white keys on the keyboard.)
- Harmony refers to when two or more notes get played or sung at the same time. Though this quote doesn’t show it, Shackford talks here about harmonic thirds.
- The piano tunes its major thirds so that they have 400 cents. However, the piano’s major third does not have the ideal harmonic tuning.
- The idealized harmonic major third has 386 cents, which means the ideal major third will be smaller than the piano’s major third.
- In statistics, a narrower spread means that the data points all clump closer together.
- A tenth contains a third and an octave. The octave (eight white keys on the keyboard) repeats the same note, only eight notes higher or lower (to the right and left respectively on the keyboard). Therefore, a tenth is almost the same interval as a third.
- The fifth spans five white keys on the keyboard.
- In the context of this study, a passing note gets held for a shorter amount of time than a long-held note.
Interpreting the Quote
Having defined the words in the quote, we can now translate what Shackford’s statement means. He says that like the fifths, the notes’ cent values in the thirds and tenths clumped together more closely.
Shackford then speculates that if players held the notes of a major third or tenth longer, they might approach the ideal tuning. In other words, he wants to test to see if there is any merit in the idea that a harmony’s length impacts playing (or singing) in tune.
Read more to see what he found.
A Harmony’s Length Impacts Singing in Tune: Shackford Does More Research
Presenting the Information
Shackford then went and tested his hypothesis.
- I have taken the data from his study and done some extra analysis.
- First, I used the piano’s major third as the cutoff point.
- Then, I figured any major third below 400 cents trended toward the ideal tuning.
- Conversely, any major third above 400 cents trended away from the ideal tuning.
- Part I has the older data.
- Part II has the data collected with the goal of finding out if a harmony’s length impacted playing (or singing) in tune.
- Moreover, Part I had passing chords. However, both Parts I and II had long-held chords.
From Part I, Example 20:
- 18.2% of passing major tenths below 400 cents (2 of 11).
- 19.3% of passing major thirds below 400 cents (6 of 31).
- 37.9% of long-held major tenths below 400 cents (11 of 29).
From Part II, Examples 39 and 42:
- 50% of the major tenths in example 42 below 400 cents (10 of 20).
- 54% of the major thirds and tenths in example 42 below 400 cents (13 of 24).
- 56.25% of all major thirds and tenths in examples 39 & 42 below 400 cents (18 of 32).
- 62.5% of major thirds from example 39 below 400 cents (5 of 8).
- 66.66% (2/3) of all major thirds from examples 39 & 42 below 400 cents (8 of 12).
- 75% of the major thirds in example 42 below 400 cents (3 of 4).
Doing great! Just a little bit more information before we get to the practical application.
Discussing the Information
First, let’s look at the Part I data. You can see that a greater percentage of long-held thirds trended smaller when compared to the passing thirds. In part one, the players sustained the long-held notes for two to three beats at an andante (medium) tempo. However, the passing thirds had only one beat.
For the Part II data set, the players sustained the chords for a much longer time. They held these harmonies for four to six beats. You can see that the major thirds and tenths in Part II trended smaller much more often than in Part I.
Keep in mind that the violin players used vibrato on all of the notes. This means that the long-held thirds trended toward ideal despite the heavy vibrato. With vibrato absent, the trend toward ideal thirds would likely have been much greater.
Shackford concludes:
The major third in measure 5 is on the small side, at one point being actually the size of the 4/5 interval of the harmonic series. This is consistent with the data… in Example 20 (part I) which showed major tenths becoming smaller as they were held, one actually nearly reaching 4/5, and indicates that in slow-moving, sustained music the acoustical nature of the tonal material of music is an important factor in determining pitch and harmonic interval size. (Shackford 2:80)
Stating that a major third has a 4/5 ratio is the same as saying it has a size of 386 cents. Basically, he says here that a harmony’s length impacts playing (or singing) in tune. In fact, how long you hold a chord has a massive effect on its tuning.
Sound Track Examples Showing How a Harmony’s Length Impacts Singing in Tune
The Sound Tracks
It is one thing to say that a harmony’s length impacts singing in tune. It is another thing to hear it. (I suggest you use headphones when you listen to the sound tracks.)
The first track shows sustained harmonies tuned to equal temperament (the piano’s tuning). I have included three chords, and each gets sustained for a very long time. Can you hear the beating (the wah-wah-wah sound) in the chord? The second chord pulsates faster than the first and thirds chords.
Track two shows the same chords repeatedly played with very short durations. Notice that you cannot hear the beating anymore.
Track three has long-held chords. The major thirds have been tuned using Supplemented Equal Temperament, which has well-tuned major thirds. Can you hear that the chords sound smoother when compared with the first track?
Sustained Equal Tempered Chords – Organ:
Short Equal Tempered Chords – Organ:
Supplemented Equal Tempered Chords – Organ:
Practical Application
So how exactly does a harmony’s length impact singing in tune? Beating remains a huge tuning cue. When you play a chord quickly, you cannot hear any beating. This results from the fact that the size of the tuning error directly corresponds to the amount of time needed to hear the beats. (For more information: click here.)
Imagine the first track represents a group of singers (or instrumentalists) tuning up a chord. When the players hold the chord, they can adjust their notes until the chord sounds more like track three. However, with track two the singers would have a harder time tuning the harmony, because they can’t here the beating in the chord.
This is why the Singing in Tune posts on this website feature long-held chords. The longer you sustain a harmony, the better you will be able to tune it.
For a practical example:
A Harmony’s Length Impacts Singing in Tune: Does Duration Affect Melodies?
A harmony’s length definitely impacts singing in tune. Does it have the same impact on singing unaccompanied melodies?
Paul C. Greene found duration had no impact on the tuning when violins played without accompaniment:
Analyses of duration of tones in relation to interval extents showed that the length of measured tones had no systematic effect upon either the direction or the extent of variation of the played intervals from their theoretical values. (233, 235)
In short, the answer is no, the note length has no impact on tuning melodies. I have said it before, and I will say it again, melodies and harmonies tune differently.
Conclusion
Again, a note’s length does not affect tuning melodies, but a harmony’s length impacts singing in tune.
Like with vibrato, there’re two side to this:
- The quicker a chord gets played the less accuracy you need for it to be acceptable.
- The longer you hold a chord, the better you can get it in tune.
This is a good idea when practicing harmonizing, especially when singing the harmonies without vibrato.
© 2021 Geoffrey Keith
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