Success Music Studio

Tuning

 

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The archive contains posts about tuning instruments and vocals.

 

 

Instrument and Vocal Intonation

Are you frustrated that your guitar or synth chords sound out of tune? Do you want to sing in tune? Many of the following posts deal with how to retune guitars and synths so they sound better. Other posts deal with singing or playing in tune.

 

However, the tuning posts do not stop at the simple question of how to tune a guitar or a synth. They also look at the deeper questions of what does it mean to be in tune and how to tune better.

 

When musicians tune instruments, they bring the instruments’ notes into agreement with a cultural standard. The standard remains different for fixed pitch instruments, such as the piano, than for flexible pitch instruments, such as the voice.

 

In Western culture, equal temperament remains the standard for fixed pitch instruments. It allows the instrument to have a manageable number of notes. Also, all twelve scales remain usable.

 

However, the chords sound barely in tune. Therefore, many of the posts in the archive talk about how to tune instruments using Supplemented Equal Temperament (SET). SET is an enhanced version of equal temperament. Thus, chords sound better in SET than in equal temperament.

 

Flexible pitch instruments, such as the voice, violin, brass, and woodwind families, have the ability to adjust their pitch as they play. Consequently, many of the archive posts deal with vocal intonation. (Though any flexible pitch instrumentalist will benefit from the ear training.)

 

To help them achieve this, the singing posts have specially tuned sing-along songs that train vocalists to sing melodies and harmonies accurately.

 

© 2021 Geoffrey Keith

 

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Singing Schwa Vowels - Female Singer Performing

Singing Schwa Vowels

Do you have a hard time singing words like “lung,” “ton,” and “done” with a strong tone? Many vocalists find neutral vowels tricky to sing with good resonance. The most common neutral vowel in English is the schwa, which you can find in words like “the,” “a,” and “up.” Good vowel production remains a critical skill for vocalists. Vowels help with singing in tune and good vocal tone and resonance. All of these things revolve around how you perform your vowels. Read more to learn about singing schwa vowels. Estimated reading time 7 minutes.

Singing in Tune with Vowels - Light Painting - songwriting templates - Need Advice for Teaching a First Year High School Jazz Pianist

Singing in Tune with Vowels

Want to have better vocal tone? Want to sing in tune? Singing is all about the vowels. Vowels have a central role in singing, because the vowels impact your tone. Also, they impact how you tune when you harmonize. This happens when sound passes through the formants – the resonant folds in the vocal tract. The formants filter your voice’s harmonic overtones, which influences your harmonic intonation. Read more to learn about singing in tune with vowels. Estimated reading time 6 minutes.

The Flexibility in Supplemented Equal Temperament’s Theory - Guitarist and Keyboardists on Stage

Flexibility in Supplemented Equal Temperament’s Theory

Can Supplemented Equal Temperament help you coordinate your guitar and synth tunings so they sound good? A wide range of Supplemented Equal Temperament (SET) charts and preexisting EDOs (equal-division-of-the-octave tunings) can fit under the umbrella of SET. This gives you a lot of control over how you tune your guitars, ukuleles, banjos, and synths. This in turn will allow your whole ensemble to sound better in tune. Read more to learn about the flexibility in Supplemented Equal Temperament’s theory. Estimated reading time 5 minutes.