Success Music Studio

Tuning

 

music, low, electric bass

 

 

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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2112’s guitar tuning - Spaceship and wormhole

2112’s Guitar Tuning

Do you want to know how Alex Lifeson tunes his guitar in the sci-fi rock opera 2112? How does experience with playing the violin or viola impact how guitarists tunes? This space opera may be the only example of a guitarist’s tuning being included as part of the finished product. At the beginning of the section entitled Discovery the hero finds a guitar, then tunes and plays it. Read more to learn about 2112’s guitar tuning.
Estimated reading time 7 minutes.

Harmony is Tone Color - sheet music with color - Accurately Reading Musical Notes and the Colors of a Rainbow - Is Singing Solfege Helpful for Learning to Hear Intervals by Ear

Harmony is Tone Color

Do you want to sound like your favorite vocal artist? What exactly is harmony, and how does it affect singing in tune? Harmony is tone color, read more to learn how this fact impacts singing (or playing) in tune.
Estimated reading time 7 minutes.

supplemented equal temperament minor keys - two curved keyboards.jpg

How Supplemented Equal Temperament Minor Keys Work

Frustrated with your out of tune synth chords? Do you want your brass, woodwind, and string programs to sound better? It’s not only the program you select which controls how your synth sounds, the tuning has an impact as well. I created Supplemented Equal Temperament (SET) to produce chords that sound better in tune than equal temperament (the piano’s tuning). Read more to learn how SET minor keys work.
Estimated reading time 5 minutes.

singing shape note parallel minor - sheet music.jpg

Singing Shape Note Parallel Minor Melodies

Have you learned how to sightread relative minor melodies, but want to be able to sing parallel minor too? We’ve already learned about La based shape note solfege minor melodies. In this post, you’ll learn about Do based shape note solfege as well. Read more to find out about singing shape note parallel minor melodies. Estimated reading time 3 minutes.