Getting Chords in Tune

  Going off yesterday's post about working intonation with a drone pitch I thought it would be good to address the issue of tuning chords. Even if we center the needle for a certain note; if we don't actively use our ears to tune with an ensemble then playing exactly in tune with the tuner doesn't matter. Every interval has its own tendencies that are corrected by either adjusting the pitches sharper or flatter.

How do we know what all these different tendencies are?

  Below is a chart that the director of the wind symphony gave us. It gives most the chords that you would encounter in Western music with the amounts, in cents, that each note needs to be adjusted to sound in tune with that chord. If you want to print this out it's a great tool to keep in your folder during rehearsals to make sure everyone is on the same page about intonation.

  A few interval rules that are very common and worth memorizing are...

• The root always needs to be right in the center and very steady so that everyone can easily tune to it.
• The perfect fifth is almost in tune, but will sound just a bit flat is played right in the center. You shouldn't concentrate on raising it 2 cents, or else it'll probably become too high. Instead, just listen for the root and try to get the perfect fifth to ring in tune with it.
• When dealing with a major triad the major third will be too high, so you need to  bring this down so it'll ring with the root. This because the minor third in a chord  compresses. That means that to re-expand this interval you need to lower the major third 14 cents to get the interval to lock in.
• In a minor triad the same compression occurs with the minor third. To re-expand this interval and get it in tune you need to raise the minor third 16 cents.