We’ve all experienced it. You’ve felt the frustration that comes when the violas missed the C sharp yet again, even though you’ve gone over it at least a dozen times. You’ve cringed through those elementary or middle school concerts – or even high school concerts – where they are so out of tune that the tune they’re playing is barely recognizable. You’ve heard that unison section that sounds more like polytonality than unison. We’ve all been there. Just google “intonation pain scale.”
The good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way. We can do something about it. If you have an orchestra that can’t seem to hear the difference between F natural and F sharp, don’t despair! It takes time, but even the students who seem most oblivious to intonation can improve and develop a good ear.
For the next few blog posts, I’ll be writing a series on how to teach your students to play in tune. We’ll go through everything step by step, with lots of exercises that you can use with your students as daily warmups to get them to the point where they can start fixing their own intonation problems before you even have to bring it up. To begin with, let’s discuss some keys to successfully teaching intonation.
Help students experience “good intonation” as often as possible.
“Good intonation” is actually very subjective. It changes depending on the context of the music, the style and genre, the instrumentation, and even the cultural context. Listen to a mariachi band, a Polynesian choir, or an Asian folk music ensemble. They all have very different concepts of what “good intonation” is. Even within classical Western music, we alternate between equal temperament, just, and Pythagorean tuning. Professional string players will use multiple tuning systems within a single phrase of music! (For an excellent demonstration of this, watch this video.)
No wonder students play out of tune. No one is born knowing what “in tune” is. We learn by experiencing combinations of sound, both through listening to music and playing music. Eventually we learn what sound combinations are acceptable and which ones aren’t.
If we want our students to play in tune, we have to allow them to experience “in tune” playing. We need to listen to a lot of music with our students and discuss the sound they hear. We need to do exercises where they get lots of practice creating and recreating sounds on their instruments. We need to set up situations where they can play “in tune” and experience what that sounds and feels like.
Teach intonation both aurally and kinesthetically.
We often treat intonation problems as if it were just a matter of better ear training. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard a conductor yell “LISTEN!!” at an ensemble when they play out of tune, as if just listening harder would fix the problem. While listening does solve a lot of intonation problems, many intonation problems come from the physical aspect of playing.
Ear training is, of course, critical to good intonation. Students can’t play in tune if they don’t know what “in tune” is. We should make ear training a priority and spend time teaching students how to listen and what to listen for.
We also need to spend just as much time (if not more) teaching students how to make the physical adjustments needed to play in tune. We need to teach students to hold the instrument correctly, to set up the right hand frame, to make small adjustments in their finger position, etc. Without that, students will never be able to recreate the sounds they hear in their heads.
Individually teach and assess intonation.
We often address intonation problems by section. “Violas, you’re too low on that F sharp.” “Cellos, your B isn’t quite high enough.” Within that section, however, every student is probably playing a slightly different pitch. Some of them will be flat, although not all to the same degree. Some of them might actually be right in tune. There might even be one or two students who are actually playing sharp. Telling the whole section to play the note higher won’t fix the problem. It will just move the problem up a few cents. Besides that, the students probably don’t know how much of an adjustment they need to make. They will likely overcorrect, creating a different intonation problem.
Intonation has to be addressed individually. This can be daunting, especially if you have a large class, but there is no other way of making sure that every student plays in tune. Students need individualized feedback on what pitch they played and how to adjust it. They need to know what their own personal intonation tendencies are.
This individualized approach has to begin with tuning their instruments and continue throughout any exercises you do with them, all the way to fixing individual notes in a piece of music. You can incorporate ways of individualizing your instruction without sacrificing time playing as a group. It just takes a little creativity. The benefits you will reap far outweigh the time costs anyway.
Start today and make it a daily part of your lessons.
If you’re struggling with an ensemble that just can’t seem to play in tune, start teaching intonation today. The sooner you start, the better. Don’t know where to start or what to do? Start by listening to recordings. Pull out a tuner and have individual students see how sharp or flat they are on a note. Something is better than nothing.
And stay tuned. I’ll have a lot more intonation posts coming your way soon.