All good points. I played flute at one time, and there were notes that had to be shoved around a bit, unless hidden in a fast passage, such as C sharp. And I'm told that french horn players use the hand in the bell as a tuning slide.
> And I'm told that french horn players use the hand in the bell as a tuning slide.
You can do this, since how far your hand is in the bell can determine pitch up to even a whole semitone or more (I forgot which way, though, but I think it goes flat as you shove your hand in further; it's been a few years since I've played French horn on any semblance of a routine basis, and I don't have one on hand (those things are damn expensive...)). However, this will also affect tone; the further you shove your hand in, the more muffled it'll sound.
French horn players usually opt for double-horns (F/B-flat) in order to avoid needing to use their bell-hands for tuning; since both "sides" (the F side and the B-flat side) of each rotor can be tuned independently of one another, it means that a skilled French horn player who's learned how to transpose F-keyed notes to B-flat-keyed fingerings (which is actually pretty easy if you already know how to play a bass-clef'd valved brass instrument like a baritone or euphonium or tuba, since F-key and bass-clef C-key have the same note positions on the staff, so you just need to be aware of various differences in accidentals and you can transpose very easily) can pick either an F-side fingering or a B-flat-side fingering for a given note depending on which one is closer to the desired pitch.
Yes. I played flute as a kid, and I remember C-sharp in particular as being troublesome. Today I play double bass, and of course intonation is a significant factor in technique. Also, good players will push the notes up and down for effect.
Maybe the flute's pitch could be decoded back into the required fingering combination. This way the player could treat each hole as an individual button. The actual notes might not all sound musical (or be properly distinguishable).
Good insight, but these variations are correlated with variations in pitch. It's a single note in the sense that it's always a C; not necessarily always the same octave.
> horns [...] can only play one note
A piece in bugle scale doesn't sound like one note to an average listener, nor does playing such an instrument feel like staying on one note. I'd rather compare this to a didgeridoo than a horn.
But if I concede that we don't need to adhere to lower grade music theory and that the performer will not use advanced techniques that can alter pitch without the use of a slide or valve, what argument could be made to support the "one note" claim?
To clarify what I'm looking for, here's an example of such an argument (but I don't know how much, if at all, it applies to actual fixed-length horn instruments): If the exact frequencies of a note's overtones deviate from a pure harmonic series, one could make a distinction between pitch-shifting a note and varying the timbre. I.e. playing the next note above the instrument's fundamental pitch doesn't multiply the individual frequencies by a constant factor, but repeats the exact frequencies of the fundamental's overtones, thus reordering the frequency ratios between adjacent overtones.
You partially cover the finger holes on a whistle, sort of rolling your fingers over them, or sliding them on or off the holes. It becomes second nature fairly quickly.
On a flute, you can do the same, but you can also bend the pitch a fair degree by changing the angle of the airstream across the aperture.
As far as I know it applies to both brass and woodwinds, though the degree of difficulty involved probably varies between types of instruments and also (at least on the woodwinds I'm familiar with) note to note.
> The fundamental pitch of a brass instrument, on the other hand, is considered to be the fundamental of the harmonic series it plays when no valves are being used.
For those who don't know how brass instruments work (and wonder how you can produce so many pitches with so little valves) this may sound a little confusing (a lot of people asked me, so I'll assume some people don't know).
I'll take a trumpet as an example, as it is the instrument I'm most familiar with.
First of all, you don't just blow air inside the instrument: you buzz your lips, as if you were making a sort of fart sound without using your tongue. Depending on the speed your lips vibrate at, you are able to make a series of pitches, which ones basically depend on the length of the instruments. The pitches you can make are part of an harmonic series, so basically (transposed from Bb) C, G, C, E, G and so on.
Pressing the valves changes the length of the tubing so you can lower the note you're playing by a half step (middle, or second, valve), one step (rear or first valve) or one and a half step (forward or third valve). So by combining them you can obtain all the other pitches you may need.
For example, suppose your lips are buzzing at a (written) G. You press the middle valve and get a F#, you press the first valve and you get an F, first and second (or just third) gives an E, second and third Eb, first and third D, all the valves Db, then you can vibrate your lips at a lower rate and release all the valves to get a C.
I play brass (trumpet) and was always warned on assuming the tuning was accurate; even with the perfect player using the perfect compensation on the relevant valves the lower notes are definitely iffy (they tend towards flat and the compensation slides can't push them sharp).
That perfect player is improbable though. On the lower notes I can bend them by in the order of a quarter tone without touching the valves. If I pick up the instrument on a cold day without first warming it, not just me, up then it will be probably a quarter tone or so flat for the first few minutes. If you leave it on your chair and come back to find someone's turned the heater on while you were away (happened to me before), it can easily be a semitone sharp, IF it's cool enough to hold in the first place!
I love my trumpet but it's one of the last instruments I'd use to illustrate really precise tuning.
My point was more about the tuning slides on a trumpet, and that it doesn’t have a “fixed tuning.” It’s almost like a trombone in a way: you can play any tone you want within a certain range by adjusting the slides.
(I do apologize if I came across poorly—I couldn’t think of another way to ask the question.)
Thanks for the insightful comment. I’ve often wondered how the triangle player can sit for a hundred measures and still hit that one note right on time. And the other stuff as well, but that one stood out.
i like the cut of your jib - But, really, i think this is a good illustration of what can be done with minimal notes. I've heard a few people complain about not having sharps/flats. It might take a little more work, but there's still a ton you can still do.
It also taught me that yes, i can play by ear just fine, but I am no good at transposing real time. that's tough.
It was all too easy for me to adjust the tuning of any particular note on my oboe, unfortunately usually in the wrong direction. The violin players in front of me, who had much better pitch recognition than me, would shoot me dirty looks and I'd get my pencil out to mark up the sheet music with arrows pointing up or down.
I hope this doesn’t come across as rude, but have you ever held a trumpet? Even if you’ve never played one, you can see they have adjustable tuning slides (a main one at the first bend, then a smaller one off each of the three valves). Maybe you’re thinking of a bugle? But any decent bugle player can bend notes up or down at least a little, probably to compensate for weather/temperature/etc.
Even if playing with a fixed-pitch instrument, it only really sounds out of tune if they're playing the same notes. Which in the styles I play isn't an issue.
So I guess how often this happens in practice varies between styles and eras of music, which would make sense to me. I haven't ever done early music and know nothing about it (other than trombones used to be designed terribly and we now know how to make better ones ;)
Source: Also have a postgrad in music, probably from one of the conservatories your spouse teaches at, and still play trombone professionally.
>by allowing the player to produce notes unbounded by discrete steps or subdivisions thereof, e.g. fretless string instruments and trombones
Then you have the problem that the player will himself be off, unwillingly, most of the time. Often more than the offsets of 12-tet to the "ideal" note.
Also I'd have them try setting the metronome to half speed so it counts the 2 and the 4. It forces you to internally feel the downbeat. Plus it's nice to switch things up during your practice session.
How you place your hands, bend your wrists, stretch your fingers and generally hold your instrument can greatly impact how you play it. Depending on the instrument, a simple bend of a wrist can lead you to consistently play out of tune, or make it hard for you to hit a specific note.
Even just touching strings in different ways can produce wildly different results; think playing a harmonic note on a bass guitar, which is how you get such a low-sounding instrument to play a high-pitched note. How you blow air through your horn can greatly change the timbre and mood of your music.
There are a lot more examples, and they are all difficult to correct if you aren't able to see what the musican is doing.
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