Your ultimate guide to TUNING! | Team Recorder

How to TUNE on the recorder! Get ready... because here is your ultimate guide, with EVERYTHING you need to know!

00:53 Some basics
02:10 The theory of tuning systems
08:22 Difference tones and how to HEAR if you are in tune
13:48 How to tune a recorder group
16:38 How to tune with a keyboard
19:04 Some tips
22:00 Go home and cry

Chart that tells you which difference tone you can expect to hear:

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[matthewmatics]

It is great to see someone who respects that equal temperament is not the be all end all, since a lot of the classical repertoire was not written for it. A great example of this Sweelinck's Fantasia Chromatica, which really emphasizes the unevenness of quarter-comma meantone temperment, where it starts with a decending chromatic line as its main theme.

[RaddMann]

Piano player here. I have known about equal temperament for a long time but I assumed other instruments used it too. I really learned something here. I have a new respect for the versatility of the recorder. Also I used the knowledge from your breathing video and played a few hours last night and my recorder playing just went up to a new level. Thank you. I have always wanted to play recorder and make it sound the way it should. I’m on the right path thanks to you. Great work teaching us. Keep the videos coming.

[wbrucer]

Wonderful and helpful video!! One nerdy quibble. The beat frequency is not how many cents the two tones are away from unison. It is rather the difference between the frequencies of the two tones. That is, playing one tone at 440 Hz with another at 442 Hz will result in two beats per second. But they are almost 8 cents apart.

[AnnFBug]

After being a professional musician for 40 years, you taught me things I have never heard before tonight! Ah well, I'm one of those ignorant first study pianists, I'm afraid. And at music college I had recorder lessons but not enough to get onto nitty gritty subjects like this. So a thousand thank yous!

I have heard the 'difference' - and hated it - I thought there was something wrong with my ears!

So, 2 questions:
1. My Helder treble claims to have all its harmonics in tune. What does that mean??? I thought harmonics were always in tune with the fundamental by definition?

2. My 10 year old recorder pupil was criticised for being out of tune in grade 1 ABRSM (which I thought a bit unkind - how is a beginner to stay in tune while observing dynamics?). So my response is to get her using a tuner now that she's working towards grade 3. That's what my oboist daughter was taught to do. But you say no. Well how would you go about teaching a ten year old proper tuning? What I just heard was interesting to me, but maybe not a child…

[brbrofsvl]

One place where a tuner is really useful is when playing long tones, especially playing in a new instrument, to get a feel for how much you can vary on each pitch and what some of the tendencies are.

[wmewan]

Great summary Sarah. At the end of the day it explains how important it is to be totally "one" with each piece auditorially. "In tune" is ongoing and dynamic and "nearby" the place you're at in the music. Amazing that our brains can put the recorder exactly on pitch as temperament moves around.

[KycklingsoppaDeluxe]

Having been in quarantine for about 4 weeks the time came to take out my recorder and see if perhaps I could finally learn to play it. I've learned SO many things from your channel I wish I hade known when I was I child. Grade 1-3 we played the recorder in music class. Plastic, one piece german style recorders. For three years I remember glaring angrily at my teacher with her big hands who could reach the lower little duble-holes at the bottom. Less than one hour in and I've already learnt so much. I'm especially grateful of learning more about what things are down to me as a player and what might be related to the instrument. So thank you <3

[indigomachado]

I was literally practicing long tones while staring my phone’s tuner app before I got here haha. I knew there had to be more to it! Thank you Sarah!

[minialice]

A few years ago I read this book by Isacoff : "Temperament: How Music Became a Battleground for the Great Minds of Western Civilization". It's about the history of temperament and the philosophical fights on it. Very interesting!

[kharmaviv]

I did not understand much the first time I saw this. How do you tune a recorder? As I continued playing and practicing, (months later) with the help of your videos, I understand it now. It feels good to finally get it. Thank you for these in depth videos too. 💕

[plebia]

Finally someone who got the question of temperaments right and explains it correctly and still simply! Most of teachers in music schools just ignore it and come with built up (simplified and wrong) theories stating that the comma is the 9th of a tone, while it is the resulting error of tuning in a certain way (as explained by Sarah taking as example tuning by going up in just thirds does not reach the octave but something higher and the difference to the just octave is the comma). I particularly found the explanations on how to practically put the theory into practice very useful. Congrats for this unique in its genre video, Sarah: a daring choice of subject, handled in a clear, sensible, and helpful way!

[fredrickmurillo]

When I graduated from conservatory I realized that the more I learned about music the less I seemed to know about it all. I mean the more I realized how much there was to learn the less I seemed to know. I've never heard of so much of the stuff you were talking about! That was a really informative video.


I didn't understand everything, but, my goodness, listening to you and watching your facial expressions is so much fun!

[scathatch]

Fascinating. Not only re the importance of tuning and the flexibility of recorders re tuning, but also on the nature of pitch and the relationship of harmonics to pitch.

[ximenavenero]

Wow! It's great to listen to all you have said, specially when you play with a lot of modern instruments that do play looking the tuner or say that you are always out of tune because the fifths are the ones who match with de keyboards or piano and no the pure ones.... Thank youuu!!! I was the first recorder player graduated from the conservatory... so you can imagine how was all around.

[ThisCanBePronounced]

I came here expecting to hear how to tune the recorder. Instead, I think I learned it's all about tuning yourSELF, and your own blown air.

[tomcantrell]

Great practical explaination !
I bought a plastic alto Woodnote from someone on Craigslist not knowing anything about it (or anything about or music in general). I was just tired of my son's $5 school soprano and wanted something less piercing.

But I've had a heck of a time trying to play with any the piano or recorded piece. First I thought is was me, then I thought maybe I bought a cheap recorder then I thought maybe I bought a baroque recorder (415 hz). Now I know it really is just me. Which is great ! Now I can do something about it and keep my lovely recorder !
So much to learn !
Thank you Sarah. 😊

[tom_something]

This is really helpful. I've been playing along with your other videos, and I kept hearing horrible beats when I tried to play in unison. So then I brought out my tuner, and I couldn't get the needle to hold still. So then I was adjusting _both_ joints on my recorder to get my recorder in tune throughout its range (like adjusting the intonation on a guitar), all the while wondering if maybe the reason the pitch varies so much with my breath is because I did happen to purchase one of the least expensive recorders I could find.

But as it turns out, the simple solution is that _I_ need to get better.

[rfw]

Stuart Isacoff's 'Temperament' book has been mentioned. He appears to favour ET but there are twists and turns to his account. It is worth a read for sure.
Others though are equally interesting. Ross Duffin's 'How Equal Temperament Ruined harmony (and why you should care)' is a nice argument through the different historical attempts to solve the issue and questions whether ET really was adopted by performers despite the hype from the 19th century (he examines old recordings, for instance.)
A third book is Kyle Gann's 'The Arithmetic of Listening' which give the means of calculating the frequencies, intervals, cents, ratios, etc before looking at the history of the issue.
Glad to hear such a good account of an essential subject. The difficulty of all this is actually hearing these tunings. I wonder if Pythagoras (or any actual historical person) had the means to hear and examine sound ratios or if it was largely theoretical, at least for a long while. When did musicians become aware of the actual practical difficulties of tuning?

[ralphkruger]

Wow! My original question was whether a tin whistle or recorder would have more accurate intonation right out of the box. What a stupid question. I had no idea recorders had such flexibility in tuning. Makes my fiddle seem easy by comparison, no need for breath control. Excellent video. One of the best explanations of different systems of tuning I've heard. And the suggestions how to train one's ear also excellent.

[Machodave]

Technically this can work with string instruments, since we have an "infinite" area to place our fingers on the string. Which is why intonation on string instruments like the violin, viola, and cello (for instance) is hard to learn and is very important.