Tuning

Electronic tuning machines and computer tuning-programmes

Nowadays there are people who use these gadgets to tune their acoustic instruments, often saying that the gadgets are fun, that they’re quick and easy to use, and that they give a sense of security and reliability. That's OK as far as it goes, I understand it can be a practical compromise in some difficult situations, and I give some advantages here: but there is a much better alternative which goes much further, which I will deal with here as soon as these movies are done.

Of course everyone can and will do whatever they like, but I won't be dealing with these here because this to me is an rank abuse of technology, science gone crazy, and a complete misunderstanding of the essential nature of both the musical experience and of the proper value of technology in a human society.

To me, using tuning machines and computer programmes to tune an acoustic instrument means that you've thrown out the authentic experience of your own music: that you've chosen

  • reliance on someone else's standard of judgement instead of your own
  • doing something because someone else says it's right instead of enjoying it because you know it's good and right for you
  • a sound produced by a machine instead of a natural human sound, or a sign of approval given by a machine instead of by a human
  • testing by what you see with your eyes instead of what you hear with your ears
  • pleasing your thinking brain instead of your feelings.

Even in the theoretical world in which these machines are developed, it's not certain that the values are 'right', at least in the context of historical music, because the renaissance and baroque musicians who taught how to tune didn't think or listen to the intervals in the same way as today's gadget-makers and acoustical physicists do. There are plenty of experiments which suggest that human ears are not pleased by listening to instruments that are electronically 'correct'.

If you're playing for machines to listen to, then by all means use a machine to get the sound right; me, I play for human people, and the job is to satisfy human ears and feelings.

Kjell Persson, guitar- and ensemble-teacher in Kalmar, southern Sweden, writes:

I use electronic tuners to tune electrical instruments in noisy surroundings where it wouldn't otherwise be possible without causing disturbance or taking too much time from the lesson.

In my guitar lessons I never use them, though I find that tuning takes up an awful long time from the lesson: but I do use them in ensemble sessions where there are maybe six or eight people who can't immediately hear if they need to bring it up or down or not at all.

I usually ask students to use tuning-forks, pipes or another instrument with fixed tuning to practice on when they are on their own: if they want to use a machine, I ask them to use it together with their ears to confirm what they believe they hear. Often they play on very ill-tuned instruments and can only hear that 'something doesn't sound right' but without knowing what to do to correct it. If they didn't use the machine, they would either have to wait up to a week till they see me, or get a music shop to do it if it's not too embarrassing.

Then I think it's better that they can experiment on their own and learn by experience, even if it's means them paying $3 to replace a broken string each time.