[raboof]

Everyone in a band/orchestra knows it's important to play in tune - and that that means 'in tune with the rest', not 'at 442Hz'. I was looking for ways to practice and get better at 'finding' the right pitch.

Practicing long tones with a tuner is of course a great start, but that doesn't help listening and 'finding' the others' pitch.

I made a small game to practice this. It is played without an instrument (to really focus on the pitch and not the rest of your technique), on your phone, tablet or PC. The game plays a tone, and you can move your finger (or mouse cursor) over the screen to get 'your' tone closer to it. When you've found the target pitch, keep it for a few seconds and you'll get the next one.

You can find it at: Pitch Match Ear Trainer

Of course I'd love to hear what you think and if this helps you!

 

[Grumps]

You can also just put on music that you enjoy, and try playing along. Will help you improvise as well.

 

[datsaxman]

I expect this only works for instrumental playing improvement if you are playing the instrument.

 

[raboof]

You can also just put on music that you enjoy, and try playing along. Will help you improvise as well.

I love doing that as well!

With this exercise I wanted to focus on the pitch finding, though: when playing along there can be a lot "going on" and I might hear "something seems off", but not be sure in which direction to compensate. My hope is by improving my ear with this exercise, it'll help me to better hear what to do while playing.

 

[datsaxman]

Play along with ballads then. Doing static exercises is of very little value IRL when you are playing actual songs with actual musicians I think.

 

[lesacks]

I probably have the worst ears of anyone on SOTW. And have to work on them daily.
Stuff that seems to help is; long tones with TE tuner which can play back the note closest to what it detects (using headphones, not looking at the dial), playing with étude demo tracks as well as backing tracks.
All these things close the loop between hearing, playing, voicing etc... I'm not so sure where dragging a finger on a screen fits in - although it's neat bit of coding! Still, what ever works!

 

[eyeabee]

If you are looking to work on your perception of tuning without worrying about your instrumental technique I would suggest singing as a more useful exercise than dragging your finger across a screen - sing along with some ballads, random notes from the piano or whatever! Then try doing the same with your instrument.

 

[saxoclese]

Playing in tune in an ensemble involves listening and matching pitch with octaves and unisons, tuning out "beats" with 4ths and 5ths and making the other intervals 3rds, 6ths, 7ths sound right. An exercise that helps to develop the facility to "humor" the pitch up or down and to hear the relationships between notes is to play a unison with another player or fixed pitch instrument. First you lip your note above the other pitch, then lip it below, and finally lip the note to perfectly match the other pitch. When this is done well, it is hard to distinguish whether there is one or two instruments playing---especially if you match not only the pitch, but the timbre, and dynamic level as well. Playing all of the notes of a scale against a fixed pitch drone is a good way to hear and tune all of the intervals.