Ahhh...tuning.
The tricky process that nearly all musicians experience. A mysterious concept to many, especially those without musical talent who find themselves captivated by live musicians tuning before a show, tuning is vital to creating music.
But how does it work? What does it mean to tune something?
Tuning is defined by the almightly Wikipedia as being the process of adjusting the pitch of one or many tones from musical instruments to establish typical intervals between these tones.
When an instrument or string is out of tune, it can produce a funky sound that can inhibit your ability to play a song well. A tuner measures the pitch of a note.
A pitch is defined as the highness or lowness of a musical note. Musical notes are usually measured in Hertz and a Hertz is the SI unit of a frequency.
Thankfully, you won't have to worry directly about the Hertz of a note while you're tuning because a tuner takes care of measuring those sounds for you. We measure the difference in notes with semitones, which is a half-step up or down in the pitch of a note. The pitch of a note will either one of three things: sharp, flat, or, of course, in tune. Here's what that means:
Sharp
When a note is sharp, it is one semitone above what it should be.
Flat
When a note is flat, it is one semitone below what it should be.
In Tune
When the soundwaves of a pitch produce an exact musical value.
Remember that perfect pitch I mentioned earlier? Well, perfect pitch is the rare ability for a person to identify the pitch of a musical note without the help of a tuner. People with perfect pitch can hear a note once, even for a split second, and know what that note is. They can often perfectly recreate it on another instrument, which is referred to as relative pitch.
Both perfect pitch and relative pitch are suggested to be genetic, but studies have shown that adults can be taught perfect and relative pitch with enough practice.
I know I just threw a lot at you, so let's summarize before I send you into the world tuner shopping.
| Term |
Definition |
| Pitch |
The quality of sound that is produced from the vibrations of an instrument |
| Hertz |
The SI unit of frequency |
| Tuning |
The action of bringing a pitch to its absolute value |
| Sharp |
Refers to a sound that is a semitone above the intended value |
| Flat |
Refers to a sound that is a semitone below the intended value |
| In Tune |
When a note matches its absolute value |
| Perfect Pitch |
The ability to recognize the pitch of a heard sound |
| Relative Pitch |
The ability to re-create a heard sound perfectly |
Make sure you reference this for the test at the end.
Tayler (28)
