Reference Points for Intonation

http://www.urbbob.com/gale.html

It will give you a Ballpark idea. I dont anything helps as much as Scales over and over and over and....well you get the idea. I got this from All Hail Bobs site.

Dave

 

If I'm getting ready for an entrance in half or first position, I always touch the nut with my index finger first as a reference. I don't need to do it, but I think at this point its an ingrained behavior.

I think it's been addressed in another thread, but Meyer's neck dots mark the position of the harmonics rather than the stopped notes.

 

here you go..

how about 1st position, shouldn't be too hard, you can check fifths across open strings, d to a c to g etc, across all stings.

from c to d on the g string, I'll go with chris on letting your palm hit the crook in the neck ( which can usually be used to get a d out, regardless of the e-flat or d neck and whatever it is you think you have.

then your thumb in that crook, you can get d with your first finger, e with 4th, pivoting up to g with third finger, and beyond depending on hand size.

then your octave harmonic can be the reference for your 1st thumb position up to d if you open up your hand, but also 1st finger a 2 b 3 c, getting half steps off of those.

then your d harmonic will get the rest, similar method, if you want to compress things, you can use the thumb on the next g harmonic, especially when playing harmonic passages.


Once you get a real solid base in these reference points, then you can relate other seemingly unrelated things to them and the whole thing gets a lot easier to understand. basically 5 positions gets you to the end of your fingerboard.

Thank you Mr. Rabbath

 

imo, the biggest key to intonation has to do with listening and hearing intervals and feeling vibrations. I've spent quite a bit of time reading, singing and playing intervals, and have found that it helps a lot. Also, try working on pitch exercises, trying to be able to sing various pitches in tune without a reference. One thing that helped both of these quite a bit was a class I took about sight singing and ear training. Basically they teach you to pick up a piece of music and sing it without any reference or accompaniment.I think also that after a certain amount of time playing a particular instrument you get to know where the notes are in relation to each other, and also how the instrument feels when notes are in tune.

 

yes of course you have to hear that your intonation is wrong, at which point you are late and have to slide to the correct pitch. You need to feel where these things are, and while hearing is of utmost importantance, so is your kinesthetic sense of where the notes are.

In other words, you have to hear well enough to get it in tune, and then feel what it feels like to be in tune, and remember that. sliding into notes is not always a good option. While both are important, I feel the kinesthetic approach is perhaps more accurate to begin the note in tune, where listening is more accurate in ending the note in tune....

 

Practice, practice, practice, and more practice.....

 

Really, you can do whatever you want...put frets on, put dots on the fingerboard to show where the in-tune notes are, install a Schick Center style shocking device to let you know when you're playing out of tune, etc.

You're still going to have to practice and let your body eventually figure out how to deliver what you're looking for here, just like Edgar Meyer had to.

 

shock therapy...hmm....good idea

 

Eventually one gets faster and faster at sliding to the correct pitch, the essence of intonation. The more you play and the more you focus on your intonation the more your muscle memory and your ear develops allowing you to play in tune more often than not. I find it easier to play in tune when I'm playing with other instruments or if I have a crystal clear hearing of what I'm supposed to be playing.

 

Ouch...watch that vibrato!

 

Well, Phil I think you need to put your finger down close enough so that when you make your micro adjustment it is not noticeable, don't want any fast glissandos anywhere in my playing.

 

Double-bass: Manually-operated variable pitch-approximator

 

I can hear the introduction on the stand:

"Ladies and Gentlemen, on bass, the Inadvertent Microtonalist with the Manually-operated variable pitch-approximator, Samuel."

...followed by the sound of polite applause and much head-scratching.

 

They're just jealous 'cuz the voices are talking to me and not them.

 

I thought that was what I said. When we're playing in tune, we're doing a lot of fast glisaandos, so fast, they're imperceptible to all but the most highly trained ears.