Musical Practice and Performance Stack Exchange
Musical Practice and Performance Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [tuning]

The system of pitches used by an instrument or in a piece of music, or the practice of adjusting the pitches that instruments or voices produce to be in accordance with the chosen system. When relevant, please also include the tag of your instruments, e.g. [guitar] or [violin].

The system of pitches used by an instrument or in a piece of music, or the practice of adjusting the pitches that instruments or voices produce to be in accordance with the chosen system.

When relevant, please also include the tag of your instruments, e.g. or .

605 questions
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Why is A4 the standard pitch reference for tuning?

Why do musicians use concert A, the A above middle C, as the standard pitch reference for tuning? Various national and international standards define the frequency of this note. For example, ISO 16 specifies that musical instruments should be tuned…
Bradd Szonye
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How did musicians do "absolute" tuning in the Middle Ages?

There are essentially two ways to tune an instrument (that is tuneable): you can assume that one of the pitches it makes is in tune and then tune the rest of the instrument to the pitch that is in tune OR you can tune all that is tuneable to an…
Henry
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How Do I Change My Guitar Tuning?

I'm new to guitar. I don’t really understand the tuning and its relationship with music notes. Can someone explain how I can get my guitar tuning to F, Bb, D, F, Bb, F (Capo on 1).
DMT92
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Inharmonicity between upper partials

Does anyone know whether the inharmonicity in an interval between upper partials is expected to be greater or lesser than the inharmonicity in same interval between a fundamental and a partial? Here's an example. Suppose I tune A4 on a piano to…
cruthers
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How do people recognise the frequency of a played note?

How can people be sure that the A4 note of a Piano is 440Hz? I'm asking in a more practical/physical way. As far as I know, any notes on the keyboard are made of different frequencies, so A4 isn't made by 440Hz alone (if it does make up the…
Germaniac
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Does just intonation work for any given key, or is it impractical even for a work in a single key?

According to my understanding any non-chorded instrument, like a string instrument or horn, can use a just intonation, so the problem only arises with chorded instruments like pianos. So, for example, in a symphony that does not have a piano I…
Tyler Durden
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How do musicians perceive differences in tuning systems?

I understand generally interval tunings can be perceived through the "beating" phenomena. But that seems to be something that can only be heard in a testing context. Like playing two sine waves in a lab. In a real music performance I imagine it's…
Michael Curtis
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What is Concert Pitch

Could someone provide a simple (for beginners) answer to the question, "What is concert pitch?" I understand that different brass and reed instruments play at different pitches and that a C played on one is not necessarily a C played on another. I…
Terry Yount
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Tuning fork v Tablet

I have a tuning fork and a tuning app on my tablet. I am interested to know which to trust. The tuning fork is old. It was my father's (for his violin) and hence is probably from the 1930s at the latest (maybe older if it was second hand or from…
badjohn
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Reference tuning pitch

I was having problems with my bass guitars, fender JB and P bass and an epiphone viola. After several trips to my local music store, the instruments were checked and I was told they were in tune. They all checked out on the electronic tuning…
Jack Glabere
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Why is equal temperament based on n-th root of 2?

Why is Equal temperament based on defining the smallest ratio as the n-th root of 2, 2^(1/n). Or how did someone arrive at conclusion, that he/she/they must use 2? Is it because A5 is A4*2?
sillyquestion
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How to tune a rawap?

I recently picked up a rawap listed on a local classified website as a mandolin. It's relatively short, about 60cm, and has 4 strings, which makes me wonder how do I tune it? 5 string rawap is tuned а-е-a. On this video, the lowest note seems G but…
Ilya
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When would you want to play with guitars out of the same tuning?

I've been a drummer for 30 years, and have played with countless other musicians, most of them string players. I will notice when playing with multiple guitarists, or a guitarist and a bassist, that they will tune to the same tuning. Are there…
Jason P Sallinger
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Harmonic series in the orchestra settings

In an orchestra scenario, under what circumstances, when the piano and violins are tuned to 440Hz (as shown on the tuner) together, will the harmonic series between the two differs and make the sound produced less harmonious?
Vehrnesto
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Do all tuning systems involving dividing the octave?

Four commonly referenced Western tuning systems are Pythagorean tuning, just intonation, equal temperament, and meantone temperament. From Music, Language, and the Brain, I recently learned there are a wide diversity of tunings that do not follow…
Stan Shunpike
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