Intonation Repair Tool

As we all know, intonation can be a challenging skill to develop. When I was in high school and college (and not yet diligent enough to record myself), the only tool I had for checking my intonation was a tuner. At one lesson, I was emphatically informed that I needed to get the kind of tuner that played drone pitches, so I would have something to practice against. I did so right away, but it wasn’t a perfect solution. Hand-held tuners that play back notes are often not loud enough for trombonists, and practicing with a drone doesn’t directly help unaccompanied melodic intonation.

The concept behind that teacher’s advice, however, is simple and correct: find a way to practice intonation with your ears, not your eyes.

In recent years, several products have been developed to allow players to do just that. There are now a number of intonation systems on the market that come with play-a-long CDs and music, and I am fortunate enough to have edited the text for one of them.

Intonation Repair Tool, by Tom Kociela, has a unique and effective approach for developing melodic intonation skills: you play each note of a scale before the CD enters. This beats simply playing along with a recorded scale because you must place each note as a soloist, without a crutch. When the CD plays, you will immediately recognize whether or not you have placed your note correctly. The scales on the CD utilize Pythagorean Tuning.

For harmonic intonation, Intonation Repair Tool uses Just Intonation. After the CD builds chords and asks you to join in, it drops the chord tone you are playing, leaving you on a well-tuned root, third, fifth, or seventh.

Any description of a product like this falls short of giving the reader the experience. I have tried several of its peers and I recommend Intonation Repair Tool above them all. For more information, go to Tom Kociela’s web site: http://www.oocities.org/irtconnection/IRT.html.

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