| Author |
Subject |
Gablety
Registered User
(3/25/01 5:33:37 pm)
Reply |
Tuning:
HELP!!!
I just started playing the cello a
few weeks ago, and I'm finding tuning so difficult, it's slowing
down my cello progress. It seems to take me some half-hour every
time I try to tune my cello; it's so hard to figure out if it's a
little bit too high or a little bit too low, and adjust it to just
the right pitch, even when I fugure out what note it actually is on
with the piano. And it's even worse if it's a huge quantity of, say
by a third or a fifth, like my A string tends to; I nned to use both
sorts of tuning, and even then I am never sure if it's just right,
especcially if it sounds awful with the next string. And the C
string, the lowest, is so low that it's really hard to tell what
note it's on at all unless I do use the piano. Tuning is taking so
long and becoming so tedious and difficult that by the time I'm
finishing tuning, I have no interest oenergy left to try to play or
practice. Can someone help me? Does anyone have any ideas on how to
tune quickly and easily, or just general help or advice? Thanks.
|
Ellen
G 
Registered User
(3/25/01 7:09:47 pm)
Reply |
Re:
Tuning: HELP!!!
It can be hard to tune with a piano
because the pitch of the note seems to change as the note fades. It
also requires you to keep moving your hand from the peg to the piano
key. If you have one of the metronomes with good tone generation, it
may help you match the pitch better because it is constant. You can
play it continuously while you turn the pegs until you hear a
matching of pitch. Sometimes when you are very close to the note it
is hard to tell whether you are sharp or flat. Once you are in the
range to use the fine tuners, just keep turning until the two sounds
-- cello and tone -- become one.
Secondly, tuning against
another note -- expecially fifths -- can be easier for some people
than trying to tune a single note in isolation. The only problem
with this, of course, is that you still need ONE right note to start
off with. So the hard part will be your A. Once you get that right,
try to play your D against your A. You may be surprised at the way
your ear is more sensitive to out-of-tune notes in a double stop or
chord.
This is something you may hate to spend lesson time
on, but if you are losing so much practice time to tuning, it will
be worth it to have someone devote some time to this endeavor. Good
luck!!! You will develop an ear for it. And I hope your pegs
cooperate. E
|
Len
Thompson
Registered User
(3/25/01 7:51:45 pm)
Reply |
Re:
Tuning: HELP!!!
One thing that I have found on
string instruments,( and from the sound of what you described with
your A string being way off) is that as you tune your A string for
instance, and then your D, your A may move, and so on as you tune
them all up.This has to do with pegs slipping slightly, as the
tension changes. Keep checking to make sure that the strings you
have already tuned are staying where they should. Otherwise when
your done, you will hear the flat notes from the strings that moved
on you, even though you tuned them properly. Of course, the better
the pegs, and tuners work, the less this type of error will be a
problem for you, if indeed this is what's happening. Just a
thought!
Len
|
jekerry
Registered User
(3/25/01 8:04:08 pm)
Reply |
Re:
Tuning: HELP!!!
I always hated tuning as well -- one
of my worst memories from childhood. Now I use an electronic tuner
-- it clips onto the bridge and has a little gauge that tells you if
you are low or flat. You have to first tune so you are close to the
right note, but after that it really helps. I love it! It has made
playing the cello so much more a joy and only cost about $30. Check
out Shar or SouthWest strings. I think I got mine from
Shar.
Here is a link to the one I bought: http://www.sharmusic.net/cgi-bin/sgin0106.exe?FNM=00&T1=ST50&UID=2001032520045852&UREQA=5&UREQB=6&UREQC=7
Here
is Shar's main link: www.sharmusic.net/home.htm
There
are also one's at all sorts of prices, but the $30 works fine for
me. My teacher almost never retunes my cello at my lessons so it
must be working.
Best,
Jane
|
cellochris99
Registered User
(3/26/01 4:27:06 am)
Reply |
pegs
Also, when your turning your peg to
tune up, make sure that you are pusing in as you turn so it'll
stick. If the pegs are slipping you can buy some peg
paste.
Chris
|
Markse
Registered User
(3/26/01 12:35:18 pm)
Reply |
Re:
Tuning: HELP!!!
The electronic tuner is a grea idea.
Why suffer? You'll find that tuning gets easier as you go along. The
low notes ARE harder to hear, but you'll get it. Something I picked
up when I played the electric bass was to feel the vibration of the
neck as you bring the string into tune. An in tune vibration feels
different than an out of tune one.
|
sarah
schenkman
Registered User
(3/26/01 1:11:00 pm)
Reply |
Re:
Tuning: HELP!!!
Your teacher should be helping you
get better at tuning. If you don't have a teacher you probably
should.
|
Gablety
Registered User
(3/27/01 11:34:48 pm)
Reply |
Thank
you everyone!!!! +TEACHERS!!!!!!
Thank you everyone so much for all
of your wonderful advice! I had my mother sit at the piano with the
pitchpipe and play. I would bow to that, then i would tell her what
note I thought it was, which we could find really quickly at the
piano. She could play the pitch-pipe continuously while i tuned! It
was only a little faster than when i normally tune it, but much more
pleasant and efficient. (She can play the pitch-pipe for stretches
of some forty-five seconds, having once been a professional singer.)
It would have been a little more efficient, though, if i had used
the coarse-tuning; I did use the fine-tuning since I didn't have to
pull out the peg, and since i both bow and fine-tune with my right
hand, I couldn't play and tune continuously, and it was that less
efficient, and my mother was wasting that much breath.
But
that got the cello tuned really accurately. Since then, I've just
tuned it myself, the normal way, with my right hand doing both the
fine-tuning, the bowing, and holding the pitchpipe. But since it was
tuned so accurately, it was much faster. Also, to make sure that the
fifths I like to play in rock arrangements would work, I also tuned
it in fifths. That was fairly fast, and it eliminated the dreaded
screeching fifths (and the feeling of powerlessness that comes with
the realization the the cello isn't tuned so well).
Thanks!
Sarah, i know i should get a teacher; your comment is
really my thoughts. (I knew i would get a comment like yours, only i
was hoping I'd get more of the comments like Ellen's.) Does anyone
know of any good teachers in the Boston area? Or maybe of a listing
of cello teachers there? Thanks!
|
DoDahlberg
Moderator
(3/28/01 5:00:04 am)
Reply |
Calling
Dr. Cello
Don't you have a list of teachers on
Cello Heaven?
Dorie
|
JanJan2
Registered User
(3/28/01 7:51:40 am)
Reply |
Re:
Thank you everyone!!!! +TEACHERS!!!!!!
E-mail me if you want to discuss
teachers in the Boston area. I know several.
Janet
|
drcello
Registered User
(3/28/01 11:41:02 am)
Reply | Edit
 |
Teachers database
There is a link to the teachers
database on Cello Heaven's front page.
http://www.celloheaven.com/
best
to all,
Marshall
Marshall C. St. John
drcello@mindspring.com
Cello Heaven
|
Email This To a Friend
Topic Commands
(Moderator only)
Music
Resources