Advantages and Disadvantages of Improving Your Sense of Intonation

The other day I was thinking about the advantages of improving your sense of intonation, the ability to hear and respond to pitch fluctuations, and it occurred to me that there were also some disadvantages (yes, I said disadvantages) that go along with it. Here is my list of 5 advantages followed by my listContinue reading “Advantages and Disadvantages of Improving Your Sense of Intonation”

Intonation Naivete; Be Kind to Your Listener’s Ears

  When I was young and naïve, I liked to program unaccompanied pieces, because I thought that I didn’t have to pay as much attention to intonation. If there was no other instrument to compare my pitch to, nobody would notice if I was a little (or a lot!!) flat on the low notes orContinue reading “Intonation Naivete; Be Kind to Your Listener’s Ears”

Intonation in Action Exercise

In my mission to help people improve their intonation, I’ve had to come up with exercises that people can do in their own practice. Once I’ve convinced players that notes need to be adjusted according to their context in the music, regardless of what any tuner’s meter says, it helps to have exercises to backContinue reading “Intonation in Action Exercise”

Intonation in Action Coming Up!

It has been forever since my last post, but I have been productive in the meantime and more will be appearing here. I’m conducting two flute choirs now and the orchestra I play in has started up again, so I’ve been trying to balance all that while not overextending myself TOO much. So, the FloridaContinue reading “Intonation in Action Coming Up!”

Intonation in Action at the Florida Flute Fair 2014

Yay! My proposal to present at the 2014 Florida Flute Fair has been accepted so I will be presenting a workshop on Intonation in Action. I will also conducting my flute choir, the Tampa Bay Flute Choir, at this year’s event, so I will be busy in January! The workshop will involve audience members inContinue reading “Intonation in Action at the Florida Flute Fair 2014”

More about Difference Tones and the Flute, and about Wil Offermans at NFA

I was doing some research on difference tones, looking for more ways to use them in the flute choir and in my intonation studies, and Googled “difference tone duets.” I got one(!) exact result which led me to this webpage, www.forthecontemporaryflutist.com/etude/etude-03.html. It is from a website by one of my favorite flutists and teachers, WilContinue reading “More about Difference Tones and the Flute, and about Wil Offermans at NFA”

Introducing Difference Tones to the Flute Choir

I am always looking for more effective ways to enable the flute choir that I conduct to play in tune. In the past I had used warmup exercises that focus on ensemble intonation, but at the beginning of this year’s rehearsal season, I tried to use sections of pieces to do the same thing. ThisContinue reading “Introducing Difference Tones to the Flute Choir”

Tuners, Tuners, Everywhere!

It has been a long time since I bought my current tuner (a Seiko Chromatic Auto-Tuner) so I thought I would browse around and see what’s available now. I found lots of tuners and a large range of prices. Unfortunately, what I see most are tuners that only read pitches, without an internal tone generatorContinue reading “Tuners, Tuners, Everywhere!”

‘How to Practice With an Electronic Tuner’ is Ready!

Improving Intonation Skills Book 1: How to Practice with an Electronic Tuner is ready to go! I delayed launching because the delivery program I was trying to use wasn’t working the way I wanted it to, I can’t tell you how much time I have spent trying to figure out why files aren’t linking orContinue reading “‘How to Practice With an Electronic Tuner’ is Ready!”

Update on Intonation Book

Well, the book is ready, but I’m experiencing some delays getting the payment and delivery process perfected, so unless I figure it out tonight, it may be a few more days before it is ready. In the meantime, here is another preview of what you will find in the book. LESSON 4: DON’T STRETCH THEContinue reading “Update on Intonation Book”