Six Tactics to Improve Intonation

Your ear is the final judge, but it
doesn't hurt to have one of these
on the stand.

Greetings!

One of the most illusive pursuits is that of ensemble intonation. There were at least a handful of things that helped us and continue to help us improve in that regard. When the year started, all my band knew about tuning your instrument was that the previous director marked all of the slides etc. where they were supposed to be set, and if you left it there it meant you were in tune. Can you believe that? So we practically started from scratch. I doubt I'll get through everything in one post (entire books are available on the subject), but here are a few key tactics that I think got us on the right track.

First and Foremost, Believe They Can Do It

This might sound odd, but it was something one of my mentors told me that stuck. The intonation with his bands, regardless of grade level, has always been near flawless, like a top tier collegiate band. When I asked him about this, his response was (and I'm paraphrasing), "Well, first of all, you have to believe they can do it. I don't want to make it sound overly simple, but a lot of teachers will work on intonation and get it to where it sounds pretty good, and then stop. You have to know that they can play perfectly in tune."

Work on Tone Quality... Every Day

During marching season, it was long tones. Once concert season started, I was using chord exercises that typically involved whole note rhythms. 

Oddly enough, during marching season, I was listening more for alignment and telling them to move fast air, but often times said little to nothing to coach them towards better sounds. It's strange what you forget to do sometimes. Then I watched Throckmorton, a Class A Six Man Football school at the State Marching Contest, and during their warm up time I heard the director say "...warm air...". I thought to myself, "Wow, as many times as I've heard this, I've not said it once to my band this year." 

Now I make comments or do something every day to promote improvement on tone quality. If it doesn't sound as good as it did in the last rehearsal, we do some breathing and/or buzzing. I'll walk around and point to people's feet or motion for them to lift their instruments up. I'll tap clarinet/sax mouthpieces on the side to see if the students are using a firm embouchure. I'll remind them to use fast, warm air and occasionally change how I say it in hopes that something will click. 

At a clinic the year, the clinician commented on weak tone qualities at soft dynamics. He had the 1st Chair clarinet player play forte, then decrescendo down to piano and drew everyone's attention to the change in quality. He coached her on pushing equally fast air, and had her do this a few times until there was notable improvement. Occasionally doing something like this can also be a good reminder for the students. 

Regardless of how you do it, do something every day and make sure you're actively coaching them.

Teach Them to Tune Their Instrument

Some teachers feel that you don't really have to play a tuning note. Instead you could just play a chorale and teach them to listen and match during that time, and that over time they will learn how to make it sound pretty. I'll say that with that approach, a poor band can improve. But I also think this leads to a ceiling. Students need to have time to get their instruments in tune with each other, and they also need to be taught how to do that, and what to listen for. In my mind, this is the first step towards learning how to play lines in tune. If you can't play the tuning note with straight line tuning, how on earth will you do it when playing music?

I won't go into detail here, because I've already written about it in my post, How to Teach Intonation to Beginners.

Chord Exercises & Chorales

I believe chord exercises have been one of the biggest contributing factors in improving the overall intonation of the band this year. I use Ed Lisk's method from The Creative Director: Alternative Rehearsal Techniques series, but I'm sure any chord exercise would help as long as they focus more on listening than reading. We started with with playing all 12 perfect 5th intervals, then when that sounded pretty we moved on to all 12 Major Chords, then Minor Chords, Dominant 7 Chords, and only occasionally worked on other 7th chords when I found one that was giving us trouble in the music. It was always with the reminder that their job was to focus on playing with a great tone, matching intonation with those in their group (their section and other sections sharing their pitch), and playing within the Pyramid of Sound. The limitation of this is that it's not real music, so you have to work to transfer the concept. I didn't mind so much, though. If a chord was giving us trouble, most times I could say, "This is just a "insert type" of chord. Play it and hold it." They had a solid reference for what those sounded like and just that was usually enough to make it sound nice. 

Chorales are also very useful, but again they have to get to the point in playing it where they can focus more on listening than reading. It has the added benefit of teaching them to listen for the moving line. The disadvantage is that getting good at a chorale only really improves their intonation in one key. To remedy this, many directors use a hand full of chorales in various keys. 

Either way, balance, blend, and playing lines in tune is a fundamental ensemble skill, so add some kind of skill builder in the warm up time and coach them up. It will carry over into their playing, and even more so when you reference those warm up experiences.

Build the Trouble Chords

This requires more in depth score analysis, but I feel it's been well worth the effort. Plus, most of the elite/hall of fame directors I know of do this regularly.

Break the chord down by having just the students with the root play. Get that in tune. Next, add the 5th of the chord. Remember that this typically has to be lipped up slightly to be in tune with the root. The third comes next, and its adjustment varies depending on the chord type. Add the 7th, if applicable, which typically has to be played on the flat side. 

Sometimes you can forego having them experiment with pitch bending by reminding them that each successive group has to fit into the groups already present. 5th must fit into the root, the 3rd into those two, and so on, just like with the Pyramid. Try this before coaching adjustments and see if it gets it done. 

Don't be satisfied until it meets your standard. Of course, then you have to back up and put it into context. 

Section Leaders Model the Moving Lines

Often it's not the chords out of tune, but a section playing a moving line. There might be a trouble note or two. In the early stages it's usually just wrong notes, but that's not always the case. 

Have the section leader play the line up to the trouble note and hold that note out. Next the rest of the section goes down the line and figures out how to match that note until the section is playing that note with straight line tuning. Next everyone plays the moving line up to that note. Did we hit the note in tune with the section leader? No? Try again. The last step, once that is fixed, is to play the entire line before moving on, paying attention again to the trouble note. When they get it right, we can all move on.

Sing It

Or hum. One day I'll get band students to sing (the 3rd and 4th graders have no problem singing, so when they start band in 5th grade it will be a natural thing), but in the mean time I can have them hum. I regularly talk to them about the importance of hearing what you're about to play before you play it, and humming reinforces the idea.

Mostly I'll do this during our tuning process, when they can't seem to eliminate all of the waves from the pitch. I'll tell them to hum it (or have section leaders play while everyone else hums... I switch it up), and then play it. This is a good way to introduce the technique, which can then carry over to problem notes in a line, or in a chord as well.

An Ongoing Process

Of course, developing the band's intonation skill is always an ongoing process. Don't get discouraged or impatient. Keep your high standards but pat them on the back for progress. I like what Charles Mengini said in a clinic at this past TMEA, "Use the word 'Better', because 'Better' doesn't let them off the hook."

Thank you for reading! I know there are a ton of tricks to help improve intonation. What's your approach? If you have one that got left off of this list, please share it in the comment section! 

Until next time, take care!

Musically yours,

Mr. Cooper