Posted by Rick Denney on August 28, 2002 at 12:01:51:
In Reply to: Re: Re: conductor foibles - tuning posted by js on August 28, 2002 at 11:40:39:
While the notion of tuning from the bottom is at once appealing, it ain't easy for us amateurs.
Personally, I get frustrated with "perfect-pitch" guest conductors who ask me for a tone (without any reference) and then tell me I'm flat (or sharp). Often, I'll have checked my tone with the Strobotuner right behind the conductor (which I sometimes surreptitiously turn on before rehearsal just for this purpose), and will have nailed the pitch.
I think there's something to the hearing of pitch thing. My ears tell me that my intonation is good when my tuner does not, and it seems that when I try to play what my tuner says is in tune the octaves are way off. I have this terrible fear that I can't hear octaves on the tuba unless they are played at the same time. But it may also be a quality of the sound of my tuba that pitch is hard to identify perfectly (I never noted the problem on my other tubas). In fact, this may be part of the American sound mystique. If it is a characteristic of the sound, then the conductor may be confused as well, and my playing won't provide much guidance for the rest of the group.
Back to Ken's conductor: It seems to me a smart conductor of an amateur band will always tune the ensemble a little flat, because they are going to end up sharp anyway. If they start out sharp, they'll end up out of tune because some will have nowhere to go. This, of course, may not be it. I find that conductors who don't hear pitch will go to some lengths to pretend that they do.
Rick "expanding the discussion to a different problem" Denney