Posted by Christian on June 03, 2003 at 17:05:12:
In Reply to: What do you consider "good intonation?" posted by Doc on June 03, 2003 at 13:53:04:
When somebody sells a tuba and says it has "good intonation", I usally take that with a grain of salt until i've played it with a tuner. (I mean you no offense tuba sellers!) The seller's term "good intonation" is going to be an opinion based on the intonation of the axe which that person is dealing with now.
I've often thought about posting a question (or more correctly, something of a challenge) to scientifically define good intonation for an instrument, (not a player). How many notes can be out, how flat or how sharp, how many slide pulls does it take to cross the line between good and bad intonation?
to me,
"good intonation"="easy for me to play in tune"
Ok, ok, my definition stinks. :^)
Somebody once advertised an instrument that had a sharp 4th partial and flat 5th partial and said it had "good intonation". I once had a Cerveny piggy with the same problems. While that may be that person's opinion, I'd personally find such an instrument unplayable, i don't really care how good it sounds. There's a point where the effort needed to play a horn with a beastly scale in tune adversly affects making music. While that point is probably in a different spot depending on the player, I think we can all agree that it is there.
This is what good intonation means to me:
--I want every note in the "cash register" to be as close as possible, lippably preferred. --I want any slide pulls or alternate fingerings i have to use to be in the upper register or lower register.
--A 5th partial that is too flat to use is unacceptable on a CC tuba (to me), a bit more tolerable on an F, but undesirable on either horn.
Hope this helps,
;^)
Christian Klein