Lesson 84: Virtuoso Studies, Part 4 — Intonation

Identify the four pitches on your particular recorder that are reliably out of tune.
Memorise an alternate fingering or breath-pressure adjustment for each of those four pitches.
Practise long-tone exercises against a drone, checking each pitch within ten cents of true.

A chromatic tuner.
A drone source (tuner, recording, or another player).
Lesson 11 — cross-fingering awareness.

Recorder-specific intonation problems.
Alternate fingerings.
Drone-based ear training.

Every recorder is slightly out of tune. The work is knowing where.

The recorder is the wind instrument with the least pitch flexibility — the air column is short, the hole positions are fixed, and the player cannot bend a note as a string or vocal player does. This means each individual recorder has a small set of pitches that are reliably sharp or flat compared to equal temperament. The player's intonation work is not to bend each note in real time, but to know where the problem pitches are and what to do about them.

The diagnostic

Set a tuner to A=440 (or whatever your recorder is built for; many Baroque-pitch instruments are A=415). Play each note of the chromatic scale at mezzo-forte and watch the tuner. Mark in your notes which pitches read more than ten cents off in either direction.

The pitches that are commonly out of tune on Baroque-fingered alto recorders:

F sharp (high) — usually sharp by 15–25 cents.
G sharp — sharp or flat depending on the maker.
High C sharp — flat by 10–15 cents.
The cross-fingered B-flat — flat at low breath pressure, sharp at high.

Your recorder may have different culprits. The diagnostic is the only way to know.

Three fixes

Each problem pitch has at least one of three fixes:

Alternate fingering. Most off-tune pitches have at least one alternate fingering that brings them closer to true. Consult a Baroque-recorder fingering chart (Hotteterre, van Hauwe) and try the alternates.
Breath pressure adjustment. A sharp pitch can be brought down by slightly reducing breath pressure; a flat pitch can be raised by increasing it. Use sparingly — the tone changes too.
Tuning the instrument. Pulling the joint slightly apart flattens the whole instrument; pushing it sharpens. This is a coarse adjustment, used once at the start of a session, not per note.

The drone drill

Play long tones against a sustained drone — a tuner can produce one, or use a recording of a sustained pitch. Pick a drone on D (the recorder's natural tuning centre). Play each note of the D major scale against the drone and listen for beats — the audible pulsing that indicates the two pitches are slightly out of tune.

Each whole note played against a sustained D drone. Listen for beats.

The daily warm-up

Ten minutes per session:

Two minutes of chromatic-scale diagnostic against the tuner.
Four minutes of drone-drill on the day's key.
Four minutes of long-tone practice on the four problem pitches you identified, using alternate fingerings or breath-pressure adjustments to bring each within ten cents.

Now play these

Telemann: Twelve Fantasias, TWV 40:104: The fourth fantasia. Slow movements expose intonation; apply the drone work to its long notes.
Handel: HWV 362 — slow movements: From Lesson 76 / 78. Replay the slow movements with the drone-drill discipline applied; the long held notes are the test.

When you can name four problem pitches on your specific recorder and a fix for each, the drone drill on your daily key produces no audible beats on any long tone, and the intonation of a recorded slow movement is consistent throughout, move on to Lesson 85.