Accessories Clp-on Chromatic Tuner's

[Pazstone]

Hi, I am considering the purchase of a clip on Chromatic tuner for my Yamaha Tenor. Can anyone share their experience on either an Intelli or a Qwiktune Snark or any other valued tuner?

 

[old git]

Intelli used on tenor, flute, whistle, banjo and guitar successfully.

A definite recommend and it does turn itself off when I forget to, which occurs more frequently.

 

[johnboy]

Why do you think that you need a tuner? I can see that they are handy for stringed instruments, but for sax, they are IMO a waste of hard earned cash. Learn to use your ears, they are, as far as music is concerned, your best asset. If you want to check your mouthpiece position, use 'The Online TuningFork' and mark the 'in tune' position on the cork.
If you are worried about the pitch of the notes while playing, recording and listening to yourself is a far better idea!

John 🙂;}

 

[Fraser Jarvis]

I agree with Johnboy on this one but if you find you cant live without one why not get something like a Korg TM40, doubles as a metronome as well...

 

[Morgan Fry]

Learn to use your ears, they are, as far as music is concerned, your best asset. If you want to check your mouthpiece position, use 'The Online TuningFork' and mark the 'in tune' position on the cork.
If you are worried about the pitch of the notes while playing, recording and listening to yourself is a far better idea!

John 🙂;}

I agree with this 100%. If you want to play in tune you must develop your ears to do it. If you don't have a piano, play along with recordings of drones (Matt Otto has some good ones for free on his website, I think), or get the tuning CD or something.
Related anecdote -- Had a trumpet player in the band one time with some intonation problems, I kept on him about it, he turned up to rehearsal one day with a tuner clipped onto his bell. His pitch got worse!

Figuring out how to play in tune with your ears rather than your eyes will show improvements in your sound, and make playing of all kinds more enjoyable. If you just do it with a tuner you will always struggle with it.

 

[kevgermany]

+1 for the TM40

I also agree with the comments about learning by ear - there seems to be a growing trend for guys to go on stage with these clip on tuners, and then spend what seems like hours tuning/detuning between numbers. That, coupled with the tuner sticking up (often lit up) while the guys are playing, really spoils the concert.

Had a similar experience to Morgan's when I saw a sax band just after Xmas. The guys were tuning/retuning so often, that they were well out of tune most of the time.

 

[BigMartin]

"Me, too" as far as using your ears is concerned. My tuner mostly just gets used to generate a reference note to tune to. Very occasionally (maybe once or twice a month) I'll use it to check something, but it mostly tells me what I already suspected. It has been known for me to be sharp overall when I thought I was flat, though. But I'm sure using it while playing music would be counter-productive. Metronome, on the other hand, gets used in almost every practice session.

 

[allansto]

well im not an expert like john boy or the others but
Ive got a cherub wst-650c clip on tuner and I love it
When I play at home to practice how do I know when Im in tune
Because my tuner tells me so
Every time I place a different reed in my sax the tune is different
so I use my tuner to fine tune the instrument after I have placed the mp on the neck in the
approximate place.
after Ive been playing for a few years maybe Ill be able to tune without it but i say
bring on the technology if it helps. besides it only cost $28 aust.
Bear in mind I dont play in a band yet but when I do I will need to be in tune with them, not my tuner.

 

[BigMartin]

When I play at home to practice how do I know when Im in tune

By comparing with, eg, an online keyboard, and by playing familiar tunes slowly and listening hard to whether they sound right. It's not just about being in tune or out. The really important bit is to get the relative pitches between different notes right. Eg, when you play an octave, is it really an octave? The notes on a sax are quite "bendable" as we all know, so you have to learn to hear where each note should be. It's not as hard as it sounds, and you're almost certainly doing it already to some extent. You have to learn to trust yourself. The problem with using a tuner for this is that you can come to rely on your eyes for this instead of your ears. It's been slowly dawning on me over the last couple of years (since I've been learning to play jazz) just how much of playing music is really about listening.