Step away from the tuner and no-one gets hurt!

Tuners are great little devices. And now, you can even have one in your pocket at all times with tuner apps available for your mobile device of choice. They are responsible for helping provide a consistent, stable pitch for ensembles to tune to via the oboe/tuba/pitch reference instrument in your ensemble. And they are the key to making sure you play in tune all the time - just stick one of these handy little suckers on your stand and try to avoid the red lights. Right?

No, you are probably not.

Err, no.

I have seen doctoral students with them on their stand in rehearsals, annoying everyone around with the constant Christmas-tree-like flashing. I have seen entire bands performing on stage with their tuners clipped to their bells. And every time, I feel like music education has seriously let these people down.

There are both scientific reasons and educational reasons why this is a bad idea. The scientific reasons are all to do with a guy called Pythagoras. (Yes, the guy responsible for the theory behind calculating the length of the hypotenuse in a right-angled triangle. I told you there was maths in music.) It is widely believed that Pythagoras was largely responsible for discovering the natural division of the musical scale into 12 notes. He calculated the scale by using a string of a set length, and changing the length based on a ratio of 3:2. After repeating this process 11 times, he wound up back at the note he began at, albeit in a different octave. Except he didn't quite make it. The natural division of the scale, according to the ear and the maths, overshoots the octave slightly, meaning not all 12 notes fit neatly into the octave. The fifths, known as pure fifths, are pleasing to the ear, but the thirds sound rather interesting according to modern ears.

This didn't become an issue until about the 16th century, when the third came into prominence as the dominant interval, keyboards were being used and composers wanted to have the flexibility to write in all available keys. Several tuning systems were used around this time, including just intonation and well-temperament (J.S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier was his way of introducing the tuning system as a way of writing in all 12 keys). Equal temperament was proposed in the late 16th century. It involved the division of the octave into 12 equal intervals. Equal temperament was easy for keyboard instruments, but it didn't allow for the natural 'settling' of certain intervals and the resonance that 'pure' intervals provide.

Tuners typically use equal temperament. If you are playing with piano, then this is not such a bad thing. If you are playing in an ensemble that relies on the natural harmonics of certain intervals, then by being 'correct' with the tuner, you are actually 'out of tune'. Fifths will sound squashed and major thirds will sound too open. Leading tones need to be raised slightly in order to create a sense of their true function.

There are tuners which claim to use just and mean temperament, but given that natural tendencies will always depend on the current harmony being sounded, how can any device possibly predict what the exact pitch of the note is that needs to be slotted in, given it does not know what pitches have already been given?

Pedagogically speaking, relying on tuners means students are training the eyes and not the ears. They know what to LOOK for but often have no idea what SOUNDS in tune. This coupled with the fact that the tuner is not, essentially, in tune with most ensembles, and it is no wonder these students have a confused ear.

Students should learn to identify sharp and flat against a unison pitch as a first step, and work at matching this as quickly as possible. Tuning fifths should follow soon after. Students should listen to eliminate beats, accentuate resonance and discover how to affect pitch on their instrument WITHOUT changing the pitch of their entire instrument by moving tuning slides and pegs for single notes. (Don't laugh. I have seen it more times than I can count.) Air speed, embouchure and finger adjustments/venting are the main players here.

So, the tuner is a handy little tool, but it is not a crutch. Overused, it will do more damage than good. Trust yourself to rely on your ears, and you will be surprised how much you are innately aware of.