Improve your Intonation: Week One Instruction and Assignment!

Head of Clarinet
Heather
2 mths ago
25replies

Welcome to the first week of our two-week intensive on improving your intonation!

We're going to start this week with a simple exercise to improve your intonation in an intuitive way.

How to participate:

Watch the video
Follow the instructions for each assignment, either posting text in the forum below or sharing a video of your practicing.
Cheer on your fellow community members in the comments!

Week One:

Assignment One:

Make sure you have a way of playing drones (for example using the Tonal Energy app - which is what I use in the video)
Download the PDF of Liszt's Liebesträume
Practice it every day using a drone on a different pitch
Record at least one video for the forum (share one early on this week so that we can see your progress by the end of this challenge!).
Tell us about the challenges you've encountered in playing this exercise!

- Luke
- 2 mths ago
- Reported - view
Hey all, here's my experience so far. I'm not much of a reader so rather than try to read the Liszt while also thinking about tone, I chose a song I'm familiar with. For drones, I'm using a set of organ drones I have. (I think they're made by "MusoMaster" if you want to try them out.)

I chose to make an audio recording because I'm still unhappy with the way my video app records sound.

I'm playing in concert F. I play the tune three times, using drones on F, A, and then C. F was rather straightforward; having the tonic underneath the whole time feels very grounded. A felt a little odd - perhaps because whenever the melody sits on C, there's a minor feeling. I had some stops and starts while recording that one. C has some tension for sure, but I think because it's dominant to F it never feels out of place or too much.

I'm enjoying it so far! One of my favorite long tone practices is to put on a drone and play a melody, or just play all the different scales tones against the drone to see how they feel.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HEoywh5R-1rLdrlb-2DFiKpwPWAaEqQm/view?usp=drive_link
- Head of Clarinet
  
  Heather
  
  2 mths ago
  
  Reported - view
  The organ drone is brilliant - so dramatic, I love it. Yeah, I know what you mean about the A feeling a little odd but in a way that's kind of the point - so I would try even weirder ones. Like try an F# - the whole idea is to make your ear go to strange places, or to really work with the dissonance :)
- Luke
  
  2 mths ago
  
  Reported - view
  Okay challenge accepted. Here's some weirdness. Playing in the same key, but drones on Gb, Ab, and B. Some of the intervals created between the melody and the drone are pretty wild. It's interesting to try and lean into that instead of "correcting" the pitch.
- Head of Clarinet
  
  Heather
  
  2 mths ago
  
  Reported - view
  Oh yeah, that's pretty weird (helpful feedback, right?). Makes the tune so ominous - I can really hear this now in some film - reminds me of the Edith Piaf quotations in Inception...
- Cathy_Gresham
- 2 mths ago
- Reported - view
Trying to use my phone for the tuner, metronome and recording device. Did not work too well, the clarinet sounds very far away. This is Audio only, just the end of the practice piece. I never used a tuner this way before, I can see where it will really help improve my ear.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1juKgQrXYwgo76one5JwuegTER0KswwVk/view?usp=drivesdk
- Luke
  
  2 mths ago
  
  Reported - view
  I think you linked one of your earlier practice videos! But I bet you can edit the post and replace the link.
- Cathy_Gresham
- 2 mths ago
- Reported - view
Luke was right. Hopefully, this is the correct recording.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tnIHsMYL6cTjQwLbwQ-G3zpxgyvDpdaQ/view?usp=drivesdk
- Head of Clarinet
  
  Heather
  
  2 mths ago
  
  Reported - view
  this sounds good, Cathy - I can definitely hear everything well enough! Whenever you get to one of the longer notes I can hear things adjusting slightly, do you feel like you're doing something? Or is it just happening naturally as you perform the exercise?
- Cathy_Gresham
  
  2 mths ago
  
  Reported - view
  that's difficult to explain. I am adjusting, but I'm not thinking about it. It's like I hear it doesn't sound right, so I just automatically do something.
- Head of Clarinet
- Heather
- 2 mths ago
- Reported - view
I thought I'd post one more video this week just to reinforce why I think practicing the exercise with really weird drone pitches is useful - it's difficult but I think it really opens up our ear when we're confronted with these dissonances!

Have a go!
- Anders
  
  2 mths ago
  
  Reported - view
  Thanks for this. Hoping to find time to work on this and record over the weekend. I wanted to mention that the audio level on your Youtube videos is quite low. The playing is great, but the speaking sounds like a low mumble on all my devices, even at max volume.
- Head of Clarinet
  
  Heather
  
  2 mths ago
  
  Reported - view
  Hi Anders, thanks for this - it is a little low - but do you definitely have a stereo output to your speakers? The mic picking up my speaking is the right one (I do need to find a better way to manage this so it's panned across both but maybe that's part of your issue?). If I only listen to the left side it's definitely very difficult to hear me speak...
- Anders
  
  2 mths ago
  
  Reported - view
  It's fine when I'm at my studio and can run it through my speakers there, but I often check in on things like this on my phone with earbuds when I'm in between things and out and about. I don't have a problem with anything else I listen to this way, including lots of Youtube. I think the level just needs to be higher. Thanks!
- Katherine_Carleton
- 2 mths ago
- Reported - view
I’ve been goofing around with this off and on this week, but am only just now recording. What I hear? I’m pretty happy with my pitch and support in the clarion, chalumeau is hit and miss, and oof, throat A!!! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j3wq1WQvNWFMmnCRczr_q2kxf8htTgs0/view?usp=drivesdk
- Head of Clarinet
  
  Heather
  
  2 mths ago
  
  Reported - view
  This is great, Katherine - I love how thoughtfully you are playing while also being so musical with it. Your tone is lovely! And you've set us up nicely as we're going to be talking about pitch tendencies across the range of our instruments next week :)
- Katherine_Carleton
  
  2 mths ago
  
  Reported - view
  (does a little dance over here...!)
- Anders
- 2 mths ago
- Reported - view
I overpracticed a bit today so I was tired but I did one take and went for the F# drone which seemed at once both more challenging and more forgiving. This was my first time getting to play through this as I joined late and it's been a busy week. F# certainly makes for a spicy cadenza!

I've mostly ever worked with drone pitches that "made sense" so using something so far outside the key was illuminating and made it feel like low stakes. Good exercise!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-UeTOXusJ7Ypg-rj2ahFgD9sLXGcmGwq/view?usp=drive_link
- Head of Clarinet
  
  Heather
  
  2 mths ago
  
  Reported - view
  Hi Anders, I think you need to make your video open access if you want us all to be able to watch :)
- Anders
  
  2 mths ago
  
  Reported - view
  I think it's fixed now! Listening again I'm reminded that low A and B are not my friends, especially at soft dynamics. Worst notes on the horn for me!
- Head of Clarinet
  
  Heather
  
  2 mths ago
  
  Reported - view
  Hi Anders, interesting - do you mean A and B are the worst for you in terms of intonation? (Looking forward to seeing your chart for this week if so) Or is there something else going on there?
  
  This sounds pretty good though - I would recommend going a bit slower, really spending time on each note - rhythm and tempo isn't really that important, it's more to just have a bit of structure and a bit of a melody so it isn't too boring, the idea being to really dig in to each note as you're playing!
- Gabrielle_Tymkow
- 2 mths ago
- Reported - view
Hi everyone, here is my video - I've enjoyed playing around with choosing different notes as the drone. Here is a short clip from my practice session today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbLG66qYJow
- Head of Clarinet
  
  Heather
  
  2 mths ago
  
  Reported - view
  Sounds great Gabby! Any favourite notes so far?
- Alfonso_Pimentel
- 2 mths ago
- Reported - view
Here's what I have so far during week one. This was from. The start of the week. The link would just take too long to process but I believe it should work properly now.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/e1vJGyAvQ2GGW6JQ6
- Head of Clarinet
  
  Heather
  
  2 mths ago
  
  Reported - view
  Sounds great, Alfonso!! I'm looking forward to hearing your progress over the next week!
- Valina_Eckley
- 2 mths ago
- Reported - view
I’m a little late to this conversation but I’ve been loving the drone work. I decided to be odd and play a simple C major scale with a C# drone. It was sooo crunchy that I actually felt it was jarring when I got up to the A! Since it is a major third it actually shocked my ears to hear something nice in this practice of awful crunchyness.