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Intonation, in music
Music

Music is an art form whose media is sound organized in time. Common elements of music are pitch , rhythm , dynamics , and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture ....
, is a musician's realization of pitch accuracy, or the pitch accuracy of a musical instrument.

fret
Fret

A fret is a raised portion on the neck of a stringed instrument, that extends generally across the full width of the neck. On most modern western culture instruments, frets are metal strips inserted into the fingerboard....
less string instruments such as violins, intonation depends on the musician pressing with their fingers at the exact spot on the instrument's fingerboard. Learning to have good intonation typically takes years of practice, and is one of the most difficult aspects of learning to play on un-fretted stringed instruments.

ral factors affect fretted instrument intonation, including depth of the string slots in the nut, bridge saddle position, and the position of the frets themselves.

On fretted string instruments, pushing a string against a fret—aside from raising the string's pitch because it shortens the string—also causes a slight secondary raise in pitch because pushing the string increases its tension.






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Intonation, in music
Music

Music is an art form whose media is sound organized in time. Common elements of music are pitch , rhythm , dynamics , and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture ....
, is a musician's realization of pitch accuracy, or the pitch accuracy of a musical instrument.

Strings

With fret
Fret

A fret is a raised portion on the neck of a stringed instrument, that extends generally across the full width of the neck. On most modern western culture instruments, frets are metal strips inserted into the fingerboard....
less string instruments such as violins, intonation depends on the musician pressing with their fingers at the exact spot on the instrument's fingerboard. Learning to have good intonation typically takes years of practice, and is one of the most difficult aspects of learning to play on un-fretted stringed instruments.

Fretted instrument intonation

Several factors affect fretted instrument intonation, including depth of the string slots in the nut, bridge saddle position, and the position of the frets themselves.

On fretted string instruments, pushing a string against a fret—aside from raising the string's pitch because it shortens the string—also causes a slight secondary raise in pitch because pushing the string increases its tension. If the instrument doesn't compensate for this with a slight increase in the distance from the bridge saddle to the fret, the note sounds sharp.

Most electric fretted string instruments have individually adjustable bridge saddles, adjustable with a screw driver or Allen wrench. Acoustic fretted instruments typically have either a floating bridge, held in place by string tension, or a fixed bridge, such as a pin bridge on an acoustic guitar. A luthier
Luthier

A luthier is someone who makes or repairs stringed instruments. The word luthier comes from the French language word wikt:en:luth#French which is French for "lute"....
 or technician adjusts a floating bridge simply by carefully changing its position until the intonation is correct. Adjusting intonation on a fixed bridge involves carefully shaping the bridge saddle with a file to alter the string's contact point.

Another cause of poor intonation on a fretted instrument is that the maker didn't cut the string slots in the nut deep enough. If the string is higher than fret height at the nut, the string deflection-caused pitch increase is progressively greater closer to the nut.

Other instruments


Like unfretted string instruments, the trombone
Trombone

The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass instrument family. Like all brass instruments, it is a lip-reed aerophone: sound is produced when the player?s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate....
 relies on the musician precisely positioning something, in this case the trombone's slide. The margin of error, however is much wider on the trombone as it has only seven basic slide positions on a slide length of over 80 centimeters.

Intonation sensitivity

Intonation sensitivity is, "determined by how the preference for a chord
Chord (music)

In music and music theory a chord is a set of two or more different note that sound simultaneously. Most often, in European-influenced music, chords are tertian Sonority that can be constructed as stacks of thirds relative to some underlying musical scale....
 varies with the tuning
Musical tuning

In music, there are two common meanings for tuning:* #Tuning practice, the act of tuning an instrument or voice.* #Tuning systems, the various systems of Pitch used to tune an instrument, and their theoretical basis....
, or mistuning, of the center note
Note

In music, the term note has two primary meanings: 1) a sign used in musical notation to represent the relative duration and pitch of a sound; and 2) a pitched sound itself....
," and may be used to assess and evaluate a known or new chord and its perceptibility as the harmonic
Harmony

In Western music, harmony is the use of different pitches simultaneously, and chord s, actual or implied, in music. The word is related to the word "harmonic" which implies related wavelengths of waves....
 basis for a scale For example, the chord formed by pitches in the ratios 3:5:7 has a very similar pattern of intonation sensitivity to the just major chord
Major chord

In music theory, a major chord is a chord having a Root , a major third, and a perfect fifth. When a chord has these three notes alone, it is called a major Triad ....
, formed by 4:5:6, more similar than does the minor chord
Minor chord

In music theory, a minor chord is a chord having a Root , a minor third, and a perfect fifth.When a chord has these three notes alone, it is called a minor Triad ....
. The major or minor triad may be used to form the diatonic scale and the 3:5:7 triad may be used to form the Bohlen-Pierce scale
Bohlen-Pierce scale

The Bohlen?Pierce scale is a musical Scale that offers an alternative to the octave-repeating scales typical in Western music and other musics, specifically the diatonic scale....
.

Semiotic concept

A concept which was taken over into musicology from the language area. In the Soviet musicology it is used for the purposes the Boris Asafiev
Boris Asafiev

Boris Vladimirovich Asafiev was a Russians composer and writer.Boris Asafiev lived in the Soviet Union where he had a strong musical influence....
’s concept of the intonation nature of music. This concept looks at intonation (?????????, "intonatsia") as a basis of musical expression, and relates it to the peculiarities of different national or personal styles. The basis of the intonation doctrine was laid by Russian musicologist Boleslav Javorsky (1877-1942) and developed by Asafiev
Boris Asafiev

Boris Vladimirovich Asafiev was a Russians composer and writer.Boris Asafiev lived in the Soviet Union where he had a strong musical influence....
.

Sources


External links

  • Konrad Schwingenstein: Intonation of stringed instruments with straight frets , http://www.pepithesecond.com
  • Malcolm H Brown: The soviet Russian concepts of "intonazia" and "musical imagery", http://mq.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/citation/LX/4/557
  • Karen Pegley: Censored Musical Messages, http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/epc/srb/srb/censored.html
  • N Mahoney: Intonation on the Classical Guitar , http://www.classical-guitars-plus.co.uk/guitar_info/784__Intonation


See also

  • Musical tuning
    Musical tuning

    In music, there are two common meanings for tuning:* #Tuning practice, the act of tuning an instrument or voice.* #Tuning systems, the various systems of Pitch used to tune an instrument, and their theoretical basis....