Reel Time Analysing the Player

Irish Flute
1

Finally got around to investigating something I’ve been intending to do since we started the RTTA development - testing the player. Interesting, at least in my case.

Using the same flute and settings, I recorded myself doing the following:

  • playing scales
  • playing thirds
  • playing arpeggios
  • noodling (playing tune-like phrases)
  • playing waltzes (ie slow tunes)
  • playing dance music (ie fast tunes)

The flute pitch appeared to drift a bit, probably a combination of warming up further, and me pushing it harder on tunes than scales. I graphed the results and subtracted the drift.

As I suspected, I don’t play scales the same as I play tunes. The difference in the bottom octave isn’t much - a spread of only about 5 cents, which may well be close to measurement limits. It appears I let my low notes drop a few cents as the pace increases. I guess that means that up to waltz speed, I have time to hear and enjoy the pitch and tone of the note, and work with it. At reel speed, muscle memory takes over. That’s OK on a well tuned flute, but I imagine it lets a flat footed flute get away with murder at reel speed.

I find I sharpen second octave notes by about 10-12 cents in tunes and waltzes, compared to the results I get in scales, thirds and arpeggios, probably because I’m playing them with more gusto. (I never play scales etc, so gusto is definitely lacking!). Noodling seems to run about halfway between the extremes, and arpeggios come in just a little sharper than scales and thirds.

I also find I send c natural sharper at reel speed than in the other cases. That reminds us of Breathnach’s pronouncement that it is always a stressed note in Irish music.

It would be good if others could carry out the same test to see if it’s normal or I’m special (Well, we know that…). Probably just scales vs tunes would be enough unless you want to see if noodling is a middle path for you too. It certainly reinforces the need for RTTA at least for me. I imagine when sitting in front of a tuner, I would be using my “scales” setting. On the current evidence, waltzes might provide a good test (fast enough to kick in the tunes setting, but slow enough to let Tartini gather the evidence efficiently).

Terry

2

I also play the entire second octave around 10cents flatter when playing scales than when playing tunes.

By the way in case anyone hasn’t noticed the GUI version is up and running and available, with new features appearing at reel speed (= too fast for me to keep up with).

Cheers
Graeme

3

I’ve been working on slowing down some tunes and playing with a different style, and I noticed that I might have a tendency to play several of my first-octave notes a little flat. I want to pursue this idea, because I often feel my intonation is off on slower tunes (waltzes, etc.)

Michael

4

I found some interesting things. When not paying attention I often tend to let my breath support go to pot on certain notes - and it is always the same notes in the tunes! Paying attention to this straightened my tuning out a lot. I am still prone to sloppiness at times, but it has helped a lot. Strangely, these errors also pointed out weaknesses in my musical expression above and beyond the tuning issue itself.

I have also used the RTTA to set the stopper position to get the octaves closely in tune, but I notice on 3 different flutes that I have a wide octave on G. these are very different flutes so I am assuming it is something to do with me and will start paying attention to how I play those two notes. All the other notes are much better, although E is also slightly wide.

And thirdly I’ve noticed that the As are not necessarily the best notes to tune to, for me, on my flutes. For example, on one of them, D, d B and b are much better when I am playing tunes. Strange. Now I just have to get my tame fiddler’s to “give me a D” instead of an A. Shouldn’t be a problem… Of course I also have to get used to playing my D for tuning the same way as I play it in a tune.

And I am consistently 10 cents higher on the whole flute when playing faster tunes. I’ll have to pay attention to fixing that!

Chris