music4life

When horns play with guitars and basses who tune to electronic tuners, i.e. A=440, should the horn section tune to A=440?

Any comments from experienced players are welcome.

trumpetnick

In theory, they should tune up to 440...In reality, if they have ears, they should put them in use. Warming up the instruments or any change in temperature may influence the tuning which will bring up the need to hear what is going on....

rowuk

When playing with electronic instruments, tuning is almost more critical than with "real" ones. The electronic sound can be very dense with a lot of overtones. Minor intonation problems can result in you having to work MUCH harder - that will reduce your endurance for sure. Players of natural instruments generally adjust to one another "on the fly", try that with your clavinova............................... Even electric guitars or basses have frets and that limits the ability to "microtune" chords. I wouldn't tune to A=440, rather to the keys that you primarily play in! Don't forget that your ears are not "well-tempered"!

Vulgano Brother

I like the idea of tuning to the key--if you are playing a lot in A and E (our B and F#), tuning your C or B (their Bb and A) to 440. If the tune is in D or G, you'll probably want to pull the slide out a bit, to make up for all those 12 valve combinations that want to run sharp. Try tuning using your A (concert C) with the electronic tuner. Other than that, I wouldn't mess much with trying to tune a bit sharp to add brillance or a bit flat to add weight. Be sure that whoever is playing the lower part is in tune, however--sometimes to compensate for a perceived lack of volume or brightness a sax or trombone player (even trumpeters on occasion) might play sharp, we'll lip up to compensate, and wonder why we're really tired in the middle of the third set.

Have fun!