crowmadic

I just purchased a Center Pitch Tuner. This is the tuner that attaches to your instrument and works off of vibrations. I bought it for two reasons: 1. To let me know if each note I was playing was in tune. 2. To let me know how in tune my trumpet is with itself. Something is either wrong with how I'm playing the notes, or my trumpets are inherantly out of pitch even when I attempt to make the correction, either with tuning slides, or my lip. I find it hard to believe either one because I sound good when playing with others. The horns I've tested this on are "vintage": Holton Collegiate, Olds Ambassador, Noble, and a Conn 22B. If you have experience with this tuner I sure would like to hear from you. .................crow

Eeviac

I think these electronic tuners are easy to fool with harmonics etc.

bspickler

I find the Center Pitch takes a brief time to "zero in" on the pitch so I don't think you can use it while playing, just while tuning. PM Chase Sanborn and he may have some suggestions.

chasesanborn.com

rowuk

crow,
the tuner does not show you if you are playing in tune. It just shows you if the pitch you are playing matches the tuner.
The problem is that the "well tempered" scale is only useful on keyboards that need to play in various keys. None of the chords are really in tune, but all are "playable".
The advantage of single voices and ears is that we have the possibility to play absolutely in tune so that the chords have their maximum resonance.
Chris Leuba (ex Chicago symphony horn player) has a fantastic book on intonation. Highly recommended!

The reason that the tuner is wrong is that your ears are better than that piece of silicon circuitry. Congratulations are actually in order!

crowmadic

thank you all! I think I'm going to return it and get a Korg TM-40 as was suggested in another thread as a good inexpensive tuner. rowuk, i'll be looking for the Chris Leuba book. .........thanks, crow