Standard Just Intonation
Tue, 04/10/2012 - 23:24
Hi Kinya,
Just finished watching your second harp tech video where you look at the various tuners. I purchased the cleartune tuner for the iphone which you had showcased. One of the options it has is Standard Just Intonation. Coukld you please tell me whether that matches the Just Intonation you speak about.
The other reason I am asking is I am looking at tuning my Golden Melody which is ET into JI. Also I am seeing when I use the tuner is that GM out of the box is many cents off on many holes. Now is that common?
Hi Sridhara1
I have always used the Cleartune as a simple chromatic tuner to verify various tuning recipes. Ultimately for Just Intonation, once you had established--with your tuner-- the root notes, e.g. in 2nd position this will be 3blow and 2draw (set tuner to 442Hz and tune root notes to +2cents past zero), the rest of the tuning process is accomplished by ear.
Relative to your now tuned root notes, you will tune BY EAR the blow/draw 1 hole and 2 hole reeds until you HAVE eliminated the "beat" (no oscillations). This will result in smooth sounding blow and draw chords on the lower end of the harmonica. From there, move up the harmonica by tuning your octaves to "no beat". Again, this will be by ear.
The downside of JIT is that for single hole type playing, you will be significantly out of tune (e.g. the 3 draw and 5 draw will be flatted approximately -23cents!) with the rest of the band. This is why all the major harmonica manufactures are shipping harmonicas in a "compromised just" tuning. It tends to be the most satisfying for players and audience alike.
As for out of the box harmonicas being out of tune, this is more common than not. This is due to so many variables, such as, temperature, molecular structure of the reed materials (spring metal), tuning by dry air vacuum table versus our weighted (aspiration) breath ...
Kind of confusing I know, but I will demonstrate Just Intonation tuning in an upcoming Harp Tech study.
Your Harpsmith,
Kinya