Tuning tendencies chart, note by note
You tune to the band's concert B♭ or the orchestra's A, the tuner reads zero, and still some notes come out sharp and others flat. That is normal: every wind instrument has tuning tendencies, notes that naturally lean high or low because of the bore, the tone holes and the way each player blows. This tool builds your own tuning tendencies chart for saxophone, clarinet, brass and flutes: you play the scale holding each note for a second or two, and every note turns blue (flat), green (in tune, within ±5 cents) or red (sharp).
How to use it
- Pick your instrument (the transposition is already set) and choose whether to measure every note (chromatic) or only a major or minor scale. Play for a few minutes first to warm the instrument up.
- Turn on the microphone and place your phone or computer one or two meters away, facing you, away from fans and music.
- Play each note with your normal sound, at the dynamic you use most, and hold it until the bar fills (about 2 seconds). Don't fix the pitch with your lips while watching the screen: the chart needs the note as it comes out naturally.
- Stop between notes. The note with a dashed border is the suggested next one, but you can play in any order; playing the same note again adds another take to its average.
- Read the summary: red notes tend to go sharp, blue notes tend to go flat. Tap a note on the chart to see its takes. Your last session for each instrument stays saved on your device.
Help and explanations
Notes are shown the way you read them on your part (written pitch): on alto sax, written G is the concert B♭ you hear. You can measure each note several times to build an average, and the summary lists the notes that tend to go sharp or flat and whether the mouthpiece (or the barrel, the tuning slide, the flute headjoint) should go out or in. Sound is analyzed on your device: nothing is recorded or uploaded.
How to read the chart and what to do about it
Start with the overall average. If nearly every note runs sharp, the whole instrument is too short: pull the saxophone mouthpiece out a little on the neck cork, pull the clarinet barrel, the flute headjoint or the main tuning slide on brass, and measure again. If nearly every note runs flat, push in. The advice only appears when at least three out of four notes lean the same way, because the mouthpiece shifts every note together.
With the average near zero, what is left are the notes that stray from the rest; check Remove overall average to see only that difference. Those are fixed while playing: opening or firming the embouchure, changing the vowel and air support, with alternate fingerings or, on brass, the first or third valve slide. You hear it most in slow music and long chords.
Common tuning tendencies by family
Saxophone: according to Dr. Shelley Jagow (Dansr/Vandoren), most saxophones play middle C♯5 (all keys open) flat and D5, E♭5 and E5 with the octave key sharp, along with the palm-key notes from D6 to F6. Clarinet: A3, E5 and C♯6, which share a tone hole, tend to be sharp (Gregory Dufford, The Instrumentalist), and the throat tones from G4 to B♭4 also tend to go sharp. Flute: in the third octave, E♭6 to A♭6 tend to be sharp, B6 and C7 very sharp, while C♯6 is most often flat (Bradley Garner, The Instrumentalist).
Oboe: low notes tend to be flat unless played very softly, while half-hole notes and C♯5, D5 and E♭5 tend to be sharp (Sarah Hamilton, Oboehelp); on bassoon, the half-hole notes (F♯3, G3 and A♭3) usually run sharp too. Brass: the 1-3 and 1-2-3 valve combinations are sharp (1-2-3 by about 28 cents, according to the open textbook Brass Techniques and Pedagogy), which is why trumpets have a movable third valve slide for D4 and C♯4; notes on the 5th partial, such as open E5 on trumpet, sit about 14 cents flat, and the 7th partial, about 31 cents flat, is avoided. On recorder, blowing harder raises the pitch and blowing softer lowers it, so the chart says a lot about your breath pressure.
Temperature, warming up and how you play
The air inside the instrument changes the tuning: each degree Celsius warmer raises the pitch by roughly 3 cents on wind instruments, and measurements on brass found 1.2 to 2.6 cents per degree. That is why a cold sax starts flat and creeps up during the first minutes. Play long tones for about three minutes before measuring, as clarinetist Paula Corley recommends, and always measure in the same room. Dynamics matter as well: the flute rises when you play loud and drops when you play soft, while the clarinet often does the opposite in its low register.
The chart describes the instrument and player together: the same flute gives a different chart in someone else's hands, and the same sax changes with another mouthpiece, reed or ligature. That is why it shows the notes you need to watch. Measure again when you change equipment and compare. If one note stays more than 30 cents off even with a good average, it may be a leaking pad or a key that opens too high: show the chart to your repair technician.
Tips
- Measure with the same reed and mouthpiece you play on; a new or soft reed shifts the whole chart.
- Play without vibrato and don't watch the screen while you hold the note; lipping the pitch hides the tendency you are trying to find.
- Run through the scale two or three times: an average of several takes per note is far more reliable.
- Then train the red and blue notes by ear with the drone note or the chromatic tuner.
Frequently asked questions
My saxophone sounds out of tune. What should I do?
First warm up the sax and tune one reference note with the mouthpiece. Then build the chart: if nearly every note runs sharp or flat, the mouthpiece position is the problem; if only a few notes stray, those are tendencies of the instrument and your embouchure, which you fix while playing. Notes that are very far off, beyond 30 cents, may point to a leak: take it to a technician.
Which note should I tune my sax to?
Bands tune to concert B♭, which is written G on alto and baritone sax and written C on soprano and tenor. Orchestras tune to concert A (written F♯ on alto, written B on tenor). Once that note is in tune, the chart shows how the others behave.
What are tuning tendencies?
They are the habit certain notes on an instrument have of coming out slightly sharp or flat even when it is tuned on the reference note. They come from the physics of the tube, the position of the tone holes and each maker's compromises, and they shift a little with the mouthpiece, the reed and the way you blow.
Do I have to play the whole chromatic scale?
No. Choose a major or minor scale to measure only its notes, or narrow the range in Settings. The overall summary appears once four notes are measured.
How far off is normal?
Up to 5 cents shows green and hardly anyone hears it. From 5 to 15 cents is common on any wind instrument and is fixed with the embouchure. Beyond 20 or 30 cents, the note calls for an alternate fingering, a slide or a check-up.
Is my audio sent anywhere?
No. Pitch detection runs in the browser, on your device; nothing is recorded or uploaded. The chart is saved only in your browser, and you can share a link with the summary if you want.