What follows is aimed primarily at a relatively small group of musicians, but if you take a moment and keep reading, I am confident that you will find an analogy to your work life, your relationships, your life’s journey, or all the above.
The word intonation has multiple meanings but the meaning I wish to illuminate is that which pertains to music. In music, intonation is the accuracy of a musician's or instrument's pitch. It's a measure of how well a note is in tune, or how flat or sharp it is. Intonation is important for the overall sound quality of a performance, and can affect whether music sounds harmonious, cohesive, or out of tune, dissonant, or unclear.
When I first began playing the bass, I was introduced to the instrument via a traditional method associated with classical music. Intonation on any musical instrument is affected by the way the player uses the equipment s/he is using whether it be a mouthpiece, reed, a bow, or various other parts of an instrument that can be manipulated to refine the pitch that is being produced. Players of stringed instruments are especially affected by the fact that there are normally no markers on their fingerboard, and they must use muscle memory combined with sophisticated aural corrective devices that they have trained on repeatedly. But excellent intonation is hopefully the goal of every instrumentalist and vocalist.
In all my classical studies as both a student and teacher, good intonation has traditionally been heavily emphasized. As a result, the finest players seem to have excellent intonation, and that has a direct effect upon the quality of the sound they produce.
The bass as played with the bow, most common in classical music.
Observing jazz bassists for decades, I have concluded that the high standard for excellent intonation among classical bassists has historically not been met by their counterparts in the jazz genre. This is regrettably still the case today. I believe there are a few reasons for this.
The original bass instrument in the earliest forms of jazz music was the tuba. The tuba was gradually replaced by the acoustic bass in the 1920s and 1930s as the percussive aspect and longer note duration of a plucked acoustic bass came into favor. As a result, many bass players were not formally trained in bass playing, having been tuba players originally. In the early days, many bassists were self-taught and refined intonation was apparently not a priority or within their reach at the time. Of course, there were a few exceptions, but they were the outliers.
The bass as played pizzicato, most common in jazz music.
Another possible reason is the fact that a bass played with the bow, not common in the jazz genre, produces a longer sustained sound with a center to the pitch that is easier to detect and correct if necessary. A bass note when plucked tends to decay quickly, making the center of the pitch a bit more challenging to detect. A bowed bass note also tends to activate a greater range of what is known as the overtone series, a series of high-pitched harmonics that humans cannot hear, but that add to the richness of both sound and pitch. A plucked or pizzicato note played on the bass does not seem to have equal potential.
Although in modern times bassists have had greater access to good teachers and methods of playing the instrument, and better instruments and equipment to play, I feel that excellent intonation is still eluding many jazz bassists. In fact, I feel it is eluding many jazz instrumentalists and vocalists generally. One wonders why in this modern era that the phenomena would still exist.
For that, I do not have a clear answer, but perhaps it is a result of a lack of awareness. I have been told by many instrumentalists that poor intonation in the bass throws everything off and makes it more difficult for others to find their center. This makes sense to me as harmony is built from the bottom up, rather than the top down. The bass is usually on the very bottom of the ensemble in range and often in pitch. I find it interesting that excellent intonation is seldom mentioned within the corpus of jazz instructional methods. Are we missing something essential?
There is also a phenomenon with respect to human hearing that I feel is worthy of study. It seems to me that the human ear is more forgiving of pitch that is flat as opposed to pitch that is sharp. When listeners, and even musicians hear intonation that is somewhat flat, it seems to pass relatively unnoticed or is otherwise accepted. But when intonation is perceived as sharp, even by novices, it almost always gets the, “That really sounds out of tune or something” reaction. In my observations, jazz musicians, and bassists in particular who suffer poor intonation are at best consistently flat, or at worst, inconsistent altogether. It can be the result of hearing that is not sufficiently vigilant, or a lack of good instrumental technique, or both.
For me personally, pursuing excellent intonation continues to be a challenge, but I have found that if I practice with the bow frequently and make excellent intonation a priority, my ear’s awareness is sharpened, my muscle memory in the left hand begins to solidify, and that seems to carry over to my jazz playing. Additionally, the positioning of the left hand is critical for all string players. Often, shifting (moving to different locations on the fingerboard) can wreak havoc. I have identified shifting as, “The enemy of excellent intonation” and make sure to carefully examine the mechanics involved in shifting each time I practice.
The position of the left hand on the fingerboard is a critical factor.
I suppose my view is theoretical at best, but it is informed by my experience of carefully observing the playing of my colleagues on the bass and on other instruments as well, in both the jazz and classical genres, thus coming to some inescapable conclusions.
It seems to me that we all must strive for excellence in our endeavors. Key to this effort is to not take what we are doing presently for granted or as automatically acceptable, to sharpen our awareness of our habits, and to take an honest look at what is preventing our best effort and resolve to work on creating good habits. The age old saying that “bad habits die hard” is true, but if one can slowly and methodically deconstruct those habits and gradually replace them with arguably good habits, those newly acquired habits will be equally hard to break. Why not become habitually excellent at something so important as intonation, sound production, relationships, work habits, or the journey called life itself? With the right time and deliberate practice, consistent excellence may be within your reach!
I have provided my observations to call attention to the issue and to ask my colleagues in the jazz genre to simply consider the possibility that my observations are at least somewhat accurate. If that is the case, I submit that many of us, myself included, still have much work to do.
A final note to readers: Don’t forget that I now have enabled a chat section where my posts may be discussed by my readers and me. Feel free to chime in. We are all interested in your constructive and thoughtful musings!
TC
Would the music differences also have an effect on intonation?
The classical repertoire is primarily reproduction with a reasonable opportunity for "Perfection" because the music is intended, in most instances, to be without deviation. This gives the player the condition of being able to perfect not only the music, but also how it is played on one's instrument in one precise and specific manner.
Improvised music, such as Jazz in this discussion, is "unknown" until the moment it is played. It seems to me that this distinction would cause some level of fluctuation in the intonation, especially at higher tempi.
It is agreed that many instrumentalists and vocalists would serve the audience more thoroughly by having greater focus on intonation and specific note choice. There can be quite a bit of "Beating Around the Bush" and lack of definitive melody, especially with "Modern" vocalists.
However, it is interesting to note that Jazz, and especially, the Blues, sound as they do because of how "Wrong" they are with respect to not only harmonic and melodic structure, but also the "Not-Quite-In-Tune" approach to many of the notes and phrases.
As with any spice, a little goes a long way and too much is always wrong.
I agree with the observations about intonation as it relates to bass. When I was starting out I learnt Simandl left hand positions and bow technique from a classical bassist; some of the older jazz players said to me at that time, "That's great, you're learnin' legit!" So there was an understanding, even then, about the importance of mastering classical technique for producing a good intonation on bass.
All of my teachers, with just one exception, stressed that technical bass practice was always with a bow; so scales, arpeggios, patterns, and also melodies all played arco.