Field Guide to String Education: Intonation

String Education Field Guide: Intonation

Matthew H. Spieker

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Copyright 2020 Matthew H. Spieker

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - Tuning String Instruments

Chapter 2 - The Right Finger

Chapter 3 - The Right Spot

Chapter 4 - Ensemble Tuning

Chapter 5 - Teaching Ideas

About Matthew H. Spieker

My String Coach

Connect with the Author

Welcome

Welcome to a portion of my collection of Field Guides for String Educators. Thank you for purchasing this eBook and helping me make it possible to be a string coach to those who want to improve as a string teacher. I am eager to share my experiences with you, and I wish you the best as you pursue this amazing profession of string education.

A genuine field guide is a small handbook that can fit in a pocket and be used as a quick reference to help someone identify plants and animals in nature. They are compact, easy to use, informative, and they make the experience of nature more enjoyable. In this same spirit, I hope you find these field guides as useful to help you teach stringed instruments to kids. They are written to provide you with brief, power-packed bits of information you can apply quickly to your classroom. It is my wish these field guides will transform your teaching.

Intonation is Difficult to Teach

One of the most challenging performance aspects of stringed instruments is playing in tune. It's crazy that the instruments don't have frets! But this seemingly design flaw doesn’t mean the fingerboard has no organization, or there are no guideposts about where to put fingers. And, believe it or not, young musicians can learn to, and do, play in tune. The evidence is overwhelming. Simply watch some YouTube videos, and you will find youth orchestras that play with amazing intonation. Of course, some do not. So, the question remains: How do you get kids to play in tune?

As an undergraduate, we had a professor in the string department who scared us. He was an adjunct instructor who already had a career teaching string bass in Illinois. He had an impressive background with multiple high-level performances, articles in professional journals, and even an orchestral experience with Leonard Bernstein directing. He was from New York and talked lightning fast. Nobody liked playing juries in front of him, and many of my bass friends shared horror stories about the consequences for not paying attention in his lessons.

Fast forward about a decade after graduation. I accepted a position as the newly minted orchestra director for a storied program. I was excited and ready for the challenge but also scared and intimidated. The same bass professor, now retired, offered to take me out for breakfast, his treat. I was nervous but glad I went. He was nothing like the man I heard about as an undergraduate, but rather incredibly kind and eager to help me become a better teacher. My main instrument is violin, so I took the opportunity to ask him about the bass.

The subject of intonation came up, and I shared with him my ideas. Getting kids to play in tune is one of the hardest things to do, I insisted. He listened but wrinkled his large nose, shook his shaggy head of hair, seemingly in disapproval, and finally interrupted me. Intonation is easy, he said. You simply need to put the right finger on the right spot. I walked away from that breakfast thinking, really, is it that simple? His statement does boil down the concept well. First, you need to know which finger is the correct finger; and second, you need to know the correct placement. This is what my eBook is all about, along with a few more ideas!

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Chapter One – Tuning String Instruments

Introduction

Tuning string instruments can be tricky for the student to learn and frustrating for the instructor to teach. It