pitch pipe in "F"

Subject: pitch pipe in
From: Bo
Date: 19 Feb 98 - 11:16 AM

A really stupid question.

I've just become the proud owner of a "Chromatic Pitch Instrument" which has A 440 (I can use) and 13 other keys (pitches) about which I'm thinking.

What sort of vocal range would I use this on. My Baratone voice doesnt seem to like the keys.

Can anyone tell me what sort of things they use their "Chromatic Pitch Instrument" for, or similar beasties. The maker of this particular beast is 'W. M. Kratt Co.'.

bo

Subject: RE: pitch pipe in
From: Jon W.
Date: 19 Feb 98 - 11:25 AM

Often these are used for tuning guitars and other stringed instruments--usually there is a specific set of pipes for each instrument such as EADGBE for Guitar, GDAE for violin, etc. The 13 other keys on yours are probably an octave too high for your voice (I'm guessing) but you should still be able to match the pitch of the note, just an octave lower.

Now they make electronic chromatic tuners for about $30 which are just dandy. Instead of it singing to you, you sing (or play) to it and it tells you what note you're singing and whether you're sharp or flat. I got one for my kids for Christmas but "forgot" to give it to them.

Subject: RE: pitch pipe in
From: Bert
Date: 19 Feb 98 - 12:45 PM

I used to have one but someone "borrowed" it. It came with an autoharp that my Mother gave me.

Subject: RE: pitch pipe in
From: Ralph Butts
Date: 19 Feb 98 - 07:57 PM

Hi Bo.....

The Kratt Master Key has been around forever. There are several models with overlapping ranges. Their primary use, IMHO, is for voice.

They only cover one octave so are not the best as guitar tuners, but you really only need to nail a couple of strings and do the rest by ear, that is unless you're performing live or need to retune often. Then an electronic is nearly mandatory.

.....Tiger

Subject: RE: pitch pipe in
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 19 Feb 98 - 09:55 PM

The ability to transpose octaves is the easiest of all musical transitions to make, so most singers just use the chomatic pitch instrument to find an "A" or an "F" and then transpose to a relevant octave.

An alternative used by some of my choir directors is the tuning fork, which, when struck, always gave a "C" (or an "A", but we tended to use "C" tuning forks). Then the director had to go up or down the scale to find and give the proper pitch. One memorable evening, our director struck the "C" and forgot to transpose to "F" and my choir sang an arrangement of a Russian hymn by Archangelskii up a fifth. Used a lot of falsetto, but we pulled it off, somehow.

Another one of my friends picks up the phone, and listens to the dialtone, which is two pitches put together, and one of them (I forget if it's the upper or lower pitch) is an "F", which he tunes to. (At least it works in his part of New Jersey.)

Still better is to have a friend blessed with "perfect pitch" to rely on, but they're not always around when you need them.

Subject: RE: pitch pipe in
From: Alice
Date: 19 Feb 98 - 11:19 PM

Charlie, I love that dialtone story! I remember in grade school, our teachers, who were nuns in the pre-Vatican Council style habits, (long to the ground with large wooden rosary beads dangling from the waist,) would each have a round pitchpipe hidden away in an interior pocket. They would pull them out from nowhere like a magician, and give a little note for the pitch to begin singing.

alice in mt.

Subject: RE: pitch pipe in
From: Bert
Date: 20 Feb 98 - 09:10 AM

I remember one sing I went to. I had broken my electronic tuner so I dug out an old "A" tuning fork.

Everyone thought it a great joke. Had to put up with comments such as "Where do the batteries go"

Subject: RE: pitch pipe in
From: Whippoorwill
Date: 20 Feb 98 - 03:14 PM

In a pinch, you could use it for a harmonica, but you'd have to be really quick.

Subject: RE: pitch pipe in
From: Ed, barbershopper
Date: 18 Mar 99 - 09:25 PM

Most men's a capella choruses and quartets use F to F pitch pipes to tune up. Yes, your pipe has EVERY available note on it! You may have to adjust your voice down an octave but that's not difficult! Women usually use C to C pipes for their higher voices. Although both pipes have all notes on them, more men's songs are tuned in the C down to F range, or down an octave from notes above C. The women's voices range down from D to C, hence the more common use of a C to C pipe. BUT either one WILL work!!!

Subject: RE: pitch pipe in
From: Bruce O.
Date: 18 Mar 99 - 10:38 PM

(Mine is Kratt, MK2-C). I think Bo is off by one, 13 in all, C through C in semitones. What I'm stumped on is that C#=Db, D#=Eb, F#=Gb, G#=Ab, and A#=Bb. What are these notes on a 'chromatic' scale? I thought these equalities only existed on an equal tempered scale. [C chromatic =264 Hz, C equal tempered =261.625+ Hz, both referenced to A = 440 Hz.]

Subject: RE: pitch pipe in
From: catspaw49
Date: 18 Mar 99 - 11:04 PM

As a Hammered Dulcimer builder and player I loved and hated that old Kratpit for years. After acquiring my first electronic chromatic tuner, I lovingly put the old girl away til I went camping back home. There I found it would skip 23 times before sinking tunelessly into the lake.

catspaw