Posted by Jay Bertolet on June 23, 2001 at 08:30:42:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Sharp vs. Flat posted by Frederick J. Young on June 23, 2001 at 08:03:53:
Good point, I should have been clearer. I was trying to suggest that playing along with an ACCURATE fixed pitch source might help to establish in the player's ear an accurate sense of the exact pitch of the low E in question. Obviously, if the piano doesn't accurately render any pitch correctly, low range or otherwise, it isn't going to be of any use for this purpose. I should amend my suggestion to say that if the original poster only has access to an accoustical piano that is tuned in the way you describe, it would be better to find some other fixed pitch source or to only tune to the middle range notes of the piano. In any event, make sure that whatever pitch source you use us accurately tuned, as in A=whatever your desire is. Tuning to an inaccurate source might exacerbate the problem.
Another poster stated much more succinctly the cause that I was trying to get at. Many players do major embouchure gymnastics when playing in the low range and this shifting often causes pitch problems. The very first thing I suggest to my students when working on low range intonation is that they check to make sure they aren't ruining the pitch via these contortions. I didn't make that suggestion here because I can't see the player's face and evaluate the embouchure position used when playing this excerpt. This also might be fertile ground to explore for a solution to the problem.
My opinion for what it's worth...