Staying in tune while waiting to play

[Elliot Luber]

The last few times I played in public I was not the first person on the bill, and the room was cold, so my mandolin went way out of tune while I was waiting. I hate having to tune on stage in front of a crowd, particularly because I tune by ear and I have erred in that situation. Yes, I can buy a tuner, but are there any tricks to keeping your mando in tune when your not first on the bill?

[Fretbear]

The reason a reliable tuner is indespensible is not just about getting your instrument in tune to itself, although it will do that handily as well. It is about being sure that you are going to be dead in tune with your guitar player who hasn't arrived yet or who is on his way back from the bathroom before hitting the stage. You may be backstage and perfectly in tune, but completely sharp or flat to the rest of your band mates, even though you were all tuned together an hour ago. You would need pretty good ears to be able to know that without a tuner of some kind. It is also great for returning for overdubs in a studio or something, as you don't care where you were tuned today or yesterday or whatever, it is always at the same pitch.

[Bertram Henze]

Under sudden climate changes, it is best to bring the instrument into the final climate (where the performance will be) as early as possible to let it adapt, then tune up as late as possible right before the performance.

A tuner is a good idea, like Fretbear said, and should be used not only in emergency but always, because it takes some practice to get to know the mutual behavior of tuner and instrument and to minimize the time needed for tuning up.

There is no recipe for avoiding the last minute tune-up altogether, except of course avoiding the climate change. What cannot be avoided, should be perfected.

Bertram

[AlanN]

Another benefit to a tuner is ambient noise. It's one thing to be able to hear the fine shades of 'out of tune' wah-wahs in the confines of your living room, but try that in a crowded, hot, sweaty warm-up room. The little cable to my TU-12 is indispensable for that scene.

[Patrick Killeen]

If you do want to tune by ear then a headphone amp with a good pair of covered headphones will let you tune up in the venue.

I got myself a Korg Pandora many moons ago, it's a pocket multi efect unit but it's also got a built in chromatic tuner. It's great for open stages, instead of having to seek out some quiet corridor (which is normally a lot colder than the stage) I can tune up while the other acts are getting set up. I generally tune one string in a course to the tunner and the unison string by ear.

Patrick

[Steve Ostrander]

Why the resistance to a Etuner? I'd be lost without mine.

[mandocaster]

Q. How long does it take to tune a mandolin?

A. Nobody knows.

Seriously, let your instrument acclimatize for a while. It can take an hour or two.

[woodwizard]

Let's hear it for TUNERS! Hip Hip Horay! I don't miss the old days jamming at festivals when every jam you came to was in a different tuning. Always having to get with some one to tweak the tuning. Now days there's a very good chance that you can walk right up and start pickin' and be right in tune with them. On stage I don't think you will ever not have to tune at some point.

[lenf12]

Just having the mandolin laying against your belly for a few minutes will knock it out of tune. As a matter of fact, the mandolin is a great weather/climate indicator. Tune your mandolin and then check the tuning again a few minutes/hours later. If the tuning is sharp, it's gotten warmer and/or more humid. If the tuning is flat, it's gotten cooler and/or drier. That's the nature of a wooden (hydrophilic) stringed instrument with a relatively short scale length. The guitar does react too but not quite as dramatically to changes in climate because of it's longer scale length.

That being said, you will get a lot of use out of a good tuner. Use it frequently and you learn to minimize the time it takes to get in tune AND you and your band will sound a lot better.

Len B. (frequent tuner in hot, humid)
Clearwater, FL

[TonyP]

I've found my need for a long warmup before performing is the best way to keep me and the mando in tune and stable.

In the bands I've been in, the only people who struggle with their tuning is the ones who, for some unfathomable reason, don't have a tuner. And while I am in no way advocating being unable to tune without a tuner, performing is different. Like was pointed out to me in my first lesson, no matter how good you are, you still sound like an amateur if you are out of tune.

Add to that, most mandolin's project most of the sound out front and you've got a situation it's tough to hear good. And for me, when under stress, I have a hard time concentrating or hearing.

I ended up giving our guitar player who refused to get a tuner,my spare, even though he borrowed mine all the time. Now he never fumbles with his tuning. The best $30 I ever spent.

[sunburst]

Why the resistance to a Etuner?

Don't mean to single you out really, but; why the resistance (in this thread in general) to tuning by ear?
My tuner stays in the case most of the time because I prefer to tune by ear. The only advantage I can see to tuning electronically is in situations where it's too hard to hear to tune by ear. Getting in standard tuning is as easy as having a tuning fork in your pocket, but in these days of ubiquitous electronic tuners, you can grab a note from just about anybody and leave the tuning fork in the case too.

Back to the original question:
The best you can do is what has already been said; get the mando in the air you'll be playing in (out of the case) as early as you can before you play, and tune right before playing.

I played in a band with a guitar player who would show up and get his guitar out to play and then grumble about having to tune when he just tunes it before he left home! He used an electronic tuner, BTW, right before he put the guitar in the case to drive to the gig. It didn't make him any more in tune when he got there.

[lgc]

First I like to get my mando on perfect tune before I get on stage. Then once the gig or jam starts I move my pick hand and fretting fingers in exactly the same way I would if I was playing, but I don't touch the strings at all. It has a two fold benefit. One I greatly reduces the effect actually playing has on bringing the instrument out of tune and second if it does go out, due to temp or humidity, nobody can tell because no sound is coming from the mando.