To tune a guitar by ear, for example, you can use the A string to find the pitch for the D string, the string above it. All instruments are stringed differently and have a different process for tuning by ear.Use your A string as a reference to tune the rest of the instrument. Playing the 5th fret of a string produces the same note as the string above it. Most stringed instruments in standard tuning are tuned in fifths, meaning that the strings are 5 notes apart. With the A string in tune, you can now tune the rest of the strings by ear. Ultimately, the implementation of the tuning fork meant that music could be more accurately performed, thus more accurately reinterpreted, in both live and recorded performance.Tune the rest of your strings in relation to the A string. In the case of non-stringed instruments, it’s more often a phenomenological matter of comparison (a very rough example would be listening to a 45 rpm song, playing it at 33 1/3 rpm, and then replaying it, again, at 45 rpm). Objectively, tuning up an instrument does create a more brilliant sound the tightened strings result in higher amplitudes of the harmonics of the notes. Historically speaking, however, the widespread use of the tuning fork lead to something of an arms race when it came to performance, which resulted in “pitch inflation.” Musicians in competition with one another strived for a more “brilliant” sound, as it seemed more precise. At one level, the notion of “right,” in this context, is about artistic intentionality. Furthermore, this complicated the practical possibilities for musicians – and especially singers – to perform the right notes. For example, if a piece was written at A = 450 Hz, but performed by an orchestra tuned to A = 410 Hz, it would sound much lower in pitch. This meant that, while the information depicted on a piece of sheet music was universally understood, the actual sound could vary greatly. Prior to the standardization of A = 440 Hz, the concert pitch of a given piece varied around the world, ranging from 400 to 450 Hz, by the end of the 18th century. In laymen’s terms, the concert pitch establishes the frequency of the note A, above middle C. More significantly, the use of a tuning fork allowed for instruments to be tuned to the concert pitch of a piece of music.

It doesn’t take someone with perfect pitch to hear the discomfort in dissonance when instruments are not in tune with one another. Where the mass production of sheet music allowed for dissemination of music, the tuning fork greatly impacted its capacity to be performed. This results in the creation of a pure sine wave at a given tone, making it easier to tune an instrument, due to the lack of distortion in the tone. The tone that is emitted is consistent, with its overtones quickly fading as most of the vibrational energy at the fundamental frequency of the fork.

A tuning fork consists of two prongs, formed by a U-shaped, metal bar (typically steel), and, as the name suggests, is used for tuning musical instruments. Invented in 1711 by John Shore (Sergeant trumpeter and lutenist of the court), the tuning fork is an acoustic resonator that, when struck, emits a pure musical tone.

Tuning fork music