Tune in, tune up, tune out...

For bass players who play unfretted bass instruments, which include the double bass (also known as the "upright bass" or the "acoustic bass"), the fretless electric bass, and various types of electric upright basses, learning how to play in tune takes up a lot of practice time.

These instruments don't have frets, but a skilled, experienced bass player can play basslines covering the entire fingerboard with remarkable pitch accuracy. Any time you see this feat, it has been achieved through countless hours of behind-the-scenes "woodshedding" (intense practice) on intonation (the musical term for being in tune).

Of course, the concept of tuning is not unique to the musical scene. This blog post's title, "Tune in, tune up, tune out", captures three expressions which are used in everyday life. When a person is trying to listen to CBC radio on the old stereo at a family cottage, they play with the aerial's position to try to "tune in" the station's frequency. If they have a good-quality radio, they may even adjust the fine-tuning knob to try to get more locked in on the correct frequency. Metaphorically, we also talk of "tuning in" in a social setting, such as with LSD enthusiast, counterculture guru and author Timothy Leary's encouragement in the 1960s that people "tune in, turn on, and drop out".

When a cycling enthusiast pulls their bike out of storage in the spring, before they set out on the trails, they "tune up" the bike by adjusting the brakes and gear system. They do this so that the bike's mechanical components will move smoothly and cleanly. Drivers get their cars tuned up at the garage, or if they're a DIY type, they may even make adjustments to the engine and brakes in their driveway.

The third metaphor, "tune out", is used to refer to cases where a person isn't aware of information coming out. For example, if we have a pal who isn't ever checking their email and they miss their final exams at university, we might say he or she has been "tuned out". While we view "tuning in" and "tuning up" as good things, as in each case, a system or set-up is being adjusted to run more smoothly or correctly, we view "tuning out" as undesirable. It's almost as if society expects us to keep our senses in the "on" position to keep receiving input.

All this context jibes well with the role of tuning for unfretted bass instruments. The very first tuning activity for an unfretted bass instrument is the initial tuning-up, where the bass player tunes the strings. If the bass player is playing alone in a practice room, they might just "tune the bass to itself", an approach in which one string is deemed to be "correct" and all the other strings are tuned to this string.*

If you are playing with other instrumentalists, you need to agree on the tuning. Of course, with adjustable-pitch instruments, you don't have to use a reference pitch. You can just use the same approach of deeming one string on one person's instrument (or with wind/brass, one note on a wind/brass instrument) to be correct, and then tune to it.

In Classical orchestras, typically the oboe gives the 440 Hz A note. In the 2020s, the oboe player typically has an electronic tuner that they use to ensure that their A is correct. Once the oboe's A is settled on a clear, correct A, the Concertmaster (the leader of the first violin section) nods and the entire orchestra tunes to that note.

If you're playing with a fixed-pitch instrument such as piano, organ, synthesizer, or accordion, you need to tune to that instrument, since they either can't be adjusted (piano, pipe organ, acoustic accordion), or it may be hard to adjust the pitch (some vintage synthesizers have a complex process for changing the tuning). Tuning an unfretted bass to a fixed-pitch instrument can be hard at first, because the instruments have different timbres or "tone colours".

If you find it hard to match your pitch to the piano, if the keyboardist is playing a synthesizer, you might ask them to use a double bass patch to help you tune up, because the tone colours will match and you might find it easier.

The first step is to ensure that any pitch-affecting effects on the keyboard, such as chorus or vibrato, are turned off. With a Hammond organ, ask the keyboardist to stop the rotating Leslie speaker. If you are using any effects through your amp, such as bass chorus, turn those effects off. Then ask for a note from the keyboard player. Some players may give you a chord, such as a "d minor" or "a minor" chord, but it's best to start with just a single note.

While the established convention in Classical music is for the keyboard player to give a 440 Hz A note, this note isn't ideal for tuning a bass, since our open A string is so much lower in pitch (the open "A" of a bass is 55 Hz). You may want to ask for a lower-pitched A, such as a 110 Hz A.

You could ask for a 55 Hz A, but the challenge with that on an acoustic piano is that the pitch may be a bit unclear, because the heavy metal winding on bass piano strings causes some enharmonicity. There are two ways to make a string sound low: make it very long, or make it thicker and heavier. Since piano designers don't want a piano to be 20 feet long, they make the piano strings for bass notes thick and heavy, but this decision comes at the "cost" of a bit of tuning issues.

If the rehearsal is starting in one minute, you might only have time to ask for one reference pitch note. You tune one string of your bass to that reference pitch, then you "tune the bass to itself", which means you "transfer" that tuning from the "good" string to the other strings. If you're early at the rehearsal, you may want to ask to check the other strings against the keyboard.

That is, ask the keyboardist to play a "G" and check your "G string", ask them to play a "D" and you can check your "D string", and so on. If you are at a recording session, you may want to tune up in two stages: a rough tuning, right when you arrive at the studio, and then, after 20 minutes, once your amp and cabinet is set up, do a fine-tuning and check the pitch against the piano again. Strings take time to settle and adjust to the new tension when you change the pitch.

I haven't mentioned electronic tuners yet for bass. They are a wonderful tool, as they can enable you to tune up at a noisy bar where it would be hard to hear the pitch. They are a great time-saver for busy gig weekends, as you can get all of your basses in tune quickly.

However, it's important to still be able to tune "by ear", because there are cases where you can't use your tuner.

• What if you're onstage, and the tuner battery dies? You need to be able to ask for a reference pitch and tune up "by ear".

• What if you forget your tuner in your practice room, and you arrive at a gig at the last minute with a piano player and sax player**; all you can do is ask for a tuning note and tune by ear.

• Or what if you arrive at a gig in an old church, and the 19th-century pipe organ isn't tuned to standard pitch. You'll need to tune by ear.

Now your bass is in tune with itself and with a reference pitch and you're ready to start the next stage: playing in tune on fingered notes on the unfretted fingerboard. This will require several more blog posts, so stay tuned!

* I recommend always keeping your basses tuned to an external reference pitch, such as a tuning fork, pitch pipe, or piano. First of all, the instrument and strings you're using were designed to operate their best at the standard pitch. Tuning too high can put strain on the strings and wooden bridge. Tuning too low, while not harmful, may not sound as good on your instrument, as the lowered string tension can make the strings seem "floppy".

Second, this helps get the absolute pitch in your ear; no one is saying that keeping your basses tuned to A=440 Hz is going to suddenly give you "perfect pitch", but it helps. People who have perfect pitch tend to be people who regularly use fixed-pitch instruments, such as piano or organ. Of course you can be a great musician without having perfect pitch, but it's not an either/or issue. For a performer who mostly uses "relative pitch", having a bit of perfect pitch that you can draw on can help your intonation, especially in a harder song with complex, chromatic harmony.

*** In this gig example, there's no one else on the stage who uses a clip-on tuner or tuning pedal, so you can't borrow someone else's Snark tuner.