Pitch pipe
The pitch pipe is a tuning instrument that was mostly used in the past for string instruments and is now used for a cappella ensembles.
Construction and use
A pitch pipe consists of one or more tubes with built-in penetrating reeds, or sound turrets with built-in reeds, which can be played by blowing into them with human breath. It is not intended for making music. It was previously used to specify the pitch when tuning instruments. Since the pitch pipe sounds loud or soft depending on the controlled strength of the breath pressure, it is mainly used today to discreetly indicate the starting notes in vocal ensembles before the beginning of a mostly unaccompanied vocal piece. There are chromatic pitch pipes with twelve tones, those with only as many tones as the instrument to be tuned has strings, usually four or six tones or even only one tone, for the alternative use of a tuning fork.
Designs
adjustable Czech pitch pipe
Pitch pipe for a guitar
Related topics
Electronic tuners or tuning apps for personal computers or smartphones , which have mostly replaced the pitch pipe today, measure the frequency of the tones generated by the instrument. Some of these devices can also have tones sounded depending on their design or programming.
See also:
literature
- The big Brockhaus . 16th edition 1957. Vol. 11, p. 242.