Review

Thomas Kociela and Bill Baxtresser
The Intonation Repair Tool: for Instrumentalists and Vocalists:

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Publisher: TKBB Press LLC
Date of Publication: 2011

Book and compact disc

Primary Genre: Study Material - book

The Intonation Repair Tool is a CD/text combination that seeks to develop the ability to hear intonation flaws and quickly correct them. This set comes in two editions: a full version and a student version. The full version includes a 55 page booklet, primarily with text instructions and explanations. The CD with the full version provides tracks in all twelve keys for major and natural minor scales, major, minor and diminished triads, and dominant 7th chords, along with drones on the tonic and with a perfect 5th added. The student version is essentially a fold out poster of basic information with a CD that includes most of the tracks from the full version. Unfortunately, the required pitch corrections, sharp or flat, for each interval are not given anywhere in the student version. Perhaps this was intentional to develop good listening skills, but given that the tracks require quick intonation changes, it would be helpful for students to know which direction each interval should go.

The full version of The Intonation Repair Tool could be helpful to advanced players. It includes a thorough discussion of intonation corrections and assumes that the player understands the concepts of intervals, tuning systems, and can play major and minor scales and chords in all keys. Everything is written in treble clef. The scale tracks are one octave only. The electronic tuning sounds were chosen well and make intonation mistakes clear. However, the notes are not held for a long enough time to allow the average student to get in tune. The authors believe that the seventh of a dominant 7th chord should be lowered only 4 cents, in spite of the fact that this creates obvious intonation waves on the dominant 7th chord tracks. In short, it’s difficult to recommend this set over the many intonation tools available today, but some musicians might find it to be a nice ancillary to whatever they’re currently using.

-Chris Buckholz
University of New Mexico