A444 Tuning

[Paul and Brenda]

Has anyone tried tuning A444? Or A432? Some say these tunings are more soothing than A440.

[balfour-knight]

All of my instruments are tuned at A440.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

That is a high tuning, it will increase the stress on your sounding board. If anything, I think lower tunings would be more “soothing.”

[juanmariasolare]

In my opinion, tuning to 444 Hz might be practical only if you are playing chamber music with (say) a woodwind such as saxophone or clarinet (they tend to be tuned slightly higher than other instruments). If playing alone, it is up to you (and to the strenght of your instrument!), but if you go for soothing sounds, as @Saul suggested, I’d recommend going for a lower tuning.

Having said that, there are a lot of extramusical considerations when tuning at 432 Hz. Numerological, neo-mystical and not always research-based considerations. But you will not hurt your instrument if you tune at 432. On the contrary, I can’t afirm the same of the opposite (i.e. tuning much higher than 440 MIGHT harm your instrument).

Juan María

• This reply was modified 1 month, 2 weeks ago by juanmariasolare. Reason: html not accepted

[balfour-knight]

I agree completely Juan! Thank you for posting.

Hope you have a great day!
Balfour

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

Tuning differently will really bother people who have perfect pitch.

[Author]

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