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What is a Pitch Pipe?

Mary Elizabeth
Mary Elizabeth
Mary Elizabeth
Mary Elizabeth

A pitch pipe, also spelled pitchpipe, is a tool used by a conductor or performer to accurately set pitch for a performance. The usual standard is A-440. Although it is capable of emitting a sound, either when keys are pressed or when it is blown, the pitch pipe is not a musical instrument, as it is designed to render individual pitches for tuning – not to create a performance.

Two frequent users of the pitch pipe are leaders of a cappella singing groups – groups in which the singers perform unaccompanied – and timpani players. Orchestras often play with 3–4 timpani, and it is not uncommon for a piece to require that the timpani be retuned in the middle of the piece, with several bars of rest being designated for this purpose. The timpanist softly blows the pitch on the pitch pipe and retunes the timpani as needed.

Man playing a guitar
Man playing a guitar

For a cappella groups, the conductor or leader will often play the starting pitches for the performers on the pitch pipe, giving each vocal part its beginning note. If the piece has several sections or movements, the pitches may be given prior to beginning each new portion of the piece. More often found in the past, but still found today, a tuning fork may be used for this purpose by a cappella groups, with the other pitches being worked out from the one the fork gave. Timpanists, on the other hand, would own a collection of tuning forks, and selecting the appropriate ones.

One pitch pipe design is a disc with the pitches labeled on one surface and a small hole for each pitch – you find the pitch you want and blow into the pitch pipe, something like a round harmonica. You can also purchase an electronic pitch pipe, which is operated by pressing buttons marked with the desired pitch. Each of these two types of pitch pipe come in two different pitch ranges, F to F and C to C.

There are also pitch pipes made specifically for guitar, violin, banjo, and tenor banjo. At least some of these limit their pitches to the standard string tunings. The specialized guitar pitch pipe, for example, has six pitches each with its own little mouthpiece labeled with the standard tunings for guitar, as follows: 1E 2B 3G 4D 5A 6E

Mary Elizabeth
Mary Elizabeth

Mary Elizabeth is passionate about reading, writing, and research, and has a penchant for correcting misinformation on the Internet. In addition to contributing articles to MusicalExpert about art, literature, and music, Mary Elizabeth is a teacher, composer, and author. She has a B.A. from the University of Chicago’s writing program and an M.A. from the University of Vermont, and she has written books, study guides, and teacher materials on language and literature, as well as music composition content for Sibelius Software.

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Mary Elizabeth
Mary Elizabeth

Mary Elizabeth is passionate about reading, writing, and research, and has a penchant for correcting misinformation on the Internet. In addition to contributing articles to MusicalExpert about art, literature, and music, Mary Elizabeth is a teacher, composer, and author. She has a B.A. from the University of Chicago’s writing program and an M.A. from the University of Vermont, and she has written books, study guides, and teacher materials on language and literature, as well as music composition content for Sibelius Software.

Learn more...

Discussion Comments

Lostnfound

@Pippinwhite -- I'm the second-in-command songleader at my church, and even though we have instrumental music, there are days when I look at the hymns and wish I had a pitch pipe to pitch them lower!

I've had to lead the singing on Sundays where every hymn hit an E5 or an F5! This is just too high for most congregations to sing, and it's a stretch for me, unless I'm in really good voice that day. I'd love to be able to pitch these just about a step lower so everyone could sing them.

Our pastor picks the hymns, and even though he loves music, he doesn't read it and knows nothing about high or low notes. He just picks what he likes. His wife is a former band director and has had to have a talk with him once or twice about his hymn choices. She works with him sometimes on picking hymns everyone can sing comfortably.

Pippinwhite

I've never seen an electronic pitch pipe, although I have seen the metal kind. Some churches that don't use instrumental music have songleaders who use pitch pipes to set the pitch for the hymns. This allows the congregation to sing hymns in keys that are more suitable for group singing. Some hymns have very high notes, for instance, and pitching them down enables everyone to sing the hymn more comfortably.

When my family gets together, sometimes we sing hymns and my uncle has a pitch pipe to pitch the songs, since we usually sing a cappella.

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      Man playing a guitar