Every performer needs a few simple pieces of equipment, if nothing else, to give a successful performance. It is well worth spending a little time beforehand to make sure of a worthwhile result.

The metronome

First make sure you play your music at the right speed. A machine called a metronome tells you what the speed should be. But how fast is fast? How slow is slow? It’s not always easy to decide how quickly a piece should be played. Composers often give an indication of the speed by putting numbers at the beginning of a piece of music. These numbers show how many beats there should be in a minute, from a slow 40 to a whizzing 208. The metronome helps you know exactly how quickly to play. You set the metronome by positioning a weight against the marks on a bar until it points to the chosen speed. Then you set it ticking, like a clock. Each tick represents one beat.

The tuning fork

When you play an instrument, especially in a group, you have to make sure that every instrument plays each note at the same pitch. The pitch must not vary from instrument to instrument, or the music will be out of tune.

Sound is caused by vibrations of air. Scientists measure pitch by counting how many vibrations a sound makes in one second. Low notes have few, slow vibrations, and high notes have many, fast ones.

The note A, which many instruments use to tune from, is fixed at 440 vibrations per second. This is known as concert pitch. Instruments tuned to concert pitch will sound the same all over the world. You can get the correct pitch of a note from a device called a tuning fork. This is a piece of metal that sounds a precise note when it is struck gently on a surface. You may also have seen an electrical tuner like the one in the picture. This picks up the sound waves from the note you play and shows them on a screen.

Once you’ve fixed the pitch of one note, you can match the pitch of all the others to it. Now you can put your music on a music stand and the performance can begin. Good luck!

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dodoMusic Box, Music Equipments, Sheet Music16 Oct, 2008