Audible tuner for the blind

posted Jun 27th 2010 12:30pm by Mike Szczys
filed under: musical hacks

[Lain Sharp] modified this guitar tuner so it can be used by his blind friend. In the picture above you can make out a small white project box that houses the additional electronics. Inside is another battery and an ATmega168 providing a connection for an earphone. The AVR chip connects to each LED on the tuner and converts the visual tuning meter to an audio cue. Check out the demonstration clip after the break to see how it works.

Now if we could just figure out how to get our strings in tune with our built-in keyboard.

Comments [12]

tagged: ATmega168, blind, guitar, tuner

12 Responses to Audible tuner for the blind

3-R4Z0R says:

June 27, 2010 at 1:34 pm

A tuning fork is more accurate, easier to use and faster to use, especially for blind people who have better hearing than normal people. In that sense it’s not really an improvement…

…but hey, it’s a hack! =)

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Jason says:

June 27, 2010 at 1:56 pm

Aren’t blind people already better listeners? I have a friend who is blind and he can identify DTMF tones. I would think a blind person who plays an instrument would be able to tell if their instrument is in tune without a tuner at all.

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aztraph says:

June 27, 2010 at 2:19 pm

I agree with Jason, blind musicians frequently become musicians after they go blind, because they hearing improves, which negates the need for a tuner.

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Jordan says:

June 27, 2010 at 2:43 pm

Unless they have perfect pitch (which is a born trait, not learned) they still need a reference. You can learn to come close, but if you’re playing with others and you aren’t quite in tune it sounds ugly.

Also, this is really overly complicated. As a non-blind guitarist myself, I much prefer a tuner which generates a tone I can match strings to – rather than LEDs telling me I’m off pitch.

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Crazor says:

June 27, 2010 at 2:59 pm

It may be true that blind people have better hearing capabilities, but for tuning an instrument without any help, you’d need to be able to hear what is called perfect pitch, i.e. you’d know yourself that your E string is off by 50 cent because you just know how an E sounds.

Musicians, and probably also the blind, are more capable of hearing tonal differences, but perfect pitch is a very rare capability. So, well-trained musicians (and probably blind) can tune with a tuning fork very accurately, but without a reference tone, you can only tune your instrument’s strings relative to each other, but not absolutely.

Also note that there are many situations where tuning with tuning forks or other audible reference tones is inconvenient or impossible, e.g. while on stage or in other loud environments or when the sound your instrument produces should not be audible for others (like when playing live and re-tuning between songs).

Just like I tune with my amp on mute, this device allows a blind person to tune with an earbud. This is really a great hack!

I also like the way the feedback is implemented with faster/slower beeps and high/low tones. Reminds me of “strobe” tuners…

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Quin says:

June 27, 2010 at 3:24 pm

I prefer to tune my guitars against a pitch fork, pipe, or a fixed tone from a generator. With a little practice, you can hear the harmonic between the string and the other source, and get the pitch under 1Hz different.

As for tuning a guitar to stay tuned with a keyboard, you won’t. A synth has just intonation for any key, and unless you retune the guitar at the bridge it is going to be really hard to get it to match at all notes, all the time. Add in the dynamic pressure of your finger on the fret and, well, it gets complex.

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xrazorwirex says:

June 27, 2010 at 7:41 pm

I can ‘hear’ a close-to-perfect A in my head and pair it up with my A string and go from there w/ harmonics. However, if you’re still figuring things out or if you’re setting up intonation or need to be perfectly accurate for some reason, tuners save the day.

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Derrick says:

June 27, 2010 at 9:12 pm

Tuners are quick, and while this is a simple hack, it’s a very clever one. I really enjoy seeing these hacks that benefit the disabled.

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derp says:

June 27, 2010 at 11:59 pm

crazor hit the nail on the head. well said

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woochi says:

June 28, 2010 at 4:58 am

There are already factory produced tuners that have audio cues. On mine, if you play a note, it senses what note you’re close to and will play back the correct tone.

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NatureTM says:

June 28, 2010 at 6:20 pm

I also play guitar and I agree with the others that I like tuning to a reference tone. Still, I know someone who plays guitar, better than I, who doesn’t tune well without using a typical tuner which shows the pitch offset. It’s strange, but he just doesn’t hear the interference.
I imagine there are still some blind people, despite the cliched enhanced hearing, who would prefer tuning with something like a traditional electronic guitar tuner.
I applaud hackers like Lain Sharp and Ben Heck who work at helping disabled people. I saw a deaf dancer recently, and thought of a device that would place multiple vibrating motors on the person’s body to help them perceive a song’s rhythm. I don’t know if I’ll get around to making it, so if anyone likes the idea, go ahead.