It’s amazing how far an ensemble can go without really understanding what they’re doing.
We spend time every week working on tuning exercises – designed to give ensembles the chance to practice the just intonation that I think sounds most powerful in a cappella ensembles singing mostly triadic harmony.
We practice these tuning exercises, and they try to imagine singing a syntonic comma higher or lower, but I don’t think their ears, as a rule, are ready to hear microtones. And yet!
And yet, after a couple of months of weekly work, they sing with so much more reliable tuning! Their chords lock, producing over- and sub-tones that weren’t regular visitors to our rehearsal in the fall. They’re practicing subliminal tuning, as their ears become more and more accustomed to what great tuning feels like.
The right exercises, time, and patience can produce remarkable results. Even subliminally!