T
tdukex
Man of the Muse
This has turned into one of the most interesting discussions I have encountered on this Board in nine years.
We have been over and over this. You really must pay attention in class..![]()
This has turned into one of the most interesting discussions I have encountered on this Board in nine years.
Hey, be nice to me! I know you're an expert in this field, but if I had to explain the details of modernism vs postmodernism in Irish literature of the twentieth century to you, you wouldn't grasp it first time either.![]()
What have they been saying? what? Let me at them.......I've been hanging round on the harmony-central guitar forum, and people there were saying some things that caused me to question what I thought I knew. So, naturally, I came back here to consult my mentor
Scary, but now I know who to ask when I need to.
What have they been saying? what? Let me at them.......
And how's that Uke coming along? You promised pictures and sound clips.![]()
Good stuff, but don't rush on it. Get that college work done first.College got in the way, and I had to shelve the uke project for a bit. I've also been around here a bit less recently. However, I'm going to get back to work on it soon. Pics and clips will be duly provided.
I was just going to add a few interesting technical bits that may shed some light on the subject material. I'll get round to it soon.
Many many years ago I trained under some of the Dolmetsch guys when they still had instrument workshops. Hence my interest in Viols, Lutes and other early fretted stuff. They don't just do recorders.Great thanks, and always welcome. I've added another on the Cycle of Fifths, again from a guitarists perspective.
Anyone looking for a really authoritative reference on music theory could do no better than consult Dolmetsch Online - yes, the recorder makers! But their site is a treasure trove of music theory & history. E.g. try this article on tuning:
http://www.dolmetsch.com/musictheory27.htm
I don't wish to put you off but the acoustics of vibrating membranes is a lot harder than that of the humble vibrating string.This is why I like drums.
Couple of observations and first, my background:
Piano tuner for over 30 years and until I retired last year, one of the busiest in the country ..... 3 to 5 pianos a day 6 days a week for at least the last 15 years of doing it.
I play sax (which isn't brass but still, SOME similarities) and I play git ..... sax at an extremely high level and git at a pretty good level. I've played both for over 40 years and since 1969 I've done around 11,000 gigs ..... still playing 5-7 gigs a week.
As a piano tuner, I've talked thousands of times with at least dozens of tuners and have played with many many violinists.
No one ever talks about any of this stuff ever!
A violinist does not think in those terms ...... they simply play so it is in tune with whatever they are playing with. And it is not true that they always put that finger down precisely in tune ..... they make small adjustments all the time. Since the movement for pitch change is so small on a violin, it can be hard or impossible to see but I've stood 3 feet from more players than I can count and any good violinist makes the minute changes to be in tune as they play without thinking about it. Yes, a really good one will hit the right spot almost all the time but even they aren't perfect and will change as needed.
As for ET ...... they play to be in tune with whatever they're playing along with if they're any good. So if the instruments they are playing with are ET ..... then they play that way without ever thinking about such concepts. The only thing they try to do is be in tune which requires matching up with whatever their accompianment is whether it's an orchestra or a piano or a country band.
The only time I can see them not needing to do that is solo or possibly a duo with another violinist.
Sax is way more variable in tuning from note to note than brass but the principal is the same and it's the same as with violin.
I'm about as good on sax as you're ever gonna run into and even though I'm a tuner too, I NEVER think about things like ET. The only thing I'm doing is playing in tune with whatever is around me. If I'm playing with a pianist, I'm definitely playing ET because I'm adjusting all the time to play in tune with him. Many many sax players and brass play out of tune it's true. but that's not because they adher to some non-ET philosophy. It's because they can't play in tune! And the only reason I would hire someone back like that is 'cause horn players are relatively scarce these days.
As a piano tuner, I can do them by ear though when I was doing so many, I did have a very expensive tuner that I would use on around 30 of the 230-240 strings in a piano. The rest was totally by ear.
Pianos can vary an awful lot in how much they need to be stretched to be in tune and different tuners may hear it differently. You can actually tune a piano surprisingly different ways as far as stretch goes and have it sound good (but different) in all of them.
But all this mathematical dissection of piano tuning? That's all beginner stuff that you learn in tuning school and then forget, for the most part, when you get in the real world of tuning real peoples pianos in their living rooms.
True but you have to understand it before you can choose to forget it. A bit like reading music. Your limited if you don't and you can ignore it if your can. Thats not saying there aren't great non reading musicians out there but It will never hurt to be able to read music or understand the why it is notated as it is.. We wouldn't have many of the instruments and refinements we have today without someone crunching those numbers. As I said though we are I think both on the same page here.But all this mathematical dissection of piano tuning? That's all beginner stuff that you learn in tuning school and then forget, for the most part, when you get in the real world of tuning real peoples pianos in their living rooms.
I don't wish to put you off but the acoustics of vibrating membranes is a lot harder than that of the humble vibrating string.![]()
I'm about as good on sax as you're ever gonna run into...
it really varies. Back in Baton Rouge it tended to be jazz or funky stuff.What genre are you playing most of those sax gigs as a matter of interest?
LOL .... yeah, I know,And so modest! ;^)
As an interesting side note, pipers have been changing their tuning over the last 100 years. Particularly over the last 40. The C and the F used to be midway between C and C# (or f/f#), but now they are decidedly C# and F#. Our tuning is becoming very harmonically just.
A violinist does not think in those terms ...... they simply play so it is in tune with whatever they are playing with. And it is not true that they always put that finger down precisely in tune ..... they make small adjustments all the time. Since the movement for pitch change is so small on a violin, it can be hard or impossible to see but I've stood 3 feet from more players than I can count and any good violinist makes the minute changes to be in tune as they play without thinking about it. Yes, a really good one will hit the right spot almost all the time but even they aren't perfect and will change as needed.