Friday, October 13, 2006
For musicians
Interesting discussion on intonation here.
I remember as a teenage guitar player - and a pretty serious student at that time - being incredibly frustrated because no matter how careful I was, I couldn't tune the damn guitar to sound good in D/Bm and in C/Am. It was particularly apparent in upper positions.
It took me a long time to actually figure out that it wasn't me. It is mathematically impossible to tune a guitar. And what's worse is that if there is any flex to the neck at all (and there has to be a slight bow, or the lower notes will buzz against the frets), the very act of pressing the string down to the fret increases tension on the string, pulling it out of tune.
That's why I eventually became enamored with the violin -- you can play in just temperament in any key without having to retune the damn thing.
Not that I'm God's Gift to Intonation or anything. I'm not by a long shot. But when you're in tune, and in the zone...it's magic.
Splash, out
Jason
I remember as a teenage guitar player - and a pretty serious student at that time - being incredibly frustrated because no matter how careful I was, I couldn't tune the damn guitar to sound good in D/Bm and in C/Am. It was particularly apparent in upper positions.
It took me a long time to actually figure out that it wasn't me. It is mathematically impossible to tune a guitar. And what's worse is that if there is any flex to the neck at all (and there has to be a slight bow, or the lower notes will buzz against the frets), the very act of pressing the string down to the fret increases tension on the string, pulling it out of tune.
That's why I eventually became enamored with the violin -- you can play in just temperament in any key without having to retune the damn thing.
Not that I'm God's Gift to Intonation or anything. I'm not by a long shot. But when you're in tune, and in the zone...it's magic.
Splash, out
Jason
Comments:
Well, except you can't, because the F# over a D is slightly flatter than the leading tone F# you would play in a Gmaj 7.
And any G chord has a D and a G, so you would probably lean towards the sharper F# (except in a blues/jazz context), but when the song comes around to the V chord, neither a guitar nor a just-temperament piano will have that F# available that is harmonically sympathetic to to the open D string.
Violinists, vocalists, fretless banjo players and -to an extent - dobro people don't usually have that problem.
Suck it, pianists!
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And any G chord has a D and a G, so you would probably lean towards the sharper F# (except in a blues/jazz context), but when the song comes around to the V chord, neither a guitar nor a just-temperament piano will have that F# available that is harmonically sympathetic to to the open D string.
Violinists, vocalists, fretless banjo players and -to an extent - dobro people don't usually have that problem.
Suck it, pianists!
