Comments on: The $12 Gadget That Changed Pop Music History

By: Pat Greenwood

Pat Greenwood — Thu, 24 Jan 2019 20:23:06 +0000

The topic of intonation is near and dear to my heart. A few years ago I bought a pedal steel guitar. I could be wrong but I think it enables me to operate in the realm of just intonation (JI) with singers, horns and other instruments capable of making tiny adjustments in their intonation on the fly. Compare a JI fifth interval (702 cents) with an ET fifth (700 cents) for example. You’ll hear the 2 “beats” per second the piano tuner keys in on. For another very interesting computer-based solution to the problem, Google Hermode Tuning and check out some examples on YouTube. The effects of room acoustics? That’s a whole ‘nother topic!

By: Tony Conniff

Tony Conniff — Thu, 11 Oct 2018 05:43:49 +0000

In reply to Sherrin Lise Bernstein.

Thanks for reading and writing, Sherrin!
Best wishes,
TC

By: Tony Conniff

Tony Conniff — Thu, 11 Oct 2018 05:43:15 +0000

In reply to Daniel McBrearty.

Daniel,
It’s good to have the horn perspective here!
Best wishes,
Tony

By: Tony Conniff

Tony Conniff — Thu, 11 Oct 2018 05:42:31 +0000

In reply to Tom. Been there! Thanks, Tom. Tony

By: Sherrin Lise Bernstein

Sherrin Lise Bernstein — Tue, 09 Oct 2018 13:49:35 +0000

Very cool article. Thanks for posting.

By: Daniel McBrearty

Daniel McBrearty — Thu, 04 Oct 2018 14:15:37 +0000

Great post. It’s an huge issue for horn players. I wrote a horn chart once in a Motown style, a lot of triads and fifths, and called in some big band guys I knew to record it with me. Now big band jazz rarely has those kinds of voicings – typically they will have the 3 and 7 of a chord, then maybe 9ths, 11s … all “colour notes” Rarely the root and fifth. Well we spent maybe an hour trying to make that thing sound right, and it somehow never worked. Finally we realised the issue was tuning. We had to blow a completely different way, with a very firm embouchure, and listen really hard to each other. Then it came out well. A lot of rock and folk also uses that kind of scale – if you tune your guitar something like DADGAD better to tune by ear than with the tuner.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 04 Oct 2018 13:54:45 +0000

I remember years ago 25 or so after playing a live set I sometimes felt that we sounded great and then there were other times we ended the set and I would have this feeling that something just wasn’t right that night. It became clear to me what the issue was since the use of the electronic tuner. It was hard tuning with the venue sound system on, I’m surprised we were as close as we were sometimes.