Ricardo -> RE: Flamenco guitar tuning (hertz) (Oct. 3 2007 17:29:17)
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Nothing would improve the quality of live music played in the average bar more than the performers learning to keep their instruments in tune. Easier said than done. In some cases new strings are the culprit, not the ear of the musician. It can be painful, but you can't really just stop playing in the middle of the song. Sometimes a hard played note will knock it, or if you come from an altered tuning in a previous song, or use capo, etc, the strings will change mid song. Can't blame the ear for that. Another big mistake I hear guitarists make is tuning to chords. That causes big problems mid song. I for one try to adjust my playing by using the left hand to fine tune when possible, until the song stops and I can fix the problem. Sometimes I am more successful than others with that technique. I get anoyed when I hear a guitarist with guitar tuned just fine, but bend the strings slightly on certain chords or when playing single notes, but not intentionally. Then look puzzled as to why the guitar sounds out of tune. [8|] About equal temp/well temp tuning. The main reason for the "out of tune" scale is to allow for CHORDS to be played, and therefore modulations to occur. The well tempered scales were not "equal" so a specific key might sound bettern than another, or rather, certain harmony notes might sound worse than others. Bach's "Well tempered clavier" was specifically designed for a certain well tempered tuning. That is why he used EVERYKEY. On a piano, equal tempered, any one of those preludes or fugues could be transposed to a new key and sound fine. But that is missing the point of the "well tempered" difference in sound of say the key of C vs the key of Ab. So since chords/key/modulations are the main reason we need equal tempered tuning, it should be understood that music that was before that time did not use chords or key changes. It was called "modal music" and you had to tune each song to a specific perfectly tuned scale, and not change key. Modal music does not make use of chord progressions, but needs a drone or tonic reference for the base. Flamenco is an interesting hybrid of the equal tempered western guitar (harmony) and eastern old style modality (cante). There are times in flamenco the voice is not perfectly tuned to the guitar, or rather the guitar would better serve by playing a single un moving chord or two. But flamenco has evolved to what it is today, and no wonder the guitar has been the one to move further from modality in modern times.
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