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Topic: A tip for beginners: |
Tracy Sheehan
From:
Fort Worth, Texas, USA
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Posted 29 Mar 2010 9:59 am |
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Reading Bobbes news letter today got me to thinking about when i first started music on piano at about the age of 9, later violin,then steel.I had an advanced piano teacher but knew nothing about perfect pitch ear (something one is born with).
I had no idea i was born with it so i didn't understand until years later why the piano always sounded a little out of tune which they all are.
Guitars also sounded out to me. So what i am getting to is if you are new to this game and can't seem to get your steel or what ever to sound exactly in tune in all keys (which it isn't) you may have perfect pitch and are not aware of it,if so you have to learn to live with it.
Get an E440 tuning fork and tune an E note then check with an electronic tuner. If you are dead on that one note you have perfect pitch. If you are close but not dead on all the better. I posted on this subject some time back. This drove me up the wall for years until i took a test on tones in Ca.and found out i had perfect pitch so i read up on it.
Years later when electronic tuners came out the Kord sp? had the best discription i had ever read about
tuners. For a steel the tuner is to quickly re tune to a tuning you decided on your own is an in tune sound. For instance,tune one string to the tuner then the rest by ear. If it sounds in tune then see what you came up with on
the tuner and write it down until you have it memorized. Then you can quickly re tune in a noisy place or what ever.
Hope this is some help to some.Tracy |
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Earnest Bovine
From:
Los Angeles CA USA
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Posted 29 Mar 2010 10:19 am
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| A guy I know bought a pitch pipe when he was a boy. Then he discovered that he had perfect pitch. He took the pitch pipe back to the store for a refund but they refused. |
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Allan Munro
From:
Pennsylvania, USA and Scotland
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Posted 29 Mar 2010 10:21 am
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Interesting post. I too was born with perfect pitch. When I started to play and then progressed to playing with bands they were always amazed when I got my guitar or bass out of the case and never had to check the tuning against the keyboard or what ever. My friends used to love to watch me change a set of strings and just tune up with no reference and actually be in tune with everyone else also!
That was the fun part. It's not actually pain but I was never quite at ease with an all guitar band which may have been in tune as far as 'togetherness' goes but were not at concert pitch. It took a lot of getting used to before I was at ease with that kind of thing.
I don't know if I am just more able to 'allow' for things or if it has become less exact as I have aged but I have no problem with listening to 'off pitch' these days.
I did enjoy showing off by telling my teen age guitar strumming friends what key a new pop song was in after just the first note or two though. 
Regards, Allan.....
_________________
Only nuts eat squirrels.
Television is the REAL opiate of the masses! |
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Ray Montee
From:
Portland, Oregon (deceased)
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Posted 29 Mar 2010 10:58 am Ever been t o a steel jam?
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With forty steel guitars in a semi-circle around the room, have you ever noticed anyone of them actually tuning with the band?
Without calibrating any of their private electronic tuners with anyone else's......
IS IT ACTUALLY NECESSARY to be in-tune with anyone else? |
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Tracy Sheehan
From:
Fort Worth, Texas, USA
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Posted 29 Mar 2010 11:19 am Re: Ever been t o a steel jam?
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| Ray Montee wrote: |
With forty steel guitars in a semi-circle around the room, have you ever noticed anyone of them actually tuning with the band?
Without calibrating any of their private electronic tuners with anyone else's......
IS IT ACTUALLY NECESSARY to be in-tune with anyone else? |
Good question Ray. I would think it depends on the plyers.As you also come from the old school i am sure you did it the same as us other old timers
If a piano was being used the band would tune with that. If not usually some one would tune to a tuning fork or pipe and the rest would tune with him.
On the road years ago when most clubs and what ever furnished an 88 upright piano i recall some being so far out of tune. One great piano player (not a key board) i worked with had to use a piano one week so flat if we played in A for instance he would play in B,ect.
This was long before electronic tuners and the band tuned together. IMHO i have never heard bands so for out of tune with each other until electronic tuners came out. They are great if used right,but not so great if used as a crutch for some who simply do not have the ear for music.
So those should become doctors,lawyers and stuff.  |
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Bo Legg
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Posted 29 Mar 2010 6:14 pm
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| Now maybe you can better understand how miserable I am since I'm perfect in every way. |
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Ray Minich
From:
Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra
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Posted 1 Apr 2010 10:52 am
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My pitch may not be perfect, but it's good enough to know when something is out of tune.
One of these days I gotta adjust the pulls on my C pedal, for that very reason. |
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John Jeffries
From:
New Brunswick, Canada
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Posted 1 Apr 2010 11:19 am
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| I,too have perfect pitch.......I can toss my banjo at the dumpster & get it right in 1st pitch every time! |
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Bo Borland
From:
South Jersey -
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Joe Drivdahl
From:
Montana, USA
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Posted 1 Apr 2010 8:44 pm
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I've only known one person with perfect pitch and he was blind. He was amazing. If you sang a note at him, he'd tell you what it was. Came in handy whenever we'd get a singer on stage who didn't know what key he or she sang in. I am pretty much in awe of anyone with perfect pitch. Wish I had some..,
Joe |
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