[Dixielandjazz] Bass amps - true harmony

[LARRY'S Signs and Large Format Printing]

Thanks Dave.  
That's a lot of info but I'm sure it can happen to any instrument
but the low ones seem to be affected more.  I didn't know it would happen
with voices but there isn't any reason to think that it couldn't.

I hear scales and especially guitar tempered.  I have always liked the "B"
string a little sharper than the others.  If they don't do that it sounds
out of tune to me.  I work with a high school band and when they play a
scale the 7th is almost always flat no matter what scale they play.  Again I
like it tweaked a bit.

I will re read your note several times and think about what you said.
Tuning is really important to me.  Although I don't have perfect pitch I do
have really good relative pitch and tuning drives me nuts at times.  Not for
me but with the other guys.  I think tuning meters are a work of the devil. (although I think useful for guitar and bass)
Guys (horn players) actually think they are tuned when they use one.  Eventually by the 6th
tune or so they start to pull together.  Until then It's like wandering in
the wilderness.
I have gotten to where when someone pulls a meter out I refuse to use it.
Reed instruments aren't like the others.  They must be tuned slightly sharp
and lipped down a bit.  This allows tuning range.  If you tune to the top of
the note there is no where to go.  The reed is like the slide on a trombone
and needs to be constantly adjusted and tempered by the lip.  Guys
invariably tune to the top of their note and instantly when they start
playing they are out of tune.  I had a commanding officer in Washington
state that stopped the band during a recording session to tune over and over
again.  He never did get it.  When I suggested that he tune differently I
was told more or less to buzz off.  That (CD) recording never did get in
tune.  I was a guest artist and an import so I just left well enough alone.
Of course if the musicians haven't learned to listen then all is for naught
anyway.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David McCartney" <yup1275 at earthlink.net>
To: "LARRY'S Signs and Large Format Printing" <sign.guy at charter.net>;
"DIXIELAND JAZZ POST" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Saturday, September 11, 2004 11:45 PM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Bass Amps / true harmony


> Wow. Not that I'm a bass player with an amp,
> which I am. (I know tom-toms by drummers really
> piss me off - my sound is canceled.) But:
>
> But the phenomena you mention happened to me
> in a barbershop quartet. Not just any 4 guys, but
> we were 4 sharpies who have that rare moment.
> Acoustically, the lobby of the Marines Memorial
> Hall on Van Ness in San Francisco, is to die for.
>
> There was a point in singing a "tag" - as especially
> super group of chords and voicings, that our voices
> came out of each other's mouth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> This relates to your big sax story, I thinks.
>
> If you whistle in harmony with another person, you
> can have a weird tickle hit your lips that is hard to
> take. A blast of a tickle.
>
> What makes barbershop special when sung by actual
> talented, trained guys is the fact we use the true
> harmonic scale - not the tempered scale as you get
> from a piano.
>
> A chord is based upon a tonic note and should have
> a true mechanical ratio/relationship that is based upon
> that frequency. The third is sung a bit higher than
> the piano and the fifth also, but less. If you're
> producing a minor 6th, you flat the 3rd and make it
> light in volume, but dark in timbre.
>
> If the bass or the bassist comes in with a note
> a 5th below the tonic of that minor 6 chord,
> the tonic is stolen and replaced by that note and
> it turns into an exotic, fun new chord.
>
> We get used to the tempered scale, but string
> or brass or sax qtets that perform a capella can use
> this same tuning. You get shimmering overtones
> and (subtly) roaring undertones. As a singer, it
> feels orgasmic, truly. We call it "Ringing a chord"
>
> Producing any sound sets up a harmonic situation.
> The frequency will unite with other sympathetic
> sources and amplify and encourage them. In our
> music, we manipulate these relationships and it
> can feel realllll good - yes!
>
> But enough of that.
>
> David McCartney / Captain Rapture
>
>
>
> LARRY'S Signs and Large Format Printing wrote:
>
> > Although I'm not a Bassist I have had some experience with playing low
notes and a thing that happens with them.  I play Baritone sax occasionally
in several groups.  While I was playing a tour with the AF band in Equador
at 10K ft the reed would just stop vibrating cold.  I had noted that
happened occasionally when I was sustaining a low note softly.  At 10,000 ft
it was a problem but intermittent.  Some of the reed guys and other AF
people who had played at high altitude thought it was the thin air.  I think
It had to do with intonation too.  If I wasn't matching the band exactly the
sound of the band would cancel out the vibrations in my sax.  The sax acting
like a giant ear trumpet with sound going in as well as coming out