[Dixielandjazz] Sarah Vaughan

[Ken w.]

There is a great hearing exercise that ensemble trombone players do.  It 
takes 3 bones.  The first player plays the root of a chord and the 
second plays the fifth.  The fifth has to be fudged to get to the Just 
intonation (fractional), but you can hear when it happens.  The third 
player adds the third, adjusting to get it in tune.  The chords sound 
magical when they are correctly in tune (Just, not Tempered).  The third 
is dropped to a minor and then the fifth is dropped to a diminished 
chord, all the while adjusting to keep things in tune.  The root player 
then drops a semitone to produce the next lower major chord, and so on. 
Playing all 12 tones in this manor is a great warm up for the lips and ears.

On 11/18/2019 2:30 PM, philwilking wrote:
> That is an example of the difference between "Tempered" tuning and 
> "Just" tuning.
>
> It happens because our nervous system does not really want to hear 
> absolutely even percentage differences of frequency going from one 
> tone to another, but a simple mechanical device can't be made to 
> "tweak" tuning "on the fly" without becoming hopelessly complicated.
>
> So a G Sharp is really a very sharp G, but not quite up to halfway in 
> frequency between G and A, and an A Flat is really a very flat A, but 
> not quite down to halfway in frequency between A and G. So really, 
> every time you modulate between keys, you should stop and retune all 
> keyboard and fretted instruments. Good luck with that. In reality, 
> adjacent keys in the cycle of fifths are only a teeny bit different in 
> frequencies, so you can usually get away with sliding around between, 
> for example, F, C, and G. But the farther afield you go from your base 
> tuning (C in this case), the more out of pitch you sound.
>
> This is why some keyboard instruments such as harpsichords had 
> multiple manuals. Each manual could have its own strings tuned to a 
> given key.
>
> Even before J. S. Bach (died in 1750), efforts were underway to get 
> around this problem. Eventually it was figured out that if you make 
> all the sharps a tiny bit sharper and all the flats a tiny bit 
> flatter, you can use one key or fret for both the G Sharp and the A 
> Flat and so on. And most of the audience can't tell the difference. 
> However, a good musician can hear it. The error gets worse the farther 
> from the center of the keyboard you go.
>
> You can demonstrate it for yourself using a freshly tuned high quality 
> piano or (better) a high quality electric keyboard which is set to 
> "Equal Tempered Tuning."
> Strike any key which sounds in the middle of your voice range. Strike 
> it several times to set the pitch in your mind. Now, starting on that 
> pitch, sing the child's "I know more than you do" chant: "Nyah, nyah, 
> nyah, nyah, ny-ah, ny--ah." Try to find the last "Ny--ah" on the 
> keyboard. The difference in pitch between your voice "Ny--ah" and the 
> closest tone on the keyboard is the difference between "Just" and 
> "Equal Tempered" tuning. Your nervous system, left to itself, will use 
> its own frequency choices, not something designed for a machine.
>
> Phil Wilking - K5MZF
> www.nolabanjo.com
>
> "Only two things are infinite:
> the Universe and Human Stupidity.
> And I am not sure about the Former."
> Albert Einstein
>
> -----Original Message----- From: Robert Ringwald
> Sent: Monday, November 18, 2019 13:29
> To: philwilking
> Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Sarah Vaughan
>
> Ken,
>
> I've heard that there is a difference between an A flat and G sharp. 
> Having
> never studied music theory, can you tell me what the difference is. I 
> wonder
> if I could hear it.
>
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