Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!uwm.edu!uwvax!umn-d-ub!umn-cs!nis!quad!dts
From: dts@quad.uucp (David T. Sandberg)
Newsgroups: comp.music
Subject: Re: What is perfect pitch?
Message-ID: <365@quad.uucp>
Date: 1 Dec 89 06:59:42 GMT
References: <18807@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu> <365@bbxsda.UUCP> <1989Nov27.212927.3253@agate.berkeley.edu> <7051@portia.Stanford.EDU> <357@quad.uucp> <25742AAA.56CC@rpi.edu> <1989Nov30.014942.3772@agate.berkeley.edu> <389@bbxsda.UUCP> <128650@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Reply-To: dts@quad.uucp (David T. Sandberg)
Organization: Quadric Systems, Richfield MN
Lines: 33

>In article <389@bbxsda.UUCP> scott@bbxsda.UUCP (Scott Amspoker) writes:
>>This is something I wonder about from time to time.  Sometimes the band
>>I play in will have to transpose a song for vocals.  I found that
>>transposing a mere whole step can sometimes *ruin* a song.  It just

You bet.  I had the exact same experience when I was on tour, to the
extent that I finally decided I'd rather hear the most difficult
parts of the vocal altered, rather than drop the key.

In article <128650@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> briang@sun.UUCP (Brian Gordon) writes:
>Welcome to the world of the "tempered scale".  Naively, it is an attempt to
>build a fixed-tuned instrument, like a piano, that is "equally out of tune in
>all keys".

I often think of it as a compromise tuning.  ;')

Heh.  Now, trying to convince a guitar to be well-tempered is a
nearly impossible task, in my experience - I've tried for over a
decade with umpteen guitars, without success.  Unfortunately I'm
rather overly sensitive to out-of-tuneness...

Someone else asked if people lacking perfect pitch were less
sensitive to changing the key of a song.  I guess I've already
given my answer, but let me add that, when I write a song and
then consider a key change, I nearly always go back to the
original key, 'cause I don't like the difference in the sound of
the piece.  And I don't even come close to having perfect pitch.
I guess this is a good example of the effects of the tempered
scale, although I hadn't made a conscious analysis of it until
now.

-- 
David Sandberg             dts@quad.uucp or ..uunet!rosevax!sialis!quad!dts


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