Tuning
Electronic tuning machines and computer tuning-programmes
Nowadays there are people who use these gadgets to tune their acoustic instruments, often saying that the gadgets are fun, that they’re quick and easy to use, and that they give a sense of security and reliability. That's OK as far as it goes, I understand it can be a practical compromise in some difficult situations, and I give some advantages here: but there is a much better alternative which goes much further, which I will deal with here as soon as these movies are done.
Of course everyone can and will do whatever they like, but I won't be dealing with these here because this to me is an rank abuse of technology, science gone crazy, and a complete misunderstanding of the essential nature of both the musical experience and of the proper value of technology in a human society.
To me, using tuning machines and computer programmes to tune an acoustic instrument means that you've thrown out the authentic experience of your own music: that you've chosen
Even in the theoretical world in which these machines are developed, it's not certain that the values are 'right', at least in the context of historical music, because the renaissance and baroque musicians who taught how to tune didn't think or listen to the intervals in the same way as today's gadget-makers and acoustical physicists do. There are plenty of experiments which suggest that human ears are not pleased by listening to instruments that are electronically 'correct'. If you're playing for machines to listen to, then by all means use a machine to get the sound right; me, I play for human people, and the job is to satisfy human ears and feelings. |
Kjell Persson, guitar- and ensemble-teacher in Kalmar, southern Sweden, writes:
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