Klarinet Archive - Posting 000670.txt from 1996/02

From: Terri Kimiko Oda <as648@-----.CA>
Subj: String tuning
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 23:08:35 -0500

>Please correct me if my interpretation is in error. Do you mean to say that
>string players tune higher than 440 because clarinet players play sharp in
>the upper register? Sounds pretty obsurd, but if this is the case, then they
>are blaming someone else for their own tendencies. It's a fact, that humans
>have a tendency to want to play high pitches sharp and very low pitches flat.

I'm not too surprised to hear we think high pitches should go even higher,
and vice versa, but I can propose another reason string players play sharp
as they go higher... This applies more to beginners than professionals,
but it might still contribute...
As you shift higher on the violin, you have to move your fingers
closer and closer together in order to get the same intervals. It gets
harder to be able to place your fingers *just so* on the fingerboard when
your fingers are getting more and more cramped up there! On top of that,
some people have bigger fingers than say, me, in which case they might not
be *able* to reach the right tones without having to re-arrange their
other fingers.

Just a thought...

-> Terri <-

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In life, as in French, gender complicates everything. //
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