Klarinet Archive - Posting 000251.txt from 2003/12

From: "Patricia A. Smith" <arlyss1@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Playing in tune vs. "stopping the needle"; was, Pitch on computer
Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2003 09:09:57 -0500

David Niethamer wrote:

>I know lots of players who can "stop the needle" on a tuner who can't play in tune to save their lives!! The rep said they were working on this as a feature for some future edition of SmartMusic.
>
>I know this is a tangent to the current discussion, but I thought it was important to mention it.
>

David,

though you address this as a tangential issue to this particular
discussion, I'd like to start a discussion concerning THIS issue.

This was an issue for me nearly the ENTIRE time I was in Navy music. I
think I I EVER have to play for another damned tuner, I will take the
thing and stomp it to pieces.

I have seen too many people - sometimes ENTIRE BANDS! - that could play
Bb whatever dead on, then manage to play an entire concert as a band SO
OUT that I thought my ears would shrivel in disgust. It is, in my
opinion, more about listening and adjusting as we go along, rather than
putting a needle dead on, and keeping that pitch all the way through.
IMO, heat, moisture and a number of various other factors are going to
alter pitch in minute and even quite broad ways and we have to be able
to adjust to those and to each other as we go through a concert.

Too many people get one pitch inside their heads, and cannot make the
adjustment to what is going on, pitchwise, around them. This does not
mean I think that bands or orchestras should allow themselves to go WAY
sharp or flat. Not at all. That is also horrible sounding. But with
extremes in temperature that do happen sometimes (if the heat goes out
in a building where a performance is already in progress, for example),
one has to make adjustments and live with them, rather than stubbornly
staying at one's place, regardless of what other instruments around one
are doing. I played in some horrid instances, on some dreadful
instruments (plastic Bundy screamer on a pier near saltwater, anyone? It
was fun, I must admit, but I am not going to insist that the trumpets go
flat for me. They simply won't anyway.)

Maybe I'm out to lunch here. If so, I'm sure plenty of people will be
more than willing to say so! :D (dons flame retardant suit, ready for
onslaught)

Patricia Smith

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org