jtm@syteka.UUCP (Jim T. McCrae) (03/14/84)
A tribute to a unified net.music. I play electric guitar in rockish blues-jazz oriented bands. And I love reading the more serious musical conversations on the net, most of which center around 'classical' music. Anyway, the guitar has the same problems as other instruments when tuned to a tempered scale. The major 3rd is the bain of every major triad chord I play. The major third contains harmonics which are slightly sharp to the 8th, just enough to make you grit your teeth when the two tones are played simultaneously on a guitar with good enough pickups to reproduce the conflicting harmonics (not always the case). Consequently, I avoid root position triads like the plague. (how does one avoid the plague? flea collars?) Years ago I learned that you tune a guitar slightly flat and compensate by bending the strings as you play. This provides the flexibility to get the harmonics right at any position on the fret board by letting the major third stay a little flat while pushing the rest of the notes up a bit. This means you never play open strings, but who does that anyway besides folk singers. (slam!) When in doubt, I use the opera singer's approach and gently trill all the notes just enough to cover up any tuning conflicts in a given chord. Jim McCrae Sytek, Mountain View CA hao!hplabs!sytek!jtm "It's time to hunker down to brass tacks/"