For the record: I am a professional bassoon player. I have been working professionally for the last ten years in various orchestras in Sweden and germany.i curr

For the record: I am a professional bassoon player. I have been working professionally for the last ten years in various orchestras in Sweden and germany.i currently hold the position as first bassoon in Norrköpings Symphony Orchestra. Yes and no. It is true that we in orchestras "listen" and intonate in tune (with low major thirds, slightly high fifths and so on), but playing strictly in tune quickly becomes impractical. If you play many harmonic sequences or modulations "in tune" and then return to you original key through a different path you will often end up nowhere near where you started. We all have the equal temperament as our base and even though we play one or two chords perfectly in tune we adapt tuning not to end up far from the standard equal temperament. Then we have the problem of melodic intonation. If you play a melody with the intonation of the harmonic series you will sound _very_ low whenever you play a third.