8 ms·
A piano doesn’t know the difference and can’t differentiate them (on the fly), but a violinist certainly can and does. Most instruments have real time manual co
by aikinai 4y ago
A piano doesn’t know the difference and can’t differentiate them (on the fly), but a violinist certainly can and does. Most instruments have real time manual control over intonation and skilled musicians will bend pitch to best meet the current key and context.
- mort96 4y agoRight, I made an edit which accounts for that while you wrote your comment. It's an important detail.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- xattt 4y agoWould there be a specific notation for the merry-middle in-between note (D# and E)?
- wizofaus 4y agoYou mean D "three quarter" sharp? The name is a bit illogical because it's really "a sharp and a half", or "sharpened three quarters of a tone". The usual representation looks like a sharp with three vertical bars, and there's a unicode symbol for it (tried to cut and paste but no luck). Microtonality is really annoying on a piano though. As it happens I've been trying to work out what exact intervals are used for the two-chord leitmotif heard in "The Sandman" series, I'm not sure if they're regular microtones or just some sort of eerie detuning (surprisingly I can't find any discussion of it online either).
- palimpsests 4y agothe sandman (*) intervals aren’t coming from microtonal tuning… it’s dynamically modulated detuning in equal temperament, just as you say. it’s an extremely common type of modulation, especially if there are synthesizers involved. * what an incredible show!
- xattt 4y agoI meant to ask regarding D-sharp and E-flat, but a typo led me to learn about microtonality. Bravo and thank you!
- criddell 4y agoIs a D-sharp/E-flat played on a piano or guitar closer to D-sharp or E-flat on the violin?
- bombela 4y agoIt's in the middle between the two!
- coldtea 4y agoCould also be exactly the same as "the two", as violinists would also often just play those two at the traditional "piano" pitch, when playing alonside a piano and other such instruments.
- criddell 4y agoIt would be interesting to have an electronic keyboard that watches what you are playing and decides when you press the D-sharp/E-flat key, which note it should play.
- rawling 4y agoI'm sure I've see on here something that does not just that, but also remembers what it just did so when you play your next notes it doesn't jump to a different tuning.
- aikinai 4y agoThere are also digital keyboards that let you bend pitch after you hit a note by shifting the pressure similar to a violin.
- topaz0 4y agoSome old style organs that are not "well-tempered" have split keys for some notes, so that you can choose D# vs Eb (for example), depending what else is going on.
- elif 4y agoSorry but as a guitarist this just sounds like "violinists miss the half-step notes on purpose" Which is okay. I like to bend notes too, but just call it what it is.
- HPsquared 4y agoThat's interesting, so they can get closer to "just intonation" then? I assume it all breaks down if they need to play alongside a keyboard (or fretted) instrument.
- JasonFruit 4y agoWe actually tend to approach Pythagorean tuning, according to the Catgut Acoustical Society.
- jayknight 4y agoViolins and family(typically) tune their instruments with 3/2 just fifths. You get the A (440) from the oboe and tune the rest of your strings with perfect just fifths. That means sometimes the cellos' C strings will be noticably too low in some circumstances so you'll see them finger an "open C" just above the nut to make it sound right.
- dbalatero 4y agoI actually tune my C string slightly sharp for this reason!
- JumpCrisscross 4y agoHuh, is that why an open C on a viola always buzzed wrong?
- wizofaus 4y agoIt's 2% of a semitone off by my understanding. I thought I had pretty good ears but I really doubt I could pick that. Open strings do often stick out in general on string instruments though, for a combination of reasons, lack of vibrato and ability to micro-adjust tuning presumably being the main ones (but even the tone is different, I assume based on the difference between having one end fixed by a soft fleshy substance vs the wooden nut).
- palimpsests 4y agothe last reason you gave is exactly why open strings sound different. check out zero-fret guitars.
- kimi 4y ago...because if you are playing with a piano, and you play those intervals "right", they will be out of tune.