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Got a tuner question

#61
this is insane. why the hell would anyone argue against learning how to tune by using your ear? but i guess it's typical...everyone wants to be a good musician but nobody wants to work for it.

i give up. you all are right. learning how to tune by ear is stupid. and tabs are great. if you guys could find a machine that moves your fingers, you'd be all set.
 
#62
JimmyM said:
this is insane. why the hell would anyone argue against learning how to tune by using your ear? but i guess it's typical...everyone wants to be a good musician but nobody wants to work for it.

i give up. you all are right. learning how to tune by ear is stupid. and tabs are great. if you guys could find a machine that moves your fingers, you'd be all set.
Click to expand...

Jimmy ... lets just put the CD on and get a beer instead ....:hmm:
 
#63
this is incredibly funny, but i still don think Pica gets what everyone was saying about "the tuner was tuning to F# because the string was closure to F#, try tuning the string abit sharper and G should come up and you can get it in tune" theory.

i mean how hard is it to use a tuner?





and jimmy everyone should be able to tune by ear, but i agree with everyone that tuners are just so much better!
 
#64
Pvt.Parts said:
Well yeah, but you aren't born with a knowledge of theory, so why would you be born with perfect pitch. Wouldn't you need to learn both?
Click to expand...

Perfect pitch is adapted to music from our own genetic history. It is a left over that some carry in their genetic make up from the days when as primates the ability to recognise a mothers call or a childs call from all the others around was important for survival that is all. Look at bird colonies, hundreds apon thoundands of birds making so much noise, but parents can recognise an individual call to feed the correct mouth. Also females tend hold on to the top end of their hearing till about mid 40s, again related to high pitched sounds babies make, where as males lose the top 10KH by there early 20s.:(

The idea of recognising perfect pitch in humans was stumbled apon as music developed. It would appear that somewhere in our past the ability was usefull in developing music skills but not essential.:)
 
#65
One more point, tuning by ear is reletive interval training, hear a note an build intervals reletive to that note. Anyone ho learns a song if they take the ime and listen to what they play will hear and learn the intervals. As Jimmy says you have to wanna put the time in.
So for what its worth learn find songs with intervals that can be related to, all genres have them

Walking on the Moon, the Police, intro root- Maj 2nd, then Maj 4th- Maj3rd- root.
Rebel Yell, Billy Idol, intro, min. traid root-min3- min5-min3- root.

I give two simple examples in rock, because rock has so many riffs, and riffs being pleasant sounding intervals they make ideal references to seek out.
As said you will find intervals everywhere to relate to if you take the time to listen and learn them.

Feel free to post other examples of classic intervals in songs.
By the way i tune my bass by ear on open strings by playing the old country song Pink eyed Pussy Cat, because the first two note of the riff is a Maj 4th, and transpose it to each string if i have to. :)
 
#66
I thought to pop in and offer a couple of thoughts.

Tuning one's instrument is the responsibility of a musician to do. Having the musical skills to hear if one's instrument is in tune or not is something so basic, that anybody who cannot do it needs to learn how, just for the musical principle of having this skill, not for gigs, not for studios, but for the desire to simply become better musicians with a steadily developing ear.


I've always said that many players aren't really interested in music, and a lot of guys on Talkbass show this point quite often. They are only interested in music entertainment! It isn't that not having the ability to hear if one's bass is in tune is the problem; it is that some players are OK with semi tone deafness and just aren't interested in finding out how to perform the same task that many 5 year old players can do with great ease. Too many people in music accept, justify and defend low quality in musical ability, from the academic to the art of it! I won't! And I suggest that some of you stop this as well! You are lowering the quality of musicianship in this country more and more by championing low standards, finding reasons and excuses for it. Tuning an instrument by ear is something so simple, so basic in musical requirements, that if one cannot even make the attempt to learn this skill, then they should never have expectations of much to happen in their musical lives.!

Get on board the train to higher musical levels, and quit justifying low quality musicianship as if it was a virtue!

Thanks for reading!
 
#67
BassInUrFace said:
this is incredibly funny, but i still don think Pica gets what everyone was saying about "the tuner was tuning to F# because the string was closure to F#, try tuning the string abit sharper and G should come up and you can get it in tune" theory.

i mean how hard is it to use a tuner?





and jimmy everyone should be able to tune by ear, but i agree with everyone that tuners are just so much better!
Click to expand...

I don't think you understand...no matter which way I turn the tuning peg...the tuner always says F#
 
#72
JeffBerlin said:
I thought to pop in and offer a couple of thoughts.

Tuning one's instrument is the responsibility of a musician to do. Having the musical skills to hear if one's instrument is in tune or not is something so basic, that anybody who cannot do it needs to learn how, just for the musical principle of having this skill, not for gigs, not for studios, but for the desire to simply become better musicians with a steadily developing ear.


I've always said that many players aren't really interested in music, and a lot of guys on Talkbass show this point quite often. They are only interested in music entertainment! It isn't that not having the ability to hear if one's bass is in tune is the problem; it is that some players are OK with semi tone deafness and just aren't interested in finding out how to perform the same task that many 5 year old players can do with great ease. Too many people in music accept, justify and defend low quality in musical ability, from the academic to the art of it! I won't! And I suggest that some of you stop this as well! You are lowering the quality of musicianship in this country more and more by championing low standards, finding reasons and excuses for it. Tuning an instrument by ear is something so simple, so basic in musical requirements, that if one cannot even make the attempt to learn this skill, then they should never have expectations of much to happen in their musical lives.!

Get on board the train to higher musical levels, and quit justifying low quality musicianship as if it was a virtue!

Thanks for reading!
Click to expand...

Thanks for your thoughts Mr.Berlin, everthing you said is correct. My former instructor never taught me to tune by ear. Hopefully my new instructor will teach me.
 
#73
pica said:
The needle moves when I turn the tuning peg but the display reads F#.
Click to expand...

LIke i said before back at the start, check out the intonation and pick up heights for overtones or "ghost notes. It may even be a dud string, string not wound on properly so it slips under tension, tuning peg strippped, it happens.:)
Which brings up another issue..are your strings fitted correctly?
 

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