tuner question

[buldog5151bass]

Justin

We we're having a tuning discussion. Many seem to feel that tunibg on stage is impossible to be done effectively without a digital tuner. I say they are great tools, but a bassist should be able to tune on stage with ears and harmonics alone.

What say you? Thank you.

 

[jmjbassplayer]

A bassist SHOULD be able to. Sure. That's a valid theoretical. I have strong relative perfect pitch, so I'm good at it. However, in practice, I have noticed that in some rooms, it's actually quite difficult to perceive "note" as well as other rooms. That makes the whole thing go pear-shaped. If you're a symphonic player, it's much much easier with so many many excellent musicians to get a "mean average" with. But with a band? Man: how are you going to get a reliable reference, unless one of you has perfect pitch? Also: who wants to hear everyone tuning their instruments together without muted tuning? That sounds like a nightmare of re-living my time in the garage as a teenager. Plus: what if you're playing to tracks, an un-tuneable piano, or other un-tuneable instruments, and you f-up?

I think this is all to say: just use the damn tuner.

 

[buldog5151bass]

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Bredian]

I learned with a tuning fork (guitar, etc) that I still have BUT a Korg digital tuner on my pedal board rules and is blindly fast. I found listening to my last BL retune and downtime and special tune between songs was torture and just plain unprofessional. My ears are busy enough bending strings during tunes.

 

[JimmyM]

Too much "either/or" going on in the music world. Tuners are great so you can tune silently on a gig and I use one for sure, but I consider it completely foolish and lacking respect for what you do not to learn to tune by ear to a reference pitch, too. What happens if you're in a situation where you forget your tuner? Or if you're at a jam and have no access to a tuner? Those who tune by ear might be a little obtrusive for a few seconds, but it beats playing out of tune. So I don't consider it as "either you use a tuner or you tune by ear." I consider both very necessary.

 

[bassbrad]

Well stated!