Re: Intervals enharmony question

[Wols Lists]

On 04/05/18 00:48, Kieren MacMillan wrote:
> I didn’t get that far into trumpet playing — I switched to trombone as soon 
> as I could, because it better suited my embouchure — but I got far enough to 
> realize that I could do a *lot* of "tuning" with those limited valves and 
> slides. Based on that experience, I feel sure that if I got [a lot?] better, 
> I would be able to play in equal or just temperament, as desired.

You sound like me :-) I started on the cornet and switched to trombone. ...

But I'm looking at it as a physicist. HOW do you tune all those notes to
equal temperament on an instrument that does not have sufficient
adjustable nobs to do so? It can't be done.

What you CAN do, what I'm sure you've done, and what I see happen all
the time in my band, is that players can adjust - "bend" - the tone with
their embouchure. And that bending can be massive - I've heard of a
trombone teacher who suddenly realised the boy he was teaching could
only reach fourth position, but was successfully playing a bottom B
natural! (4th position is a D for non-trombonists.) The lad was bending
the note three semitones!

So I'm not saying you can't play equal temperament, or whatever you
want. I'm just saying that you can't tune the instrument to it, you just
have to "play it by ear" and "bend" the note.

Which is why my comment/question basically boils down to "what
*practical* difference does it make?". And the answer seems to be "None,
in *most* cases". Which is why I'm getting a little het up because so
many people seem to be coming across as "everyone should do it because
it matters for my corner case".

Sorry if that upsets people, but if a question is about a monotonic
instrument, don't drag your chord-playing corner case into the
discussion. (I was left with the strong feeling that this is exactly
what happened with my post - everybody discussed their corner case and
nobody actually bothered to read my question. And if I do that to other
people, feel free to call me on it ... :-)

Cheers,
Wol