In a message dated 6/2/98 4:08:26 AM Central Daylight Time, John.Woodrow@aus.dupont.com writes: << A book on guitars that I was flicking through made the claim that a guitar is tuned as a Well Temperament, reflecting the period from which it evolved. Can anybody confirm or otherwise that a standard guitar tuning is a Well Temperament. >> This may be the result of a common error that has persisted for nearly a century. Many reference books and texts imply or state that Equal Temperament (ET) and Well-Temperament (WT) are synonymous but the two are actually mutually exclusive. The guitar's frets are laid out in a manner that would imply ET. All electronic guitar tuner's frequencies are based on ET. However, many players will tell you that once they have tuned according to the elctronic tuner, they play some chords and "tweak" the tuning a bit to suit their own preferences. Many who do this are essentially converting the ET to a WT. If you are interested in tuning a guitar in a WT, here are two sets of deviations which you can use. The first is a "Victorian" the next is a 1/6 ditonic comma, "Vallotti" type WT. In a performance in which I was involved of the musical Man of La Mancha several years ago, the Vallotti type was used for both the orchestra and on stage guitars. It provides for beautiful harmony in the simple keys and very dark colors in the remote minor keys that were written in the score. These figures may be used with a Sanderson Accu-Tuner and possibly a mechanical Strobe tuner. All values are read on Octave 4 (this is important). An adjustable guitar tuner may also be used but the results may not be accurate. E2: -2.0¢ A2: 0.0¢ D3: 1.0¢ G3: 2.0¢ B3: -2.0¢ E4: -1.0¢ -4.0¢ 0.0¢ 2.0¢ 4.0¢ -4.0¢ -2.0¢ Bill Bremmer RPT Madison,Wisconsin
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