[Harp-L] "...often is a slight ?out of tune? quality?"

[Emily Keene]

Replying to Ken Karpowicz and the "slight out-of-tune" quality that Blues
(and other forms of music) often has (and he's absolutely right)-

Forty years ago, and before I injured my arm through overuse, I used to eke
out a living as a fiddle player, and often practiced eight hours a day. And
if I say so myself, people have always told me that I have a "good ear" and
sense of "intonation". Having stated my "qualifications", I will state
unequivocally that there is NO SUCH THING as being "in tune" or
"out-of-tune" -it's ALL custom, style, and preference. During the long
winter months, when sometimes there was little work, I would practice LONG
hours on the fiddle, and when I went to play with fixed-pitch instruments,
they often sounded jarringly out-of-tune with themselves (even when they
were "in tune"), and it would take me a while to focus in on whatever
"average" I wanted to play along with.

Not only do many singers sing consistently "flat", the Western "equal
temperament" (and "just temperament") systems are only two of a myriad of
scale systems people use. Even music we might think of as "Western" (like
American and Celtic fiddle tunes) often use alternate scale systems. I'm
already pedantic enough without explaining why the scale systems never
exactly match up, so I'll leave that to someone else-but they don't-and
that's a BIG part of what gives any given music its texture.

What DOES intrigue me is why Amy Rister's friend would say that Golden
Melodies would be more "out-of-tune" than any other harmonica (and don't
most of us constantly modify reed pitch through breath control and
embouchure?).

Best, emily