j. coleman, sr

[rmartin21@juno.com]

Hi Jim

Have to relate an experience to you that your subject of stretched
octaves pertains to.

Two years ago I had the unfortunate experience of tuning for a
pianist/bandleader now fronting one of the big bands we all knew in past
years. The local dealer delivered a 7' Yamaha to an outdoor bandstand
immediately adjacent to a bus terminal.  Auto horns were blaring, some of
the musicians were warming up their instruments and greyhound buses were
pulling in next to the stand. Obviously, the ambient noise was
overpowering. To make things worse, I had a little less than one hour to
get some kind of respectable tuning installed.

The only way possible was to use a SAT FAC tuning and tune with the
magnetic pick-up. I finished with a few minutes to spare and the pianist
walked over to check everything out.

As you know, it's extremely rare to have a musician fault an FAC tuning
performed with the SAT....but this guy had to be my first,

These were his comments:" Hey, it's a good tuning..especially under these
circumstances.  but, you know, these factory-type stretches are never
really enough.
I play alot of raised 11ths in the lead...and with this little stretch
they all sound flat."

I told him the next time to allow me a little more time and a little less
noise and I would accomodate him.....but I have to admit that, for the
type of playing he was doing. ,they DID sound flat.  When I got back to
the shop I began to think about this and
wonder if Cavallero's style , what with the triple octaves high on the
keyboard, would have sounded flat as well.

In any event, this sure supports what you have been working on. Further,
when I was learning how to tune many years ago, a LOT of guys seemed to
tune in this fashion. Maybe this is another cyclic thing coming around
again. What do you think?

regards
Ralph Martin