ET for Guitar

Billbrpt@AOL.COM Billbrpt@AOL.COM
Wed, 17 Jan 2001 20:41:42 EST


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List,

I went to the website for the Guild of American Luthiers that Charles Neuman 
posted:

http://w3.ime.net/~cygnus/equal_temperament.html

I found a document which tells how that organization feels the guitar should 
be tuned.  Here are a few phrases from it that seemed to jump out at me:

"...equal temperament. You must accept this compromise..."

"...Guitarists ... must learn to understand and accept equal temperament." 

"...while in equal temperament each 5th must be lowered slightly. "

"Tune the guitar as instructed below and let it stand... help your ear accept 
equal temperament."

"...the strings will be tuned perfectly to equal temperament. No further 
tuning adjustments are permissible."

Now here is a real dictator talking if I ever heard one.  I believe this 
reflects the mentality that leads people to believe so strongly, faithfully 
and from the depths of their consciousness in the absolute and monolithic 
correctness of ET.  The tragedy of it all is that the concept which has been 
believed in so fervently really never was fully understood.  To believe in 
the one and only way but not to really understand it, to pass those 
misconceptions on, to teach them as facts and dictate them only causes people 
to make tuning errors which are at least as bad, if not worse than the ones 
this purportedly "perfect" compromise tries to correct.

But guess what folks, they used to think the world was flat and could prove 
it.  You risked your life if you ever challenged that notion.  Does anybody 
know how you "lower a 5th", as this authority says you *must* do?

Guitarists of the world:  Don't believe it, it's not true, there is a better, 
more musical way to tune your instruments.  Take the credibility issue with 
"lowering of the 5th" as your license to ignore this document as having any 
validity at all.

Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin

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