What temperament is a guitar tuned? (encore)

[Billbrpt@aol.com]

In a message dated 6/4/98 1:38:31 AM Central Daylight Time,
 tkeenan@kermode.net writes:

<< I can only assume that you don't understand it, and that you 
 haven't tried it yourself, because it is self-evident to anyone who 
 actually plays a guitar.  I respectfully suggest that you pursue your 
 guitar playing a bit and learn some of the many other ways of producing 
 the chords in the keys of A, G, a-flat minor, and b-flat minor, since 
 those are the ones to which you refer, and you will see that the colour 
 you attribute to key is an artifact of the position on the neck. >>

I can only assume that you don't understand it, and that you 
 haven't tried it yourself, because it is self-evident to anyone who 
 actually plays a guitar. 

You give the very same arguments that every one gives against tuning a
 keyboard in a non-equal temperament.  "Of course, I *know* about those HT's. I
 even kinda like some of them, but I also *know* that you can't use them except
 in "experiments".  Then you have to tune it   :-(((  :-(((  ***<<«!!!BACK to
 EQUAL!!!»>>*** :-(((  :-(((    I don't have to try tuning one for anybody,  I
 already *know* they won't like it or want it, so why should  I bother?  I
 suggest you find a mentor who will teach you why we can only tune one way, the
 right way, *my* way."

Tim, I have understood perfectly everything you have said but I don't think
 you have understood anything that I have.  You have only said that you just
 *know* it couldn't work.  Yes, the results of the tempering will be different
 depending on how you voice the chord.  This is just like the argument against
 HT's,  "You can't modulate!"  or "You can't transpose!".

I suggest you get the score from The Man of La Mancha and play the music as it
 is written and then tell me what I said is "nonsense".  

Very often, an HT works for people who have limited keyboard skills because it
 does favor the keys, tonalities and chord voicing that they actually use.  But
 the typical anti-HT crowd will still claim, "You can't do that", because
 maybe, just maybe, somebody might come along and want to play "Body and Soul"
 on it, and that would sound just "terrible!".

Again, I must repeat that pure unisons and octaves are not even possible on
 the guitar, even when tuned in ET.  The amount that those intervals can be out
 of tune and still sound musically acceptable is far, far greater than on the
 piano.  I also understand perfectly well that tuning the guitar's strings in
 other than ET will not produce the same effects as it does on the piano, I
 have always known this.  This is the way I tune my guitar and I'm sure that I
 don't play anywhere nearly as well or extensively as you do but I have never
 had any problem with it.  This is the very same experience that I have with my
 piano.  I do not tune in ET, I like the way I tune it and so do my customers.
 I had far more complaints about my tunings when I did tune in ET than I do
 now.

Musical context is what is important, not adding and subtracting numbers on a
 page.

Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin