LAST CALL
YOU’RE OUT OF TUNE (BUT THAT’S OKAY) BY JOHN BOHLINGER
Do you remember the first ime you felt intonation?
I was in junior high, taking my
second guitar lesson. My teacher, Mike Hoover, hit a 5th-fret
E harmonic on the 6th string
and then struck the 7th-fret E
harmonic on the A string. As he
slowly turned a tuner, I felt the
fast pulse of the discord begin
to slow down and eventually
stop as the two notes became
one. I could almost see the sine
waves line up. Like so many
guitarists, that was the moment
I began a quest to achieve perfect intonation. Regrettably, this
isn’t as simple as that early harmonic lesson led me to believe.
Duke Ellington said he only
really understood music when he
grasped the difference between
G# and A%. The Duke never did
explain his cryptic quote, but he
was probably talking about tonal
context and enharmonics. G#
and A% are “enharmonic,” which
means they are tones that have
the same pitch, but different
letter names. (Which name you
use depends on the scale association.) Though they’re literally
the same note on the piano and
guitar, if you mathematically
work out the frequencies, there
actually is a difference: G# is 41
cents lower.
Quibbling purists talk this
way to make dumb guitar
schmoes like me feel inferior.
However, there is scientific
truth to this sharp and flat
distinction, and whether you
know it or not, you’ve probably
been unconsciously adjusting
for it. According to the laws of
physics, intervals change with
keys. But the modern, equal-temperament tuning system we
use in Western music makes a
few fudgy concessions to deal
with the limitations of set-tuned
instruments like guitar.
The math behind tuning
looks like the calculus-class
chalkboard in the movie A
Beautiful Mind, but in a nut-
shell, it works like this: With
equal temperament, the octave
is divided into 12 half-steps,
and each adjacent interval has
an identical frequency ratio.
But—here’s the rub—except
for octaves, no intervals have
exact ratios.
Interested in exploring the
history of scales and temperaments? J. Murray Barbour’s
classic Tuning and Temperament: A Historical Survey
examines the various systems
that have been used across
the centuries.
so extraordinary. Without our
instruments cluttering up the
sonic landscape with questionable tuning, those voices produced pure harmony.
Though our static fretboard
rules out such pitch flexibility,
there are ways we can improve
our intonation. Most good
players do this, though often
unconsciously. Ever notice how
when you play songs, you avoid
certain strings or chord voicings
because they just don’t sound
right? That’s you adjusting for a
glitch in the system.
Another example is our
beloved big, dumb power
chords. They always sound great
because removing that pesky
third gives you closer intonation and a fun ambiguity. (Is it
major? Is it minor?) Add a little
distortion, and tuning becomes
even less of an issue. Ever notice
how gently manipulating a
whammy bar or adding a bit of
chorus or Leslie simulation can
make a guitar sit well in a mix?
As sound swirls around, intonation becomes less pronounced.
The fine art of vibrato and
bending probably originated in
an attempt to adjust intonation.
The intonation quest can
become an unhealthy obsession, but a heightened awareness will improve your playing.
How far you take it depends
on whether you are a “God is
in the details” or a “don’t sweat
the small stuff” player. I’m a
bit of both. If I’m tracking a
song in the key of G, I start
by tuning flat to the tuner, but
then retune by ear with my
fingers hitting a G on both E
strings. I let my ear and gear
guide me and just try to feel
something. I’ve found that
sometimes the heavy overtones
humbuckers generate seem
to jack with intonation when
I’m utilizing all six strings in
a chord. But other times, for
big dumb rock or dark jazzy
stuff, those delicious humbuckers fatten up the closer triads,
power chords, or single lines
that would sound anemic in
single-coil land.
If you ever find yourself
preoccupied with tuning and
worrying about how you can
sound right with an instrument that will not physically
play in tune, listen to brother
Duane Allman’s slide on the
end of “Layla,” or Jimmy Page
in “Heartbreaker,” or Keith
Richards in “Sympathy for the
Devil.” They may be out of
tune with the Western scale,
but they are all perfectly in tune
with the song’s emotion. The
ambiguity of intonation is part
of the beauty, sadness, and tension in music. Hearing that, I
see the hand of the divine and
sense the mystery of it all.
JOHN BOHLINGER
John Bohlinger is a
Nashville multi-instrumentalist best known for his
work in television. He led
the band for all six seasons of NBC’s hit program
Nashville Star, as well as the 2011, 2010,
and 2009 CMT Music Awards and many
specials for GAC, PBS, CMT, USA, and
HDTV. Watch him perform on You Tube,
and check out his new band the Tennessee
Hot Damns on Facebook and i Tunes.
