you ever played your guitar out of tune and found something you really like?

[Nicholestien]

well, heres the deal, basicly, I played my guitar for a few hours out of tune, I knew it was out of tune, I can't say exactly by how many cents, infact, it was waaay out of tune.

and I only found 6 notes that sound together, which means theres something wrong i'm sure,

i was wondering how would do you go about figureing out how to use this to make music, i could use my ears to make everything in tune when i'm using reason but I don't want to risk it because I know my ears aren't precise enough.

[Harmony]

Do you mean the strings were out of tune relative to each other, or were all of the strings just tuned down/up relative to standard E?

[Tensei]

Out of tune? What's that? (Floyd Rose user)

[Harmony]

Floyd Rose? What's that? (acoustic guitar player)

[Tensei]

It's a bridge mechanism that pretty much gives your guitar immunity against detuning, or at least very high resistance with bonus saving throws. [/D&D analogy]

[Harmony]

I see my winking smiley wasn't strong enough to deter an explanation of that which I already knew. Not to worry, I shall try harder next time

Back on topic!

[po!]

actually just yesterday i loosened my strings to mess with my bridge, so guitar was in some random tuning. i found some weird sounds like that.. voicings and chords you would never get with a normally tuned guitar. but i don't think i would detune just to get those sounds... too much hassle and too many new chords to learn. maybe if its just for a recording...

[Legion303]

Out of tune? What's that? (Floyd Rose user)

In that case, out of tune is what happens to the rest of your strings when you bend one of them slightly.

-steve

[Incinerator Drone]

My brother (not the music producer, the younger clueless one) was telling me earlier that he doesn't like the Tabit program I gave him because he "can't find any of the sounds I want."

I was like "um... it has every note possible on there, what do you mean?"

"I want weird notes that are like, in between real notes."

Um... ok? He does dress in all black and wear a trench coat, so I guess it makes some sense.

[Tensei]

In that case, out of tune is what happens to the rest of your strings when you bend one of them slightly.

-steve

That's if you use some cheap knock-off. An Ibanez Edge Pro bridge is like rock-solid, and I know that because I do stuff like bending up three semitones and using whammy bar vibrato (this is also a good recipe for a broken string :3). Problem is, when the string DOES break, all your other strings crap out as well, but meh, that's pretty much the only occassion where my axe goes out of tune.

[Legion303]

That's if you use some cheap knock-off. An Ibanez Edge Pro bridge is like rock-solid, and I know that because I do stuff like bending up three semitones and using whammy bar vibrato (this is also a good recipe for a broken string :3). Problem is, when the string DOES break, all your other strings crap out as well, but meh, that's pretty much the only occassion where my axe goes out of tune.

NO WAI. I'm talking about the tendency for floating trem strings to go out of tune as you're bending, not when you return from a bend. You know you have to compensate for double-stop bending.

I have my action so low that I can bend the G 6 semitones with 9s on the guitar (the higher strings actually fret out at around 3-4 semis), and return to in-tune status with my original Ibanez Edge trem.

-steve

[Nicholestien]

it sounded like a scale... it just felt like... it dosn't "finish" :S

[Fray]

Nicholstein, you might want to read about all the different temperments... See the way we tune instruments in modern music is to make all the notes equally spaced apart. This system isn't perfect at all, it's just the most flexible in terms of being able to play in any key. For example, for a minor third to really sound best, the top note should actually be a little bit flatter than it is on a typical piano or guitar tuning. People who play instruments with more flexible pitch (wind instruments, violins, etc.) actually do adjust for this, if they know what they're doing. Point is, you may have happened upon a tuning that worked particularly well for the chord you were playing.

"I want weird notes that are like, in between real notes."

Tell him to use pitch bends

[Nekofrog]

That's if you use some cheap knock-off. An Ibanez Edge Pro bridge is like rock-solid, and I know that because I do stuff like bending up three semitones and using whammy bar vibrato (this is also a good recipe for a broken string :3). Problem is, when the string DOES break, all your other strings crap out as well, but meh, that's pretty much the only occassion where my axe goes out of tune.

Get a guitar with Ibanez's ZR Trems. As stable (if not moreso) than an original Edge or Edge Pro, and uses ballbearings instead of knife edges so that if you break a string, the others don't go out of tune. It also returns to zero perfectly. Fluttering isn't as easy, but eh. Amazing trem there.

[Tensei]

Fluttering isn't as easy, but eh.

INEXCUSABLE, I NEED MY FLUTTERING!

[Lunahorum]

how does herman li flutter so good if he uses a ZR? And what about the ZR makes it bad for fluttering?

[Nekofrog]

I think it's the construct in that each string isn't dependent on the other for tension-holding of the trem. And how Herman does it, I couldn't tell you. I had an S520EX with a ZR on it, it was my favorite trem of all time (except for the original Floyd Rose on my 1984 Kramer Baretta.. that guitar is as old as I am).

[Nicholestien]

Nicholstein, you might want to read about all the different temperments... See the way we tune instruments in modern music is to make all the notes equally spaced apart. This system isn't perfect at all, it's just the most flexible in terms of being able to play in any key. For example, for a minor third to really sound best, the top note should actually be a little bit flatter than it is on a typical piano or guitar tuning. People who play instruments with more flexible pitch (wind instruments, violins, etc.) actually do adjust for this, if they know what they're doing. Point is, you may have happened upon a tuning that worked particularly well for the chord you were playing.

Tell him to use pitch bends

reading right now. Thanks for the advice.

I see myself becoming obsessed with this though, tell me, brutally honestly,

anyways

basicly it breaks down like this.

Equal temperament = the twelve-tone equal temperament = the most common tuning system.

(based on dividing an octave (logarithmically) into 12 "equal" parts. It uses 440hz as a standard pitch.) << english please. >_>

this is the one most generally used? I'm taking a wild guess because I recognize the 440hz

anyway 2.

I just want to confirm this before i even think about moving on. >_>

I read not to much of this stuff, I can already see that this isn't the way to find my "flava" in music.

i was thought the piano on my own, you know, just the simple stuff, like the scales, chords, modes, keys, arpeggios...

what i learned isn't going to understand this stuff even if my ears do right? >_>

[Fray]

this is the one most generally used? I'm taking a wild guess because I recognize the 440hz

Yes, equal temperment is the one most commonly today for the piano. Some synthesizers will let you use other temperments. Well-tempered, for example (as in the well-tempered clavier) actually sounds better if you're playing in a key like C, F, or G. But it sounds nasty and out of tune if you try to play in B. I'm sure some of the software pianos out there offer this feature. It can be cool to play with if you're interested in this kind of thing.

I didn't quite understand what you're asking in the second paragraph... but no, I wouldn't say knowing this stuff is really that important to helping you make music.