My daddy was a piano tuner for 60 years. He tuned for Phil Collins, Status Quo, Elkie Brookes among many others. He knew when my guitar was off by half a cent. It was always in tune when dad was around. He passed last year. I miss him so much😔
The realization that the majority of people won't notice if something is slightly out of tune or when mistakes are made is the key to being able it take a stage with confidence. My 13 year old is a vocalist and she's finally learned if she makes a mistake no one will notice, that the beauty about art is that the only one that knows is the artist themselves. So go out there and do your thing.
I sent my 118 yueatlr-old grand to our studio where we record (partially restored, a Packard, really well made) Anyway, she keeps tune really well, but not always with herself. I hear it when playing in upper-right registers, but the band doesn't always. I'll say, don't worry, she'll always 5:55 sound rock, but let her do her best. Pianos don't age we'll. Ravel was no longer can option for me with her, and full restoration wasn't an option financially. She has the best third life possible.
And given different tunings- open G# and so forth ? The average Joe doesn't know... or know why 'Start Me Up' fails with trad tuning, ect.... I can relate to those that say 'I never heard it, how would I know' ?... Unless properly transcribed & know how to read it ? You're solely working with your ears, which leads to interpretations, IMO. But it's good to have folks like Rick to point this out to the rest of us !! 🚬😎👍
I told my husband years ago that Kenny G was sharp. He didn’t understand until I told him he played above the pitch. Now he gets it. Watching American Idol helped him understand. Lots of folks were flat, singing below the pitch. He gets it😊
I was going to say the same thing about American Idol, when the judges would comment on the singers (actual humans without Auto-tune) singing out of tune. I can now better hear when someone is singing out of tune.
Your comment is comforting, reassuring. I'm not a musician. I'm a consumer of music I like and my tastes are pretty selective. I figured I was pretty much the only one. Haha
what I don't understand is that it seams that at first he is arguing about how people don't get when he complains about stuff not being in tune (like the response to him calling out that viral song for not being in tune), but then he also says how nowadays everyone is hypersensitive to stuff being in tune and on grid??
@@jonathanrao6498for vocals will be more sensitive for ppl whio are so used to auto tuned singing.. but live instruments.. it is possible young folks who only listen to mainstream electric pop finding acoustic guitars exotic sounding
@@jonathanrao6498 it gets us commenting n clicking..its just some cheeky filler content,,but i also have experienced non players say something sounds great when on certain flat frets i'm criniging inside
In my experience playing with concert bands, symphonies, and rock bands, the latter never spent enough time tuning. In the other groups we would spend 10-15 minutes making sure everyone was in tune before the show. The directors made us tune individually to A440. We would then go from section to section separately to make sure that section was in tune. Then we would test the larger group. I have known conductors stopping in the middle of a show after a number and retune. You are on the money - absolutely essential. You have to be in tune yourself, first. In church groups now I work with I encourage the instrumentalists to take that extra time in the beginning to tune. Many of them don't which I don't understand. I have offered my services to help and most don't take me up on it. Rick, you are gift to the music field!
I believe that the key is in the words. People who have no music education won't know what you mean by "in tune" or "out of tune". "Tune" to them might mean "a song", etc. Words have many meanings and uses, so people can miss what you're saying. So when someone tells me that they "don't know about music" my favorite reply is to quote Duke Ellington: "If it sounds good, it is good." That alone can get the ball rolling so that neither of us goes nuts, and to get the person to realize they don't need to know anything in particular to appreciate the beauty in music.
@@endless_universe2023 i think he's saying that the fact that "tune" is synonymous with both "song" and "pitch" people who are not versed in music may automatically go with the "song" definition, hence them all saying "how would i know if it's out of tune if i've never heard the song before?" they don't know what Rick means because there's a false axiom underlying their whole perception of the concept. boiled down: they think he's saying the musician playing the song has done so incorrectly, when he's actually saying their instrument is not in the right state.
This is the most hilariously relatable look into the life of a musician/father/husband...I can 110% imagine having this conversation with my wife and kids.
You've perfectly described my experience as a professional copy editor reading social media posts. "You know this is riddled with spelling and grammar mistakes, don't you? Don't you?" I scream into the void...
I get you--I've taught English for most of the last 35 years. The language is changing. My younger colleagues insist that I'm a grammar-gatekeeper. My solution? I'm retiring in a month. And I'm going to spend all my time working on music. That's my comment. I'm going to tune my guitar now.
I'm a musician but I grew up with zero musicians in my family or extended family. I remember hearing "music" and not knowing what each instrument was or what was happening at all. Like it was just a blob of sounds. I love remembering when I couldn't distinguish what was happening.
@@inthefade I like laying in bed staring at the ceiling practicing smooth breathing and listening to bands like God Speed You Black Emperor (check out the album 'G# F#') and identifying what instruments I'm hearing, or if a sound is a synth pad or ambient electric guitar, etc.
I like laying in bed staring at the ceiling practicing smooth breathing and listening to bands like God Speed You Black Emperor (check out the album 'G# F#') and identifying what instruments I'm hearing, or if a sound is a synth pad or ambient electric guitar, etc.
Hearing and listening to music is like seeing and looking at visual art. One is passive and the other, active. My drawing teacher once said: "Don't just see the world around you, you have to LOOK."
Look, I'm no top .01% musician or anything, but if even Ricks family doesn't know when something sounds out of tune, it makes me feel like I'm part of some extensive and pretentious musicians club, and today I thank you for that Rick.
@LilMonsterInc The crossing of musical understanding and biology is very interesting. It is engrained , but it's definitely not form birth or immutable, because it's very dependent on socialization. We're used to hearing the same 12 semitones over and over again in a certain way. So we grow up to be conditioned to think that that is the way and everything outside of it sounds wrong. The reality is that notes are nothing but frequencies. As something that can be mathematically measured, they're infinite. So the 12 frequencies we are used to are a very small % of all the infinite frequencies that exist. Most of them we do not even know what they sound like because humans are only able to hear from 20Hz to 20kHz. What happened is that a long time ago, someone probably in Europe decided that these 12 semitones were cool and all the theory that developed around it became the standard in the west. There's many ethnic temperaments that deviate outside of this. To a person born and raised listening to western music it will sound "out of tune", but for a person raised in a culture that employs what we would call microtonal scales, it would sound good and vice versa. The social science and natural science studies that involve the relationship of humanity and sound are very complex. Oops, sorry for nerding out.
Rick, that’s the only way I’ve ever thought about it, the way you hear and described it. I didn’t realize there were people that actually don’t hear it.
Our bass (acoustic) player had perfect pitch. Four piece lounge band with vocals, middle of a song and he leans over to the guitar player and says, "your A string is a quarter tone flat." The Guitar player looks at him like he's crazy. Song ends and the guitar player finds that his A string is a quarter tone flat. We had all heard that song before. Keep it coming Rick.
I'd say you could do this without having perfect pitch - but very good relative pitch... I could tell you if the A string was flat relative to the rest of the band, regardless of whether everyone was tuned to A440...
I don't have perfect pitch but I could always tell if my guitar slipped out of tune during rehearsal. Playing at some rock clubs with horrible sound systems is another story
It's also true, as others are suggesting, that this gets a lot more difficult in loud rooms and on loud sound systems. Pitching vocals gets harder ... And I once played a gig where it was so loud I could have sworn my bass was a semitone sharp - but my tuner, and everyone else's ears confirmed it was fine!
I have been teaching band for 25 years and I have this conversation and subsequent lessons on intonation many times during the school year. I feel your pain. You have not lived until you are placed feet away from 15 middle school flutist 5 days a week.
We need more WABI SABI! I think your family is having a semantics hang up on the word tune. And you hit the nail on the head regarding autotune taking the human spirit out of music. You’re a true master and lifelong learner, Rick. You inspire me to give my best to the world, and never stop learning. Thank you for being so authentically YOU.
Great rant. ❤ In my band (mid-90s), everytime our lead guitar wanged an out of tune note, he'd just press on to eight bars later and wang that same bad note again. Said, "if you repeat it, it's not a mistake; it's jazz." RIP, David.
That's an old one. I wish I could remember who said it, but it was one of the 60s-70s greats quoted back then in Guitar Player. Timeless wisdom, spoken here in the voice of PeeWee Herman, "I meant to do that."
Wow. Was just discussing this very thing with one of my students today. We were working on an older song that was off pitch. I tuned my guitar to the song by ear and the student was completely blown away. "How in the world are you able to do that?" he asked. I said, "I can here the pitches in the song and match the string pitches to them". "NO WAY!" he said. "YES WAY!" I replied. "You can learn to do this."
Ha, ha! Thank you for letting me correct your, “here”, to, hear. We care about that which we find important, but, don’t stress about the little things. Enjoy our differences, and give peace a chance, everyone. 🌈
@@StokesMusicStudiosOnline Did you get the baked potatoes during winter to keep you warm on those walks and was your meal for the day? That was back when we still built character.
My dad told me when I first started playing "you can't play untill you know how to tune your guitar. " It was the first thing I learned. It's the absolute basics.
I learned this for drums too when I was a kid. Granted, tuning drums is different than tuning a guitar, but everyone still needs to be in tune with everyone else, as well as with their own instrument.
Yeah, but you need to tune it for the particular song though, which is why everyone was saying you can't know if something's out of tune or not if you don't know the song.
When I first started to learn how to play the guitar a good friend gave me an electric guitar tuner unit. It really helped me, after a while I didn't need it. Because I knew what out of tune sounded like.
I'm just an amateur guitar dabbler and I've always known what it means when an instrument is in tune or out of tune, regardless of the song. You are not crazy, I share in your bafflement.
@@mikespain8655You don’t need “the ear” or “the ability.” Unless you’re extremely hard of hearing or, like my grandparents, deaf, everyone can tell when something in a song is out of tune.
@@nomoresaulBS. In high school, our band recorded “Siegfried’s Funeral Music”, a recording that I enjoyed listening to but hadn’t heard in about 50 years. A couple of years ago, after singing about 25 years with a major city’s Symphony Chorus, I came across the Siegfried, started playing it, but couldn’t make it past a couple of minutes. It hurt my ears. I’m guessing that you’re born with a certain capacity to train your ears, and it’s up to you to get the training done.
I just remembered the advice Maurice Chevalier gave a very young singer 100yrs ago: " Always start and end a song well and with confidence , very few can understand the part in the middle"
@@davidg3944 I was in Paris with my girlfriend Josephine Baker, yeah, that's the ticket ! Obviously I'm just doing a John Lovitz. When I saw Chevalier live on TV he was in his seventies and I was a child. The reason I sometimes mention him is because in the 80s ,when an older friend raved about his Drive-in romances, I told him I liked a fireplace, Champagne and a Song. He teased me saying: " Of course, you're Maurice Chevalier!".
You summed up in 5 minutes what I've been trying to explain to my wife for the last 20 years... "Can't you hear this is out of tune?!?!" Greetings from Brazil.
I’m guilty of playing out of tune and I have been called out for it, but I must say, it has only been by a few. Seems most overlook it since it is an original song and maybe they, like your family, think it’s OK since it is a song that they have never heard before. It was an interesting discussion and in a way it makes sense what they are saying, but even though I am sometimes out of tune, I understand exactly what you mean. Crazy world, aye? Cutter & Ms C
I’m a piano tech and so many people will tell me they can’t tell when their piano is out of tune. But those people are always pleased with my work when I’m done. You may not know what ‘in tune’ means to a musician but you know what sounds good. Teaching beginning musicians how to tune and the concept of tuning musical pitches together gives them great advantage.
I grew up playing music so I always knew what you meant. My wife was complimenting my singing yesterday and saying she was a bad singer, to which I responded "hey, at least you sing sharp, and not flat." She said "I have no idea what that means."
My wife said that to me once and wanted me to explain what it means, and I told her if a note is sharp or flat, it's like a pencil. If the pencil is in your hand, you can write with it. But if it's flat, the pencil is laying on a table. She looked at me like I was a total moron. So I stared at her for a moment doing my best to keep a strait face. Then I burst out laughing, saying _"I am so glad you didn't believe that, because I don't know much music theory, and all I do know is that if someone tells me a note on my guitar is sharp, I know it's tuned a little bit high. If they say it's flat, I know it's lower that it should be."_ She says, _"Oh, it's that simple, eh? No wonder you felt the need to tell me some nonsense bullshit."_
That reminds me of the time when my drummer kept speeding up on a particular song we were learning. I turned around & asked if he could try to keep it in time. He said, "how do I know, I've never heard the song before"!
Presumably he very soon became your ex-drummer! 🙂 It reminds me of the old joke: What's the difference between a drummer and a drum machine? Eight bars by the end of the song.
There is the apocryphal story of a composer and concert master listening to a rehearsal - at the time, flutes were not tunable and subject to wide fluctuations of intonation because of humidity and heat and other conditions. In the middle of rehearsal the concert master turns to the composer and says "Maestro, what could be worse than a flute?" The Composer replied, "Two flutes."
I had the same experience so long ago that I'd forgotten about it. Non-musicians sometimes think that "out of tune" means "not the way it's supposed to be in that tune/song." It blew my mind.
@@javio4636 It's like a cover that doesn't sound like the original. Admittedly, there are some discordant covers, but I like a lot of them. One that comes immediately to mind is "Sugartime," which a number of people have done. My go-to is the 1958 version by the McGuire Sisters. I just heard a modern version, don't know who did it, but I liked it. Other people my age probably would not.
@@javio4636 I think that for people who don't understand music from the perspective of the performer or the composer (that is to say perhaps, the "average listener"), they don't understand basic musical terms such as "pitch" or "interval" so terms like out of tune have a different meaning or no meaning at all, if you don't know what being IN tune means. Therefore it is possible to invent a meaning which is out of context, such as "out of tune" must mean that it doesn't belong in this song. There's no conceptualization of individual instrumental pitch for someone who doesn't understand musical composition or structure at the granular level. Ordinary listeners just hear the song holistically (in my experience).
I majored in classical guitar and worked as a musician for almost a decade. Elementary and middle-school concerts used to drive me insane because of tuning issues. The worst was the string orchestra. People around me had no idea what I was complaining about.
I’m with you on this one! I can definitely tell when 1 string is out on a guitar no matter what key it’s tuned to. “Out of tune within itself” describes it perfectly. No need to know the song!
Yes! But there's still more at play here, not least because you may *perceive* "perfectly tuned" but the science indicates otherwise. And not just science, but 'psycho-perception'. I'm not stating 'mass hysteria'...but a form of 'groupthink' that defies science, and yet appears definitively 'obvious'....when it in fact is incorrect. Optical illusion has clearly been observed and defined by Science. How about 'auditory illusion'?
You’re not crazy; you’re just really into music. A non-musician here who enjoys listening to your stuff, even though you’re speaking an entirely different language than me. Your depth of knowledge and your enthusiasm for the art form is infectious. It’s a good thing you weren’t around when I was a teenager.
Would this be the wrong time to mention that I don't know what's meant by "Pitch"? Or that time I went to Subway, and they were out of tuna? Worst day of my life!
In tune matters; being a particular pitch isn't that important. "The standard pitch for a musical note is A above middle C, which is set at 440 Hz. This is known as the international standard pitch, or concert pitch. Other frequencies, such as 442 Hz, are also commonly used." It used to be much wider tolerance, anything between 415 Hz to 445 Hz, and a bit more. 415 Hz is over a semitone lower than 440 Hz. Read all about it in "Concert Pitch" on Wikipedia. very interesting if you are a musical geek like me, particularly "Current Concert Pitches".
Bass player, and fellow old man yelling at a cloud. I play in a local cover band, and I've had to come to that realization that Maurice Chevalier (mentioned in a previous comment) had it right: As long as you start and end the song confidently, you could completely bork the middle parts and no one would notice. Especially after a night of drinking. Happened to me more times than I can count. Don't try to explain to normies how you screwed up and why...just accept the compliments and have fun doing what you do.
I am a lifelong musician, Rick, lots of people know when the singer is out of tune. Fewer people know when a guitars out of tune, but they know there’s something wrong. It doesn’t sound good. Have faith. you’re not nuts. Love your show…✌️❤️
I'm totally in tune with what he is saying, songs sped up or slowed down will be out of tune to standard tuning but will sound in tune as all the instruments are tuned the same.
@@yadamspiezer.. You don't have to be a musician to tell if something doesn't sound right or, sounds just "bad".. But, true.., to some people.., it just doesn't matter..
@@yadamspiezer Did you imagine people re-tuned their instrument for every song? Trust me, you could hear if it was out of tune. You could not hear anything "off" about Rick's out of tune chord?
As a previous long term guitar strummer, in my old age combined with arthritis the, ability to play behind me, I oftentimes hear out of tune guitars, usually the b and e strings. When strummed together I'll hear their mismatch as a beat frequency between the 2.
yeah man you arent crazy , but only guitar players can pick that up ... unless you point it out .. i am constantly fixing my strings and obsessing over them being in tune
No you're not crazy Rick. Me and my father used to have this "tuned-not tuned" obsession when I was young and you are right, "in tune" means the instrument sounds good along with other instruments... except for people born with perfect pitch who will find disturbing any instrument that is not tuned to the 440 hz standard...
To yourself? I mean, it's really a nuisance when you can't stand even minor imperfections in tune. Should've never bought a Peterson tuner, it just points that I'm correct with my estimate. This drives me mad. And it concerns of course intonation too. Like... aaaaargh.
Another thing that always amazes me is seeing crowds, on television, clapping perfectly out of time, or on the downbeat, all together, being really happy not even noticing something's wrong… (which CAN drive me crazy… 😅 "what?? how can they not notice??)…
I've seen a LOT of Brit audiences clapping on the downbeat. It's a "thing" for some reason. For kicks, I try to emmulate them and I last a couple of beats before I'm back in time. I can't do it!!
I know it well (clapping on 1 & 3 instead of 2 & 4) but have you ever seen an audience clap along to a song in 3/4 and they clap on beats 1 & 2 instead of beats 2 & 3? I have (over 50 years ago).....my mind is still blown.
I saw Harry Connick Jr correct an audience on the fly one time when they weren’t clapping to the correct time signature. He adjusted his playing for a couple of bars and then re adjusted and got them perfectly in time. It was seriously impressive.
This is so right on. I have often called out music friends for their instrument being out of tune. They either dismiss my comment or check the tuner and find out I'm right. The point is that nobody else noticed it.
I have played with numerous musicians who didn't seem to realize their instrument was out of tune. Most were bassists, and I can understand that sometimes those low frequencies can be hard to discern, but, c'mon.
Love this rant! 😂😂 You’re not alone or crazy! ! I think 95% of your subscribers know exactly what you mean. I feel your pain. That’s why I’d rather spend 30s tuning my guitar on stage even with uncomfortable and bewildered audience than just silence between a song rather than play with a string out of tune. Can’t do it .
Oh don't. "We have music on in the office to help us concentrate..." - nope, can't work there like that. A week later: "Why are you listening to white noise thru your headphones?" - I can't concentrate on working if there's music distracting me - I am literally seeing notes / chords / relative intervals in my head while I hear it.
Rick, I love most of your content. A lot of people may notice a bad sound. But as players we would know instantly why and correct it. But I would not expect a non player to understand what we know.Don't over think it and let it drive you nuts.And cut non players a little slack!!
I am almost 70, when was learning to play the guitar, I could hear that the vinyl was not standard pitch. I bought a turntable that had strobe pitch adjustment. (Speed). So I could change the vinyl to my guitar. It was awesome. Great video.
Lolz…I’m the same…the amount of swearing I did in 1981 trying to pick apart Layla on a strat and having to retune to the vinyl and constantly shifting the vibrato block as a result…so I kept going out of tune. In later years finding out they sped up the recording to increase the feel….never thought about my adjustable turn table speed….what a nob!
There are music player apps that allow adjusting the pitch by at least some amounts of halves. You can give a try to the for the older stuff at the very least. Also, when I think about it, yeah, it'd be neat to have a finer grained control over the pitch of the playback on the music player apps too. I'll bring this up when I'm chatting with some of my music player app & system audio effects developer friends out there.
No, you are not crazy, Rick- you are bringing up an important issue! It is so important that our natural ability to hear pitch differences and adjust our playing or singing in order to be in tune with ourselves, the instrument and others does not get lost. As important this is for music, this is also a societal theme. Thank you for your valuable podcasts!
I think you’ve just proved his point. A song being flat or sharp is not ‘out of tune’. It’s just that all notes have been tuned down or up consistently with each other. One of the notes being non consistent with the rest is ‘out of tune.’
you can't if the whole track has been detuned, caused by recording equipment, unless you play along to it, check out Tears for Fears, everyone wants to rule the world, so can you tell that this track has been detuned
if all the played notes are slightly sharp or flat by the same amount i'm not sure most of us can tell... (say the 440Hz tuning vs 432Hz) after all, what is the reference point? if it's an 'internal tuner', how was it tuned and what keeps* it in tune? :) i can hear subtle dissonances but only w/ a reference present, w/o one, it takes a few more Hz to notice something is different. in other words the turntable needs to start out more than just a little bit too slow or too fast for me to notice. but say just one of the strings on a guitar is slightly sharp or flat, it stands out in an obvious way. same if the turntable's speed is adjusted as it plays... *people w/ 'absolute pitch' sometimes experience a natural slight shift of the 'internal tuner' as they age. for some it can become an issue as the note played by a properly tuned instrument is different than what they expect to hear based on their 'inner ear'.
Yup. "Did you tune your guitar?" "Yes, did it this morning..." "OK, it needs re tuning..." "really? I did it this morning..." Thus displaying a fundamental lack of understanding of the peculiarities of a string instrument, wood construction, humidity, temperature... and musical knowledge and a "deaf" ear.
Like seriously, how can they not hear the terrible "beat frequencies"? I find this with amateur singers singing along with accompanyment. How can you not tell you're a whole note off? When I sing, if I can't find the "groove" I can't even sing, my body just stops.
I am so with you on this! I play bass in multiple bands and I learn everything by ear. I also play piano and guitar and I can't stand it when other band members can't tell when their guitar is out of tune. When I was younger, it bothered me so much, I used to go around and tune everyone's guitar for them. It drove me nuts listening to them try to get it right. I was so happy when electronic tuners came on the scene! But now, many years later, I still get ridiculed for pointing out when someone is out of tune. The tuner usually proves me right but they don't like me pointing it out. Some don't hear it and some don't care. I can't stand to play in a band with out-of-tune instruments! Some people think I am too picky...
Exactly my experience, can’t play when someone is out of tune, and they don’t like me pointing it out🤦♂️. Nowadays I just stop playing and wait for them to ask me why🤣
I see you, I grew up thinking everyone has perfect pitch like me, though I did not know the term at the time. I thought people who can't recognize notes or remember the pitch are just bad at music, and I couldn't stand people being out of tune or even humming a melody in a wrong key. I learned the term "perfect pitch" in my late teens and then it hit me. Suffice to say, I wasn't a popular kid in my music school.
I am the same (also a bass player, actually) and I experience physical discomfort if something is out of tune, And.... Learning songs.... I sit in house band for quite a few jam sessions and play loads of stuff I have never played in my life until it gets asked. I don't have absolute pitch but I have a rather good tone/ear memory, so I will start playing it out of memory in the original key. If someone asks it in a different key, I struggle much more - I still have pitch interval memory, but I will usually fumble the first pass while searching the center notes. Also, if I played a song in a certain key my whole life and someone asks it in a odd key it is hard for my ears and fingers to assimilate the key change due to pitch memory. I often freak out band mates by starting to sing certain songs I have listened many times in the correct pitch. ....again, pitch memory.
Imagine getting Rick one of those nature sounds relaxation albums. Instead of relaxing he is noticing 3 of the loons are "off" and the birch trees with the wind blowing through the leaves are flat. Rick, I envy you your talent. ❤
Or from a more practical perspective, noticing which of the fluorescent lights in aisle 8 at your grocery store has the transformer that hums the root of Baker Street. Not that I'd know... (I know).
I've worked with band directors who couldn't tell when their guitar or their voice was out of tune. The same people had trouble telling when something was in tune, often claiming that people they didn't like were out of tune when they weren't.
As a Trombone/French Horn player, I clearly understand what you are talking about. Both instruments have to constantly adjust so they sound correct with everyone else. When I hear someone "out of tune" is makes my spine curl. Keep up the great work Rick.
As a Band Director this resonates because I’m CONSTANTLY calling students attention to this! Once we talk about it and we demonstrate this a few times they are like OH!!! Yeah… I hear that. BUT…. The old adage - the more YOU-WE know the more our minds are blown when other people DON’T know
The earliest musicians didn't tune their instruments at all, at least not in the ways many modern musicians do. They didn't have tuners or microphones or autotune. In addition, the music of people who have never heard recorded music is fundamentally different than the music of those who have, even today. Meditate on that a little bit.
100% with you, I keep hearing out of tune music and thinking there's no way people hear flat vocals and think it sounds good and I'm always met with "I don't hear it". Drives me NUTS!
Yes, and I’m with you, how can people not tell, if music is out of tune. You really only need your ears for that I mean, really, you don’t even have to know anything about music, but you know that. I find that mind-boggling.
Being out of tune and off the beat in the right way is art. Being auto tuned and on the grid takes the soul out of music - it doesn’t”breathe”. It’s true that a huge portion of Rick’s audience, even those like me who have more than a passing familiarity with musical theory, lose the thread early on in most of his videos and stick around for the ride anyway because he is fun and interesting to watch. Yes, Rick, you are crazy but in the best possible sense! 😂
You are not alone, Ive had this discussion with multiple people in all my years of guitar and they wont notice until you actually point it out…but once you do, their face is priceless…and then i hear something out of tune in a gig or on tv and theyll say its fine. its maddening lol! I loved this
Excellent. I've joined this string late, and made exactly your point, and now I'm scrolling down to see who else has 'experienced' this. A good working term until defined scientifically (and I believe it will be if not done already) is "illusion". The eyes do it, why wouldn't the ears?
I think this video captures the essence of being an expert on anything. When you bring up something extremely obvious to you, all you get are blank looks.
I agree. TBH, i don't understand half of what Rick says most of the time (I am not a musician and I am legitimately tone-deaf), but I still enjoy listening to an expert dissect a song or composition.
I noticed this first when I was learning how to play 25 years ago. It really threw me for a loop that I just don't understand how other people hear things. It has always been a huge pet peeve of mine when I hear a poorly tuned guitar, and yet many players themselves cannot even tell without a tuner. Blows my mind how anyone could do music and not hear things that are stunningly obvious to me.
I cant tell a difference between two tones until they're almost a half step apart. Most everything i play is written out beforehand. Tune with a tuner and pkay what is on page.
One of the best TH-cam rants ever! As a non-musician who watches you channel because of your passion and explanations of the songs I love, I can tell you I stuggle with this stuff. I would love a video series for beginners on it.
You really should pick up a instrument, just casually, because you stop struggling with this stuff and it's a ton of fun. :D That is if you can find like a few hours per week/about half an hour per day for this kind of hobby and are interested.
I so much understand what you mean. When people in groups sing, the rythm sways, and some apparently consider it, as a race towards the end, even with a 'metronome' in the background.
When I was in college we were playing a concert band transcription of the Promenade from Pictures at an Exposition by Mussorgsky. Our principal trumpet player spoke privately before rehearsal to each brass player in the band and told us (as a practical joke on our conductor) to play everything down a half step. Most of us were music majors and could pull that off without an issue. In the transcription, the brass begin the movement without the woodwinds for about eight measures before the woodwinds enter the piece. The woodwinds were not told anything about our little prank. All the brass players played the beginning of the piece perfectly (down a half step). When the woodwinds came in a half step higher our conductor almost fell off the podium! He said, "I thought the beginning sounded flat!" One of the funniest musical moments of my college career! :)
I've repeatedly tried explaining this to my non-musician friends. I teach my students that if a mistake happens or something goes wrong oftentimes no one in the audience will know.
I do NOT know what you mean! I LOVE music! And my BIGGEST regret in life is that I never had any aptitude for playing an instrument or learning to read music. BUT I found this Channel and Rick Beato during the madness of 2020. I watch, completely enthralled, as the void in my heart is filled!
@@ciaranosullivan9352 Me too, and I'm really crap, but I just love guitars and music. I can tell if a vocal is flat, but not so easy if a chord has a flat note.
This just put a smile on my face...I believe a lot of us can relate to the uncomfortable feeling of being out of place...taking basic conceptions for granted without realising it might not be that basic for others! Love your channel Rick.
This is too relatable, it can become very frustrating but as musicians we seem to overestimate how much attention non-musicians pay to a piece of music, people just don't care enough like we do
I appreciate your point and think you're right but why should they? Do you care how well the cans of beans are stacked in your super market? Probably not but someone took the time and trouble to put them there with all the labels facing the same way (a bit simplistic but you get my point). If a piece of music sounds ok to someone then surely that's enough? Not everyone has the same ability to hear nuances. I could hear the detuned string in the chord in this video but often can't hear smaller variances that professional musicians can. But then maybe I'm the lucky one because I can more easily enjoy a less than perfect performance?
You are not crazy. I have been teaching for over 30 years and I have noticed that folks, especially kids, can no longer understand or learn how to read notes and can't hear when its wrong or out of tune. Blows my mind! 😊
i watch my cousins learn string instruments... where they have to create the note's pitch. it's hard because on the one hand they have to keep practicing, but on the other hand i feel i must tell them they are not playing the note they think they are playing.
I know exactly, what Rick means, but I'm about his age & often had to deal with instruments without a tuning reference or tune older pianos, where the strings might break, if brought up to A440 pitch, so I tuned them "within themselves", a seemingly self evident concept. Personally, I could always tell, if guitars, violins, pianos, etc were in tune within themselves, better than I could tell comparing individual notes against an outside reference, if they were in tune. I always thought, it was very common & much easier than having perfect pitch. Maybe the fact, that electronic tuners & smartphone tuning apps are common nowadays, is a contributing factor?
That is so true about kids. I thought it was just a couple random kids where I live but its hitting me now after watching this vid and your comment. Kids born of late hear so much "perfect" music that they hear things so much different. People need to treat playing an Instrument as of high importance for all children. For many reasons. Even those not interested as it is great for the mind to learn. Then like other things once they are older can take it or leave it.
I have the same obsession with tuning. Even with my kids at a very young age I didn't care if they play badly because they were beginners at guitar. But when it was in tune they improved naturally. Glad I TUNE in to this video. Love it!
If someone ever accuses me of bending a note out of tune I'll be sure to let them know they simply don't know the song
Lol😂😂😂😂
Exactly
What music are you trying to play? That's the real question here.
Lol this is the way
😂
Rick's entire family are just pranking him at this point lmao
Shhh. Don't tell him. Rick is awesome when he's righteously indignant.
I really hope so!
I agree. :)
This is what I thought from the very beginning of the video!
😂
So, basically I do not sing out of tune, people just dont know my songs. Great, ty
Hilarious 🤣
😂
😂
Yes, let's change how we perceive musical sounds! Cancel "American Idol!"
@@TOMTOM-zj5xjNah, it's already been done. They called it Punk Music!
I can’t stand anything out of tune and i hear it immediately.
I thought everyone could hear that until recently. It’s unsafe to me and makes me question their music taste 😂
*_This video perfectly illustrates the madness of being a musician surrounded by normal people. LOL_*
My dad...a drummer...we were not allowed to clap along around him.
I am a musician, and I approve this response!
This applies to almost everything. Everyone is an expert in their own field. Its best to not get annoyed and use it as a teaching moment instead.
My God this hits, my entire in-law family are musicians and I play drums. Only 2-3 of my co workers play, the rest have no idea what Im talking about.
I can’t like this comment enough lol
😂😂😂I’m crying. You have to make this a shirt.
“How do I know it’s out of tune? I don’t even know the song.“
😂
Or one that says “Bro! Do you even tune?”
OH HECK YEAH!
omg yeah thats a t shirt
@@izzypapi99both yours and the OP's would sell. 🤘🏻
My daddy was a piano tuner for 60 years. He tuned for Phil Collins, Status Quo, Elkie Brookes among many others. He knew when my guitar was off by half a cent. It was always in tune when dad was around. He passed last year. I miss him so much😔
Rest in Peace
My condolences... 💔
My condolences. Sounds like your dad would've loved Rick!
Sorry for your loss, the world's lost a great ear. My condolences
Sorry for your loss, My Dad has been gone for 7 years now and I still get the urge to call him with news of my life.
I'll never forget the sticker my dad had on one of his many acoustic guitar cases. It stated "tune it or die"
You’re NOT losing it Rick. I think you are really in tune with this topic.
How would he know?
I see what you did there.
**rim shot**
I've never heard this topic before....😮
🤣🤣🤣🤣
Best Rick's rant of the year so far.
My favorite rant was the one about Apple products.
Agree. It really has that "Larry David energy" which I love!
@@robertmellang6998 then you should listen to the bill burr apple rage podcast episode, its a bit old now but still gold
@@robertmellang6998 Gonna take an awful lot to beat that Apple rant.
@@julioahora Imagine Larry David and Rick in an argument. 'Curb' is an amazing series.
The realization that the majority of people won't notice if something is slightly out of tune or when mistakes are made is the key to being able it take a stage with confidence. My 13 year old is a vocalist and she's finally learned if she makes a mistake no one will notice, that the beauty about art is that the only one that knows is the artist themselves. So go out there and do your thing.
Well, the laypeople won't notice. Unless it's their favorite gaga song.
I always notice mistakes people make live and i JUDGE them extremely hard for ruining the day of the entire audience. SHAME SHAME SHAME
whats wrong with you, man!?
I sent my 118 yueatlr-old grand to our studio where we record (partially restored, a Packard, really well made)
Anyway, she keeps tune really well, but not always with herself.
I hear it when playing in upper-right registers, but the band doesn't always. I'll say, don't worry, she'll always 5:55 sound rock, but let her do her best. Pianos don't age we'll. Ravel was no longer can option for me with her, and full restoration wasn't an option financially. She has the best third life possible.
And given different tunings- open G# and so forth ? The average Joe doesn't know... or know why 'Start Me Up' fails with trad tuning, ect.... I can relate to those that say 'I never heard it, how would I know' ?...
Unless properly transcribed & know how to read it ? You're solely working with your ears, which leads to interpretations, IMO.
But it's good to have folks like Rick to point this out to the rest of us !!
🚬😎👍
I told my husband years ago that Kenny G was sharp. He didn’t understand until I told him he played above the pitch. Now he gets it. Watching American Idol helped him understand. Lots of folks were flat, singing below the pitch. He gets it😊
I was going to say the same thing about American Idol, when the judges would comment on the singers (actual humans without Auto-tune) singing out of tune. I can now better hear when someone is singing out of tune.
The moment Rick realizes most of his audience doesn't understand most of his content, but he makes it fascinating anyhow ...
😂
He could be explaining the Russian phone book , but I'd still persist and listen intently 😅
Very interesting observation…
Your comment is comforting, reassuring. I'm not a musician. I'm a consumer of music I like and my tastes are pretty selective. I figured I was pretty much the only one. Haha
Yo i didnt even read your comment i just wanted to say that i have the same profile pic on facebook
Are you crazy? Yes.
Are you wrong? Nope!
This is a good reminder how easy it is to take our own skills and knowledge for granted.
what I don't understand is that it seams that at first he is arguing about how people don't get when he complains about stuff not being in tune (like the response to him calling out that viral song for not being in tune), but then he also says how nowadays everyone is hypersensitive to stuff being in tune and on grid??
@@jonathanrao6498for vocals will be more sensitive for ppl whio are so used to auto tuned singing.. but live instruments.. it is possible young folks who only listen to mainstream electric pop finding acoustic guitars exotic sounding
@@jonathanrao6498 To truly understand, you must first separate the Fribish from the Frobish; then all things will make sense.
@@jonathanrao6498 Yeah, he's contradicting himself.
@@jonathanrao6498 it gets us commenting n clicking..its just some cheeky filler content,,but i also have experienced non players say something sounds great when on certain flat frets i'm criniging inside
"How would I know? I've never heard the song!"
My new answer to everything 😂
You want fries with that?
LOL.
I'll try that in an interview! -D
Frank Zappa would call that "an adjustable slogan" just like "Read 'em and weep" was for "the daughter of a Florentine Pogen."
@@nielr6922 "So, nielr6922 - what would you say is your greatest weakness?"
In my experience playing with concert bands, symphonies, and rock bands, the latter never spent enough time tuning. In the other groups we would spend 10-15 minutes making sure everyone was in tune before the show. The directors made us tune individually to A440. We would then go from section to section separately to make sure that section was in tune. Then we would test the larger group. I have known conductors stopping in the middle of a show after a number and retune. You are on the money - absolutely essential. You have to be in tune yourself, first. In church groups now I work with I encourage the instrumentalists to take that extra time in the beginning to tune. Many of them don't which I don't understand. I have offered my services to help and most don't take me up on it. Rick, you are gift to the music field!
"how would I know I don't know the song!?"
I'm going to use this for everything.
It can be a whole philosophy of life, making this Rick's best ever post!
You got that right!
"How was I supposed to know, Officer? I've never lived this part of my life before!"
@@RKMontgomeryThat's just dumb
@@johnhasso8908 I know it is, but what am I?
I believe that the key is in the words. People who have no music education won't know what you mean by "in tune" or "out of tune". "Tune" to them might mean "a song", etc. Words have many meanings and uses, so people can miss what you're saying. So when someone tells me that they "don't know about music" my favorite reply is to quote Duke Ellington: "If it sounds good, it is good." That alone can get the ball rolling so that neither of us goes nuts, and to get the person to realize they don't need to know anything in particular to appreciate the beauty in music.
What key is that, specifically? G# Major? D minor?
i had the same impression
You don't need to know music theory to hear something's out of tune you just need to know what it means
Bingo! 👆💯
@@endless_universe2023 i think he's saying that the fact that "tune" is synonymous with both "song" and "pitch" people who are not versed in music may automatically go with the "song" definition, hence them all saying "how would i know if it's out of tune if i've never heard the song before?" they don't know what Rick means because there's a false axiom underlying their whole perception of the concept. boiled down: they think he's saying the musician playing the song has done so incorrectly, when he's actually saying their instrument is not in the right state.
This is the most hilariously relatable look into the life of a musician/father/husband...I can 110% imagine having this conversation with my wife and kids.
Same. I'll mention stuff like this and I get blank stares from my family.
@TheLuke1184
You meant "100%." Either that, or you don't know how percentages work.
@@lisahinton9682 How could he possibly know that? He doesn't know the song!
Only few blessed people is so nerdy with this. I love u all musicians. We can feel the world❤️🎶😇
You've perfectly described my experience as a professional copy editor reading social media posts.
"You know this is riddled with spelling and grammar mistakes, don't you? Don't you?" I scream into the void...
I get you. Old-world copywriter here. 😂
I get you--I've taught English for most of the last 35 years. The language is changing. My younger colleagues insist that I'm a grammar-gatekeeper. My solution? I'm retiring in a month. And I'm going to spend all my time working on music. That's my comment. I'm going to tune my guitar now.
😂 Yup
@@professorronsprivateclassc2850😂
Learning grammar is far more important than learning music theory.
My music teacher once said: "Non-musicians hear music... but musicians LISTEN." I think that jives with this video.
I'm a musician but I grew up with zero musicians in my family or extended family. I remember hearing "music" and not knowing what each instrument was or what was happening at all. Like it was just a blob of sounds. I love remembering when I couldn't distinguish what was happening.
@@inthefade
I like laying in bed staring at the ceiling practicing smooth breathing and listening to bands like God Speed You Black Emperor (check out the album 'G# F#') and identifying what instruments I'm hearing, or if a sound is a synth pad or ambient electric guitar, etc.
I like laying in bed staring at the ceiling practicing smooth breathing and listening to bands like God Speed You Black Emperor (check out the album 'G# F#') and identifying what instruments I'm hearing, or if a sound is a synth pad or ambient electric guitar, etc.
Jibes. Jive and jibe are different. How can people not hear the difference between words?
Hearing and listening to music is like seeing and looking at visual art. One is passive and the other, active. My drawing teacher once said: "Don't just see the world around you, you have to LOOK."
Look, I'm no top .01% musician or anything, but if even Ricks family doesn't know when something sounds out of tune, it makes me feel like I'm part of some extensive and pretentious musicians club, and today I thank you for that Rick.
No kidding! 😂
@LilMonsterInc The crossing of musical understanding and biology is very interesting.
It is engrained , but it's definitely not form birth or immutable, because it's very dependent on socialization.
We're used to hearing the same 12 semitones over and over again in a certain way. So we grow up to be conditioned to think that that is the way and everything outside of it sounds wrong.
The reality is that notes are nothing but frequencies. As something that can be mathematically measured, they're infinite. So the 12 frequencies we are used to are a very small % of all the infinite frequencies that exist. Most of them we do not even know what they sound like because humans are only able to hear from 20Hz to 20kHz.
What happened is that a long time ago, someone probably in Europe decided that these 12 semitones were cool and all the theory that developed around it became the standard in the west.
There's many ethnic temperaments that deviate outside of this. To a person born and raised listening to western music it will sound "out of tune", but for a person raised in a culture that employs what we would call microtonal scales, it would sound good and vice versa. The social science and natural science studies that involve the relationship of humanity and sound are very complex.
Oops, sorry for nerding out.
@@LilMonsterInc no
@@dio_hoestar_4204 We don't just listen to 12 semitones that is just the intervals. The amount of frequencies is still infinite.
Rick, that’s the only way I’ve ever thought about it, the way you hear and described it. I didn’t realize there were people that actually don’t hear it.
I don’t have perfect pitch by any means, but I know 100% what you’re talking about.
Our bass (acoustic) player had perfect pitch. Four piece lounge band with vocals, middle of a song and he leans over to the guitar player and says, "your A string is a quarter tone flat." The Guitar player looks at him like he's crazy. Song ends and the guitar player finds that his A string is a quarter tone flat. We had all heard that song before. Keep it coming Rick.
I'd say you could do this without having perfect pitch - but very good relative pitch... I could tell you if the A string was flat relative to the rest of the band, regardless of whether everyone was tuned to A440...
I don't have perfect pitch but I could always tell if my guitar slipped out of tune during rehearsal. Playing at some rock clubs with horrible sound systems is another story
If the guitar player can’t hear that himself then he’s got bigger problems 😂
It's also true, as others are suggesting, that this gets a lot more difficult in loud rooms and on loud sound systems. Pitching vocals gets harder ... And I once played a gig where it was so loud I could have sworn my bass was a semitone sharp - but my tuner, and everyone else's ears confirmed it was fine!
A lotta players are tone deaf. Youd be suprized at how many cant tell their guitar is outta intonation or outta tune.
I have been teaching band for 25 years and I have this conversation and subsequent lessons on intonation many times during the school year. I feel your pain. You have not lived until you are placed feet away from 15 middle school flutist 5 days a week.
School bands are notorious for not playing in tune. Especially the horn and wind instruments. Strings aren't much better.
How do you resist Hari Kari... seriously (lol).
Bless you sir!! 😅
Are the oboes any better?
I had my MS students buy tuners and keep them on their stands while they rehearse, it worked wonders...
We need more WABI SABI!
I think your family is having a semantics hang up on the word tune. And you hit the nail on the head regarding autotune taking the human spirit out of music.
You’re a true master and lifelong learner, Rick. You inspire me to give my best to the world, and never stop learning. Thank you for being so authentically YOU.
Great rant. ❤
In my band (mid-90s), everytime our lead guitar wanged an out of tune note, he'd just press on to eight bars later and wang that same bad note again. Said, "if you repeat it, it's not a mistake; it's jazz." RIP, David.
Sounds like my friend who justifies every grammar error with "English is a living language."
@@dougray30 It is. But as I always said to my ESL wife; "English is a precise language" as in, you need to speak it correctly.
That's an old one. I wish I could remember who said it, but it was one of the 60s-70s greats quoted back then in Guitar Player. Timeless wisdom, spoken here in the voice of PeeWee Herman, "I meant to do that."
Wolfgang once said his Pop told him that when he was starting out with VH “If you make a mistake just do it again so people think it was right”.
Thelonius Monk used dissonance intentionally.
Wow. Was just discussing this very thing with one of my students today. We were working on an older song that was off pitch. I tuned my guitar to the song by ear and the student was completely blown away. "How in the world are you able to do that?" he asked. I said, "I can here the pitches in the song and match the string pitches to them". "NO WAY!" he said. "YES WAY!" I replied. "You can learn to do this."
When I learned to play by ear it felt like I learned the cheat code. BTW- love your channel.
Ha, ha! Thank you for letting me correct your, “here”, to, hear. We care about that which we find important, but, don’t stress about the little things. Enjoy our differences, and give peace a chance, everyone. 🌈
As a 51 year old, these were skills you had to have in the 20th century if you wanted to play and sound good. I walked 5 miles uphill both ways
@@StokesMusicStudiosOnline Did you get the baked potatoes during winter to keep you warm on those walks and was your meal for the day? That was back when we still built character.
A good old fashioned tuning fork. PINGGGG. or pitch pipe.
My dad told me when I first started playing "you can't play untill you know how to tune your guitar. " It was the first thing I learned. It's the absolute basics.
Ey! Yea if you're tuned, worst thing that happens is you accidently hit some open string and you can improvise your way out of it
That's the 1st thing I teach people. No sense practicing out of tune.
I learned this for drums too when I was a kid. Granted, tuning drums is different than tuning a guitar, but everyone still needs to be in tune with everyone else, as well as with their own instrument.
Yeah, but you need to tune it for the particular song though, which is why everyone was saying you can't know if something's out of tune or not if you don't know the song.
When I first started to learn how to play the guitar a good friend gave me an electric guitar tuner unit. It really helped me, after a while I didn't need it. Because I knew what out of tune sounded like.
I'm just an amateur guitar dabbler and I've always known what it means when an instrument is in tune or out of tune, regardless of the song. You are not crazy, I share in your bafflement.
Totally understand you! If it’s out of tune, it’s out of tune!! I have no comprehension of why anyone would think anything else.
Because they don't have the ear or ability to tell the difference.
@@mikespain8655You don’t need “the ear” or “the ability.” Unless you’re extremely hard of hearing or, like my grandparents, deaf, everyone can tell when something in a song is out of tune.
They are confusing "out of tune" with being "out of key".
Rick ought to disavow his family. I can see no other way out of the situation.
@@nomoresaulBS. In high school, our band recorded “Siegfried’s Funeral Music”, a recording that I enjoyed listening to but hadn’t heard in about 50 years. A couple of years ago, after singing about 25 years with a major city’s Symphony Chorus, I came across the Siegfried, started playing it, but couldn’t make it past a couple of minutes. It hurt my ears. I’m guessing that you’re born with a certain capacity to train your ears, and it’s up to you to get the training done.
I just remembered the advice
Maurice Chevalier gave a very young singer 100yrs ago:
" Always start and end a song
well and with confidence , very
few can understand the part
in the middle"
For your age, over 100, you have good memory. 😂
This explains a lot about beginning players in ukulele club. Lol.
@@miguelbarahona6636 I am that
young singer... 🤫
@@ruggerobelloni4743 Tell us more! How did you happen to meet Maurice?
@@davidg3944 I was in Paris
with my girlfriend Josephine
Baker, yeah, that's the ticket !
Obviously I'm just doing a John
Lovitz. When I saw Chevalier live
on TV he was in his seventies
and I was a child. The reason
I sometimes mention him is
because in the 80s ,when an
older friend raved about his
Drive-in romances, I told him
I liked a fireplace, Champagne
and a Song. He teased me
saying: " Of course, you're Maurice
Chevalier!".
You summed up in 5 minutes what I've been trying to explain to my wife for the last 20 years... "Can't you hear this is out of tune?!?!"
Greetings from Brazil.
I’m guilty of playing out of tune and I have been called out for it, but I must say, it has only been by a few. Seems most overlook it since it is an original song and maybe they, like your family, think it’s OK since it is a song that they have never heard before. It was an interesting discussion and in a way it makes sense what they are saying, but even though I am sometimes out of tune, I understand exactly what you mean. Crazy world, aye?
Cutter & Ms C
I’m a piano tech and so many people will tell me they can’t tell when their piano is out of tune. But those people are always pleased with my work when I’m done. You may not know what ‘in tune’ means to a musician but you know what sounds good. Teaching beginning musicians how to tune and the concept of tuning musical pitches together gives them great advantage.
I grew up playing music so I always knew what you meant. My wife was complimenting my singing yesterday and saying she was a bad singer, to which I responded "hey, at least you sing sharp, and not flat." She said "I have no idea what that means."
My wife said that to me once and wanted me to explain what it means, and I told her if a note is sharp or flat, it's like a pencil. If the pencil is in your hand, you can write with it. But if it's flat, the pencil is laying on a table. She looked at me like I was a total moron. So I stared at her for a moment doing my best to keep a strait face. Then I burst out laughing, saying _"I am so glad you didn't believe that, because I don't know much music theory, and all I do know is that if someone tells me a note on my guitar is sharp, I know it's tuned a little bit high. If they say it's flat, I know it's lower that it should be."_ She says, _"Oh, it's that simple, eh? No wonder you felt the need to tell me some nonsense bullshit."_
That reminds me of the time when my drummer kept speeding up on a particular song we were learning. I turned around & asked if he could try to keep it in time. He said, "how do I know, I've never heard the song before"!
Was it Pete Best?
Presumably he very soon became your ex-drummer! 🙂 It reminds me of the old joke: What's the difference between a drummer and a drum machine? Eight bars by the end of the song.
Tell it to The Police
Worst thing you can say to a drummer, its a human, not a robot
yikes! haha. its like how do you even start that deeper conversation with someone who says that
There is the apocryphal story of a composer and concert master listening to a rehearsal - at the time, flutes were not tunable and subject to wide fluctuations of intonation because of humidity and heat and other conditions. In the middle of rehearsal the concert master turns to the composer and says "Maestro, what could be worse than a flute?" The Composer replied, "Two flutes."
If flutes really couldn't be tuned, don't think the story is apocryphal
I had the same experience so long ago that I'd forgotten about it. Non-musicians sometimes think that "out of tune" means "not the way it's supposed to be in that tune/song." It blew my mind.
Really? Would you be kind enough to elaborate on that?
Yes! That's why, I am sure.
@@javio4636 It's like a cover that doesn't sound like the original. Admittedly, there are some discordant covers, but I like a lot of them.
One that comes immediately to mind is "Sugartime," which a number of people have done. My go-to is the 1958 version by the McGuire Sisters. I just heard a modern version, don't know who did it, but I liked it. Other people my age probably would not.
@@javio4636 I think that for people who don't understand music from the perspective of the performer or the composer (that is to say perhaps, the "average listener"), they don't understand basic musical terms such as "pitch" or "interval" so terms like out of tune have a different meaning or no meaning at all, if you don't know what being IN tune means. Therefore it is possible to invent a meaning which is out of context, such as "out of tune" must mean that it doesn't belong in this song. There's no conceptualization of individual instrumental pitch for someone who doesn't understand musical composition or structure at the granular level. Ordinary listeners just hear the song holistically (in my experience).
I majored in classical guitar and worked as a musician for almost a decade. Elementary and middle-school concerts used to drive me insane because of tuning issues. The worst was the string orchestra. People around me had no idea what I was complaining about.
some people around you knew
Worse than nails on a blackboard. Ugh.
I was in orchestra in middle and high school. I know what you mean! lol!
Boy, is THAT the truth! There ain't much that sounds more like a bag of cats than a junior high string orchestra out of tune.....
@@nathanclark4674 One exception ... Elementary school string orchestra lol
I’m with you on this one! I can definitely tell when 1 string is out on a guitar no matter what key it’s tuned to. “Out of tune within itself” describes it perfectly. No need to know the song!
Yes! But there's still more at play here, not least because you may *perceive* "perfectly tuned" but the science indicates otherwise. And not just science, but 'psycho-perception'. I'm not stating 'mass hysteria'...but a form of 'groupthink' that defies science, and yet appears definitively 'obvious'....when it in fact is incorrect. Optical illusion has clearly been observed and defined by Science. How about 'auditory illusion'?
...what song ?
You’re not crazy; you’re just really into music. A non-musician here who enjoys listening to your stuff, even though you’re speaking an entirely different language than me. Your depth of knowledge and your enthusiasm for the art form is infectious. It’s a good thing you weren’t around when I was a teenager.
This is the kind of honest, true- to-oneself rant that doesn't rub anybody the wrong way. 😊
Would this be the wrong time to mention that I don't know what's meant by "Pitch"?
Or that time I went to Subway, and they were out of tuna?
Worst day of my life!
How can you know if this rant is true to itself if you've never heard this rant before?
I agree with you 100%. No, you're not crazy. Pitch matters! Being in tune matters! Perfect harmony matters!
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
In tune matters; being a particular pitch isn't that important. "The standard pitch for a musical note is A above middle C, which is set at 440 Hz. This is known as the international standard pitch, or concert pitch. Other frequencies, such as 442 Hz, are also commonly used."
It used to be much wider tolerance, anything between 415 Hz to 445 Hz, and a bit more. 415 Hz is over a semitone lower than 440 Hz.
Read all about it in "Concert Pitch" on Wikipedia. very interesting if you are a musical geek like me, particularly "Current Concert Pitches".
I, too, am an old man shaking my fist at the clouds. I'm with you Rick.
Me as well.
Fight the clouds!
Me too.
Those darnded clouds had it coming, i tells ya! ☁️💪👨🦳
Bass player, and fellow old man yelling at a cloud.
I play in a local cover band, and I've had to come to that realization that Maurice Chevalier (mentioned in a previous comment) had it right: As long as you start and end the song confidently, you could completely bork the middle parts and no one would notice. Especially after a night of drinking. Happened to me more times than I can count.
Don't try to explain to normies how you screwed up and why...just accept the compliments and have fun doing what you do.
I am old school, you make total sense...
I am a lifelong musician, Rick, lots of people know when the singer is out of tune. Fewer people know when a guitars out of tune, but they know there’s something wrong. It doesn’t sound good. Have faith. you’re not nuts. Love your show…✌️❤️
and none of them know the bass is completly out of tune 😂
@@ykar18 First thought that came to my mind when I've started reading that 😂 absolutely true!!
When everybody is out of tune, you are in the Stones!
@@jeffmckinnon5842hahahahaha true👍
Yes, you’re in the Stones-or listening to Stevie Nicks.
You’re not crazy Rick- LOL- I can absolutely hear if someone’s playing is out of tune-even if it’s one string. You make perfect sense to me.
Rick man, I am no musical genius, but my head just about explodes when I hear something that's out of tune. I'm with you man.
Me too !!
You are correct. I think it’s important for kids to learn the distance between tones. Specifically, to be able to discern 4th, 5th and octaves.
I'm with you Rick. You're not crazy. I know when something is "out of tune".
Hell yeah. I get it.
Same.
I'm totally in tune with what he is saying, songs sped up or slowed down will be out of tune to standard tuning but will sound in tune as all the instruments are tuned the same.
Mind boggling that that was their response! "How would i know it's out of tune since i don't know the song?" WHAT???
Right with you on this Rick.
I'm a regular person. I absolutely could not tell you whether a guitar was in tune or not. Most people are not musicians.
@@yadamspiezer How did you get here??
@@yadamspiezer.. You don't have to be a musician to tell if something doesn't sound right or, sounds just "bad".. But, true.., to some people.., it just doesn't matter..
@@yadamspiezer Did you imagine people re-tuned their instrument for every song? Trust me, you could hear if it was out of tune. You could not hear anything "off" about Rick's out of tune chord?
@Kyle-wb7wx I love music and enjoy Rick's content, even though I'm just a layperson. Doesn't seem that weird to me.
I totally understand you Rick...it's not just having perfect pitch, you can hear it if a string is sharp or flat. You are definitely NOT CRAZY!!!
As a previous long term guitar strummer, in my old age combined with arthritis the, ability to play behind me, I oftentimes hear out of tune guitars, usually the b and e strings. When strummed together I'll hear their mismatch as a beat frequency between the 2.
yeah man you arent crazy , but only guitar players can pick that up ... unless you point it out .. i am constantly fixing my strings and obsessing over them being in tune
Basically this.
Bro I can FEEL it if I bend an out of tune string
No you're not crazy Rick. Me and my father used to have this "tuned-not tuned" obsession when I was young and you are right, "in tune" means the instrument sounds good along with other instruments... except for people born with perfect pitch who will find disturbing any instrument that is not tuned to the 440 hz standard...
I just watched Rick explaining the definition of tune, and I've never been more excited, even though I already knew what it means. This man is a gem.
TRIVIA IS FUN? COVID'S OVER, IT'S SPRING DUDE!
This is Rick's best video ever. This rant sounds like me screaming for years, the frustration is real!
Me too, damn this was funny
100%
To yourself? I mean, it's really a nuisance when you can't stand even minor imperfections in tune. Should've never bought a Peterson tuner, it just points that I'm correct with my estimate. This drives me mad. And it concerns of course intonation too. Like... aaaaargh.
Another thing that always amazes me is seeing crowds, on television, clapping perfectly out of time, or on the downbeat, all together, being really happy not even noticing something's wrong… (which CAN drive me crazy… 😅 "what?? how can they not notice??)…
I've seen a LOT of Brit audiences clapping on the downbeat. It's a "thing" for some reason. For kicks, I try to emmulate them and I last a couple of beats before I'm back in time. I can't do it!!
How would I know? I don't know the song.
I know it well (clapping on 1 & 3 instead of 2 & 4) but have you ever seen an audience clap along to a song in 3/4 and they clap on beats 1 & 2 instead of beats 2 & 3? I have (over 50 years ago).....my mind is still blown.
I saw Harry Connick Jr correct an audience on the fly one time when they weren’t clapping to the correct time signature. He adjusted his playing for a couple of bars and then re adjusted and got them perfectly in time. It was seriously impressive.
Because most people aren’t serious music people
I know what u mean! Soooo frustrating wrkg w/ singers who can't stay on pitch, or don't even know when they"re off pitch.
I had to sing the song just to get them in them right note...
This is so right on. I have often called out music friends for their instrument being out of tune. They either dismiss my comment or check the tuner and find out I'm right. The point is that nobody else noticed it.
"You might not have noticed it, but your brain did"
I have played with numerous musicians who didn't seem to realize their instrument was out of tune. Most were bassists, and I can understand that sometimes those low frequencies can be hard to discern, but, c'mon.
Love this rant! 😂😂
You’re not alone or crazy! !
I think 95% of your subscribers know exactly what you mean.
I feel your pain.
That’s why I’d rather spend 30s tuning my guitar on stage even with uncomfortable and bewildered audience than just silence between a song rather than play with a string out of tune. Can’t do it .
My primary guitar is a 12 string so those retuning times can end up doubled but you have to do it.
Non musicians experience the world completely differently from us. I am amazed continuously at this and accept it. It's like a foreign language.
Oh don't.
"We have music on in the office to help us concentrate..." - nope, can't work there like that.
A week later:
"Why are you listening to white noise thru your headphones?" - I can't concentrate on working if there's music distracting me - I am literally seeing notes / chords / relative intervals in my head while I hear it.
@@uptoeleven I'm a lifelong musician and I am WAY more productive and accurate while listening to music. We're all different. Thank God.
most of them also lose the feeling for music thats is liked by common people and wonder why their music is only liked by other musicians.
@@uptoeleven Me too. I need silence or something close to it, otherwise my mind wants to play the song or figure it out.
fax dawg
Rick, I love most of your content. A lot of people may notice a bad sound. But as players we would know instantly why and correct it. But I would not expect a non player to understand what we know.Don't over think it and let it drive you nuts.And cut non players a little slack!!
I am almost 70, when was learning to play the guitar, I could hear that the vinyl was not standard pitch.
I bought a turntable that had strobe pitch adjustment. (Speed).
So I could change the vinyl to my guitar.
It was awesome. Great video.
Some here. I'm 65 and had a turntable back in the day that I would adjust for the guitar, too. It was sure better than re-tuning the instruments.
Lolz…I’m the same…the amount of swearing I did in 1981 trying to pick apart Layla on a strat and having to retune to the vinyl and constantly shifting the vibrato block as a result…so I kept going out of tune. In later years finding out they sped up the recording to increase the feel….never thought about my adjustable turn table speed….what a nob!
There are music player apps that allow adjusting the pitch by at least some amounts of halves. You can give a try to the for the older stuff at the very least.
Also, when I think about it, yeah, it'd be neat to have a finer grained control over the pitch of the playback on the music player apps too. I'll bring this up when I'm chatting with some of my music player app & system audio effects developer friends out there.
No, you are not crazy, Rick- you are bringing up an important issue! It is so important that our natural ability to hear pitch differences and adjust our playing or singing in order to be in tune with ourselves, the instrument and others does not get lost. As important this is for music, this is also a societal theme. Thank you for your valuable podcasts!
A societal theme. Exactly. So very out of tune!
I'm on your team. Doesn't matter what song, you can tell whether it is sharp or flat.
He's right. Of course you can tell if it's out of tune. You can hear it.
By ear I can only tell if it's out of tune against itself.
I think you’ve just proved his point. A song being flat or sharp is not ‘out of tune’. It’s just that all notes have been tuned down or up consistently with each other. One of the notes being non consistent with the rest is ‘out of tune.’
you can't if the whole track has been detuned, caused by recording equipment, unless you play along to it, check out Tears for Fears, everyone wants to rule the world, so can you tell that this track has been detuned
if all the played notes are slightly sharp or flat by the same amount i'm not sure most of us can tell... (say the 440Hz tuning vs 432Hz)
after all, what is the reference point? if it's an 'internal tuner', how was it tuned and what keeps* it in tune? :)
i can hear subtle dissonances but only w/ a reference present, w/o one, it takes a few more Hz to notice something is different.
in other words the turntable needs to start out more than just a little bit too slow or too fast for me to notice.
but say just one of the strings on a guitar is slightly sharp or flat, it stands out in an obvious way. same if the turntable's speed is adjusted as it plays...
*people w/ 'absolute pitch' sometimes experience a natural slight shift of the 'internal tuner' as they age.
for some it can become an issue as the note played by a properly tuned instrument is different than what they expect to hear based on their 'inner ear'.
Makes perfect sense to me a failed band member in the 8th grade who needs hearing aids now. I really enjoy your videos. Keep it up.
You're NOT crazy. Finally someone feels the same as I do! I don't know how you CAN'T tell an instrument is out of tune.
This!
Hearing someone playing out of tune drives me crazy. I'm about one more time hearing it from storming a stage and tuning a guitar for someone.
Yup. "Did you tune your guitar?" "Yes, did it this morning..." "OK, it needs re tuning..." "really? I did it this morning..." Thus displaying a fundamental lack of understanding of the peculiarities of a string instrument, wood construction, humidity, temperature... and musical knowledge and a "deaf" ear.
@@markjthomson
"I dunno what's wrong with my guitar -- it was in tune when bought it".
Like seriously, how can they not hear the terrible "beat frequencies"?
I find this with amateur singers singing along with accompanyment. How can you not tell you're a whole note off? When I sing, if I can't find the "groove" I can't even sing, my body just stops.
I am so with you on this! I play bass in multiple bands and I learn everything by ear. I also play piano and guitar and I can't stand it when other band members can't tell when their guitar is out of tune. When I was younger, it bothered me so much, I used to go around and tune everyone's guitar for them. It drove me nuts listening to them try to get it right. I was so happy when electronic tuners came on the scene! But now, many years later, I still get ridiculed for pointing out when someone is out of tune. The tuner usually proves me right but they don't like me pointing it out. Some don't hear it and some don't care. I can't stand to play in a band with out-of-tune instruments! Some people think I am too picky...
Exactly my experience, can’t play when someone is out of tune, and they don’t like me pointing it out🤦♂️. Nowadays I just stop playing and wait for them to ask me why🤣
I see you, I grew up thinking everyone has perfect pitch like me, though I did not know the term at the time. I thought people who can't recognize notes or remember the pitch are just bad at music, and I couldn't stand people being out of tune or even humming a melody in a wrong key. I learned the term "perfect pitch" in my late teens and then it hit me. Suffice to say, I wasn't a popular kid in my music school.
That's me as well. 100% 😂😂
Perhaps you should tune the whole band to suit the note that's flat, so no one feels insulted! 🤣
I am the same (also a bass player, actually) and I experience physical discomfort if something is out of tune,
And.... Learning songs.... I sit in house band for quite a few jam sessions and play loads of stuff I have never played in my life until it gets asked.
I don't have absolute pitch but I have a rather good tone/ear memory, so I will start playing it out of memory in the original key.
If someone asks it in a different key, I struggle much more - I still have pitch interval memory, but I will usually fumble the first pass while searching the center notes.
Also, if I played a song in a certain key my whole life and someone asks it in a odd key it is hard for my ears and fingers to assimilate the key change due to pitch memory.
I often freak out band mates by starting to sing certain songs I have listened many times in the correct pitch.
....again, pitch memory.
Imagine getting Rick one of those nature sounds relaxation albums. Instead of relaxing he is noticing 3 of the loons are "off" and the birch trees with the wind blowing through the leaves are flat. Rick, I envy you your talent. ❤
Or from a more practical perspective, noticing which of the fluorescent lights in aisle 8 at your grocery store has the transformer that hums the root of Baker Street. Not that I'd know... (I know).
It would always bother me listening to nature sounds when I could hear when the loop restarted!😅
That's funny; "The Loons are off." That could be a song title 😂
Oh this makes me laugh so hard.
Those whale songs aren't in key 😖
I've worked with band directors who couldn't tell when their guitar or their voice was out of tune. The same people had trouble telling when something was in tune, often claiming that people they didn't like were out of tune when they weren't.
There are humans with incredible perception. Some have the gift of scent, some have the gift of taste, and some with the gift of hearing.
*gift of identifying pitch
Hearing is not a gift. Well perfect pitch is kind of gift, but everyone can develop their hearing and relative pitch.
Yep. Some people have music/sound brain but most don't. I was born with it. No one else in my family was. It's genetic.
And some have the gift of not hearing.... or something.
I wish i had more than music, i love music but theres never a setting where i can broadcast this.
As a Trombone/French Horn player, I clearly understand what you are talking about. Both instruments have to constantly adjust so they sound correct with everyone else. When I hear someone "out of tune" is makes my spine curl. Keep up the great work Rick.
As a Band Director this resonates because I’m CONSTANTLY calling students attention to this! Once we talk about it and we demonstrate this a few times they are like OH!!! Yeah… I hear that. BUT…. The old adage - the more YOU-WE know the more our minds are blown when other people DON’T know
Good example. And this can go for so many things other than music.
The earliest musicians didn't tune their instruments at all, at least not in the ways many modern musicians do. They didn't have tuners or microphones or autotune. In addition, the music of people who have never heard recorded music is fundamentally different than the music of those who have, even today. Meditate on that a little bit.
My band director just shouted "you're out of tune, mister." You had to learn about intonation (tuning) real quick. 😂
Take it back and do it again … 😂
No Rick, you're not crazy, if something is out of tune, it's out of tune.
100% with you, I keep hearing out of tune music and thinking there's no way people hear flat vocals and think it sounds good and I'm always met with "I don't hear it". Drives me NUTS!
Especially on the "talent" TV shows.
Oh that enrages me as someone with perfect pitch that can notice even the smallest pitch differences 😆
I can't read, write or play music, but what you just described is how I've always understood "out of tune".
I'm with you.
Im with you Rick. I can't comprehend not knowing if something sounds out of tune or not. Same as having no concept of rhythm or timing. It baffles me.
Your statement makes me think a the movie ! The Jerk lol just can find the grove like me trying to play jazz
Yes, and I’m with you, how can people not tell, if music is out of tune. You really only need your ears for that I mean, really, you don’t even have to know anything about music, but you know that. I find that mind-boggling.
Being out of tune and off the beat in the right way is art. Being auto tuned and on the grid takes the soul out of music - it doesn’t”breathe”. It’s true that a huge portion of Rick’s audience, even those like me who have more than a passing familiarity with musical theory, lose the thread early on in most of his videos and stick around for the ride anyway because he is fun and interesting to watch. Yes, Rick, you are crazy but in the best possible sense! 😂
As a vocal instructor I feel your pain Rick. I don't have perfect pitch but I know what "off" sounds like.
You are not alone, Ive had this discussion with multiple people in all my years of guitar and they wont notice until you actually point it out…but once you do, their face is priceless…and then i hear something out of tune in a gig or on tv and theyll say its fine. its maddening lol! I loved this
Excellent. I've joined this string late, and made exactly your point, and now I'm scrolling down to see who else has 'experienced' this.
A good working term until defined scientifically (and I believe it will be if not done already) is "illusion". The eyes do it, why wouldn't the ears?
I know absolutely nothing about music, yet I completely understand what you mean.
And that’s why we love listening to him! Love the passion.
Yes. I understand and agree with you Rick. You are not crazy. Those of us with perfect pitch go nuts when we hear notes that are out of tune.
How do you know if someone has perfect pitch?
Answer: They will tell you.
I think this video captures the essence of being an expert on anything. When you bring up something extremely obvious to you, all you get are blank looks.
story of my life
I agree. TBH, i don't understand half of what Rick says most of the time (I am not a musician and I am legitimately tone-deaf), but I still enjoy listening to an expert dissect a song or composition.
100%, Painful
Yeah. I don't have good ears for music, but the experience resonates, even if this particular example does not.
I noticed this first when I was learning how to play 25 years ago. It really threw me for a loop that I just don't understand how other people hear things. It has always been a huge pet peeve of mine when I hear a poorly tuned guitar, and yet many players themselves cannot even tell without a tuner. Blows my mind how anyone could do music and not hear things that are stunningly obvious to me.
I agree. Some can’t hear it at all but I think that most can.
You missed the whole point of the video.
I cant tell a difference between two tones until they're almost a half step apart. Most everything i play is written out beforehand. Tune with a tuner and pkay what is on page.
One of the best TH-cam rants ever! As a non-musician who watches you channel because of your passion and explanations of the songs I love, I can tell you I stuggle with this stuff. I would love a video series for beginners on it.
It would be easier for you to become a musician
You really should pick up a instrument, just casually, because you stop struggling with this stuff and it's a ton of fun. :D
That is if you can find like a few hours per week/about half an hour per day for this kind of hobby and are interested.
I so much understand what you mean. When people in groups sing, the rythm sways, and some apparently consider it, as a race towards the end, even with a 'metronome' in the background.
When I was in college we were playing a concert band transcription of the Promenade from Pictures at an Exposition by Mussorgsky. Our principal trumpet player spoke privately before rehearsal to each brass player in the band and told us (as a practical joke on our conductor) to play everything down a half step. Most of us were music majors and could pull that off without an issue. In the transcription, the brass begin the movement without the woodwinds for about eight measures before the woodwinds enter the piece. The woodwinds were not told anything about our little prank. All the brass players played the beginning of the piece perfectly (down a half step). When the woodwinds came in a half step higher our conductor almost fell off the podium! He said, "I thought the beginning sounded flat!" One of the funniest musical moments of my college career! :)
I played a Hendrix show with a bass player who insists on Eflat tuning
I thought he would sharp everything, but no? LMAO
Classic! Love it
😂😂😂 alm9st fell off the podium ! So good
I've repeatedly tried explaining this to my non-musician friends. I teach my students that if a mistake happens or something goes wrong oftentimes no one in the audience will know.
I was always taught to sacrifice the note for the sake of the song.
@@dr.thrashfinger4915 my slogan is that it's okay to play a wrong note, but it's not okay to play an ugly note.
5:55 @@obgfoster
"There are no mistakes, just happy accidents"
Some will, but very few !
Rick, my mind is 🤯. Never knew that folks were unaware of the concept of what being ‘in tune’ meant.
I am completely tone deaf but I greatly respect those of you that have the ability to tune anything. Beato is a God in my eyes.
I do NOT know what you mean!
I LOVE music! And my BIGGEST regret in life is that I never had any aptitude for playing an instrument or learning to read music. BUT I found this Channel and Rick Beato during the madness of 2020. I watch, completely enthralled, as the void in my heart is filled!
I play guitar and have very little aptitude for it.
@@ciaranosullivan9352 Me too, and I'm really crap, but I just love guitars and music. I can tell if a vocal is flat, but not so easy if a chord has a flat note.
Just get yourself a cheap instrument you're interested in and start playing around a bit. Just have fun and learn. Never to late.
This just put a smile on my face...I believe a lot of us can relate to the uncomfortable feeling of being out of place...taking basic conceptions for granted without realising it might not be that basic for others! Love your channel Rick.
This is too relatable, it can become very frustrating but as musicians we seem to overestimate how much attention non-musicians pay to a piece of music, people just don't care enough like we do
I appreciate your point and think you're right but why should they? Do you care how well the cans of beans are stacked in your super market? Probably not but someone took the time and trouble to put them there with all the labels facing the same way (a bit simplistic but you get my point). If a piece of music sounds ok to someone then surely that's enough? Not everyone has the same ability to hear nuances. I could hear the detuned string in the chord in this video but often can't hear smaller variances that professional musicians can. But then maybe I'm the lucky one because I can more easily enjoy a less than perfect performance?
@@rochmel1409great point
@@rochmel1409 never said they should
And care even less about our gear 😂
yeah but you'd think the ability to hear if a sound is 'off' would be rather innate
No, Rick, you're not crazy. I'm with you man. I feel the same way.
You are NOT crazy, and this has helped me realize so much about the way that I feel about the world around me. Thank you.
You are not crazy. I have been teaching for over 30 years and I have noticed that folks, especially kids, can no longer understand or learn how to read notes and can't hear when its wrong or out of tune. Blows my mind! 😊
😪 that is terrible. We need to Teach proper music in Primary schools across the world so we can maintain a good standard of musicality 💜
i watch my cousins learn string instruments... where they have to create the note's pitch. it's hard because on the one hand they have to keep practicing, but on the other hand i feel i must tell them they are not playing the note they think they are playing.
I know exactly, what Rick means, but I'm about his age & often had to deal with instruments without a tuning reference or tune older pianos, where the strings might break, if brought up to A440 pitch, so I tuned them "within themselves", a seemingly self evident concept. Personally, I could always tell, if guitars, violins, pianos, etc were in tune within themselves, better than I could tell comparing individual notes against an outside reference, if they were in tune. I always thought, it was very common & much easier than having perfect pitch.
Maybe the fact, that electronic tuners & smartphone tuning apps are common nowadays, is a contributing factor?
That is so true about kids. I thought it was just a couple random kids where I live but its hitting me now after watching this vid and your comment. Kids born of late hear so much "perfect" music that they hear things so much different. People need to treat playing an Instrument as of high importance for all children. For many reasons. Even those not interested as it is great for the mind to learn. Then like other things once they are older can take it or leave it.
Lol sheet music is good for piano players or wind instruments but guitar? Tabs are the norm and there's nothing wrong with that.
I have the same obsession with tuning. Even with my kids at a very young age I didn't care if they play badly because they were beginners at guitar. But when it was in tune they improved naturally. Glad I TUNE in to this video. Love it!
I hadn't thought of that. Thank you.
Only thing I can think of is when you would call a song a tune maybe when you say out of tune they think you mean he or they messed up. (Maybe)