At 7:18 AM -0400 7/8/10, dhbailey wrote:
It is to be hoped that inexperienced players are working with teachers who are teaching them how to tune properly and how to make the best use of any tuning device, which would include electronic tuners, and, again one would hope, would teach those inexperienced string players to use the tuning device to get one string in tune and then tune the other strings from that original string.
And on this we can certainly agree! My Dad taught beginning strings classes as well as private lessons, and found the introduction of Thomastik steel strings after WW II to be a godsend because it cut the time he had to spend tuning the class in half or less. But any student who has played for a year should be tuning accurately by ear. You can't learn if you don't DO!
Same thing for tape on the fingerboard, possibly a help for a rank beginner, but not needed as soon as the student starts developing decent pitch discrimination and a physical feeling for the finger patterns. These are ALL temporary, and temporarily useful, but if the ear isn't developed intonation will never improve. (And if the ear doesn't improve, the student should switch to piano!!)
John -- John R. Howell, Assoc. Prof. of Music Virginia Tech Department of Music College of Liberal Arts & Human Sciences Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A. 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:john.how...@vt.edu) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html "We never play anything the same way once." Shelly Manne's definition of jazz musicians. _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
