It's always been easier for me to hear it in others than in myself. Something about how the sound and vibration bounces around in my empty head diminishes my ability to hear the pitch accurately, though I can hear it accurately in the people around me. That may be a special problem for tuba players. It's not because I don't care. It's just one of the many reasons why I will never be a really good musician.MaryAnn wrote:I've been told that a good barbershop quartet sings in tune with each other, which is what produces the sympathetic harmonics that cause these groups to resonate so beautifully. I wonder if people without a sense of pitch could tell the difference if they did hear a group that plays in tune.
So, I can appreciate the sympathetic pitches in a good brass quintet, but when my quintet misses that mark, I'm not always aware of what adjustment I can make to improve it, or able to evaluate when my adjustment trials have succeeded.
I find that when I play with other players much better than myself, we are all in tune. They haven't complained to me that I'm making them take extraordinary action to maintain good pitch, but maybe they are just being nice.
Fortunately, music can still be enjoyed by hacks, and evne audiences might appreciate performances by hacks. If music was restricted only to really good musicians, even those good musicians would suffer as a result.
Rick "who does his best" Denney
