Karl Young wrote:
>
> some of the differences were easy to hear but others were
> surprisingly hard for me to distinguish (it was a long time ago and I
> now forget which was which but you've piqued my interest and I may go
> back and investigate)
You're right, Karl -- comparing the usual 5-limit just intervals with
tempered is not so dramatic except for the natural third. But if you
ever try your experiment again compare tempered with a typical 7 limit
scale -- it can be amazingly different. That's what makes Harry Partch's
music sound so alien at first and so comfortable and natural after a few
minutes. Or listen to LaMonte Young's piano tuning, with lots of 7
ratios - very easy to hear the difference there, even though the number
of cents deviation from tempered is not all that great. For me, the 7/4
seventh as a consonant interval was a big revelation to me, and I use it
as a drone in a lot of my music.
I think one of the values of shakuhachi is that it can help develop more
precise pitch discrimination, since any pitch is possible and you have
to adjust constantly, especially when going from one flute to another.
Pitch discrimination, I believe, is something that can be learned. If
you work with microtonal music, you start hearing microtonal intervals
more vividly.
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