The Steel Guitar Forum

There seems to be a buzz about tuning to 432 as that frequency is more harmonious to earth vibrations, blah, blah, blah!

This guy explains how 440 became the standard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjR0WpWwLrE

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I tune until it sounds good to my ear.
Now if I could just get my ears in tune.

I heard Joseph Goebbels did it during the 1930s to enhance the anxiety of the masses.

https://roelhollander.eu/en/tuning-freq ... s-and-440/

440 was in common use more than 100 years before the nazis.

Doesn’t mean it’s a good thing, agreed

The way this thread's going shows what we already know -
that tuning is extreme politics

I think 440 is just fine as long as it only applies to A. (No 'I tune my G#'s to 441.5.')
Yeah, it can get political. 'Buddy tunes straight up.' (I love that.) I do miss the tuning wars.

And 432 works only if the crystals in your guitar or piano are aligned. If they're not, you're wasting your time.

Len Amaral wrote:There seems to be a buzz about tuning to 432 as that frequency is more harmonious to earth vibrations, blah, blah, blah!

That absurd stuff pops up every now and again, sorta like "flat earth" and the "9/11 conspiracy" thing.

Geeezzz...just tune it so you blend in with the band or track your playing with...nothing else matters

432 just sounds flat.

It is flat.

It sounds flat? Only if everything else is tuned to A440. It brings the whole notion of “perfect pitch” into question.

There probably is no magic to 432, but if you wanted to use thicker gauge strings for the tone without stressing your instrument, downtuning would be the thing. A friend of mine tunes one of her pianos to 432 for when she plays pre-1850’s classical and loves the sound. I don’t know if she changed the strings first...

If 432 was a personal preference, you would have get everyone you play with on the same page. I don’t get the mystical thing with 432. My Peterson tuner has a U-12 setting and I let that decide what my tuning is👍

Len Amaral wrote:If 432 was a personal preference, you would have get everyone you play with on the same page.

True Lenny. I don't play with anyone that uses 432 as a standard.

I guess if one plays alone, you can use whatever you want.

Beato's vid has been around here before. I understand the premise, but I don't expect the world we live in to start using A=432 as a standard anytime soon.

Beato hints at the "pitch inflation" which occurs over time. Orchestral players sneakily tune sharp to avoid sounding flat, and the whole thing creeps slowly up until a truce is called. When he mentions A=450+ that was the Vienna Philharmonic some years ago.

Because I tune in JI to get maximum sonority, A=440 makes my E 330Hz, which is safely sharp of the 329.6Hz that guitarists tune to. That way on the odd occasion that I use an open E chord I don't get that helpless feeling.

I don't suffer with perfect pitch - I say "suffer" because it can be a curse. For instance I like to hear Handel played at what they reckon is an authentic pitch, roughly (but only roughly) a semitone flatter than normal. A person with A 440 perfect pitch can't listen because it just sounds horrendous.

Now I need an Ambien

Charlie McDonald wrote:432 just sounds flat.

LOL!

Seriously, that 432 Hz "earth vibration" stuff is crap pseudo-science. If you want to make music in a different tuning, go for it. But don't try to justify it (no pun!) with mumbo jumbo.

For what it's worth, my marimba is tuned to A=442 Hz, which is very common.

Since this isn't a steel guitar topic, I've moved it to the Music section.

I didn't realize I had made a musical pun--a Freudian slip, as it were, or garter belt perhaps.

This is serious business!

Tuned percussion instruments like b0b's tend to be built sharp as some orchestras are a bit on the "bright" side and sharpness is easier on the ear than flatness. This leeway is known as flatitude. OK, it isn't, but it should be.

I just tune to my lawnmower. If it was good enough for Speedy West ....

If I can't find A-11, I tune to 4033
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Ian Rae wrote:Tuned percussion instruments like b0b's tend to be built sharp as some orchestras are a bit on the "bright" side and sharpness is easier on the ear than flatness. This leeway is known as flatitude. OK, it isn't, but it should be.

👍👍
So what you’re saying is, it’s better to tune sharp, to a point...

All seriousness aside, if someone believes music played in A432 sounds more resonant than at A440, more power to them. We play and listen to and dance to music because we enjoy the magical mystical tour it takes us on, no matter how the instruments are tuned (as long as they are IN tune). Maybe there is more magic in 432. For steel players, perhaps all stringed instrument players, it would sure be nice to be able to tune out the beats in the harmonics (especially those pesky major 3rds) and still have every note we play sound in tune. Does A432 do that?

The problems associated with tuning good harmonic intervals is independent of the reference tuning
On another related matter, a famous Australian PS person told me recently that if you are compromising for temperament, it’s always better to tune a little sharp than a little flat, easier on the ears
I’m a straight-up guy, those micro-cent adjustments go out the window if I lean too hard on the bar (I like to lean on it) or if I’m tired and not paying enough attention to my intonation

I counter the 432 Hz idea with this alternate pseudo-science:

The AC electrical systems on this planet create electro-magnetic waves at two different frequencies: 50 Hz and 60 Hz. This 10 Hz difference creates a subliminal tension between nations.

Between the two lies 55 Hz, a perfect 3 octaves below the standard musical reference A=440 Hz. By bridging that gap, music tuned to A=440 aliviates global tension, brings nations together and promotes world peace.



Do you really think it's coincidence that as the planet became electrified, the musical world settled on A=440 Hz as the standard tuning reference?

Gawd, I hate those 50hz people so much! Fortunately, most of them are on the other side of this flat planet with their chemtrails and all that stuff.