source file: mills2.txt Date: Mon, 9 Sep 1996 06:59:42 -0700 Subject: Re: Babies and tuning From: linusliu@hk.super.net (Linus Liu) I find it interesting that tunners on this list cannot tell when music is out of tune. I was asked once after I played for a wedding, he often could tell violinists playing out of tune. He was sure that the violinists themselves could tell it too. But what he could never understand was why those violinists never tried to correct it. One Christmas when my baby was very small, I was carrying her walking pass a shopping arcade. The loudspeakers were playing some carols by some adults-pretending-like-kids. In order not let my daughter hear out-of-tune singing, I sang into her ears myself along with the carols. And the sales-girls in the shops came out to see who was singing. My daughter won 3rd prize in grade 1 piano competition at 4, 3rd prize in grade 2 at 5, 2nd prize in grade 3 at six, in the open schools music festival open competition here. The last competition has 54 competitors, she was of course the youngest. She cannot read music. But she can play all notes and harmony just listening to the pieces a few times. She began to compose her little pieces at three. My daughter will not listen to other violinists. I brought her to one violin concert, and I dare not bring her to another because her complaining (for the violinist playing out of tune) will disturb the other audiences. I sometimes would try to let her guest if it is I playing or someone else. Before I could ask, she would scream and shout, "shut it off, its terrible." The Linus Liu intonation is for music. ftp: kahless.isca.uiowa.edu in /pub/algo-comp/LinusLiu. Linus Liu. > Interesting. Did they specify what they meant by "out of tune"? > > I suppose it's worth cautioning the impressionable out there that, as with >the debate we've witnessed over whether the ear tends to gravitate toward Just >or stretched octaves, just because such a study suggests that we have some sort >of innate tuning preference, doesn't mean that other tunings aren't equally >useful. > > After all, similar studies have suggested that babies have an innate fear of >falling, but that doesn't seem to stop humans from hopping into rollercoasters >and bunjee jumping, and such. Thats why we do sliding on the violin. Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Mon, 9 Sep 1996 17:10 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA31956; Mon, 9 Sep 1996 17:11:29 +0200 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA31831 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id IAA03372; Mon, 9 Sep 1996 08:11:27 -0700 Date: Mon, 9 Sep 1996 08:11:27 -0700 Message-Id: <009A81F9482587E0.2123@vbv40.ezh.nl> Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu