source file: m1379.txt
Date: Wed, 08 Apr 1998 09:06:05 -0400

Subject: Blues tuning

From: John Maxwell Hobbs <jmax@artswire.org>

On  Mon, 06 Apr 1998 05:31:35 -0700, Niel Haverstick wrote:
>
>... If you listen to blues, which is at the root of much 
>contemporary pop, there's micronotes galore because of the
> bending and stretching that constantly goes on. As soon
> as one bends a note, we're off the pitch of the scale, and
> somewhere else. As to the related subject 
>of is this then microtonal music per se, my personal feeling is
> that if the bending and stretching occurs over a base scale
> of an instrument tuned in 12 eq, then I don't feel like calling
> it microtonal, overall, because 12 eq is our home base, and
> any notes which are not bent are still in 12. Of course, this
> is a rather subjective perception, and maybe 
>there's no right answer, just gut intuitions...Hstick
>

I think it's arguable as to whether or not 12 eq is the "home base" tuning
of the blues.  That tuning has been imposed by transcribers with a 12 eq
bias, but the early blues was not played from scores.  The libral use of
pitch bends can easily be viewed as a method to compensate for instruments,
like guitar that were built to conform to 12 eq scales.  There is very
little pitch bending used in other early examples of music with African
roots that are either a cappella, or played on instruments such as
non-fretted string instruments or wind instruments that are more flexible
in their intonation.  This seem to indicate that the pitch bend was
initially used to correct the pitch, rather than used as a stylistic device. 

-John




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