I don't like The Beatles, am I the only one?

[Robin L]

But we do evolve and change, right? I was born in the mid-1960s and inevitaly heard the Beatles in my formative years... then the Disco onslaught in the 70s and its evolution into the 80s (and I loved it). But if you ever play "Superfreak" or "Footloose" to me, I'll ask for directions to the bathroom and will leave the room before I p*ke all over your stereo.

I know my preferences have changed with the times a lot. What really remains is love for jazz and classical. The very popular stuff... some of it sounds awfully dated and I much look forward to smart re-interpretations rather than hearing the same tired original I heard a thousand times.

What also is funny is that sometimes you re-discover old songs that you didn't like at the time (who knows why, maybe someone you didn't quite like said they liked it and you decided to be contrarian) you suddenly listen to and are like "hey, this wasn't bad at all". I have a Spotify playlist title "Sh*t I claimed to hate but lied about".

I have "Superfreak" on regular rotation in the car.

 

[oceansize]

I have "Superfreak" on regular rotation in the car.

Truly a great song!

 

[pablolie]

With me it is like I always return to the base, and that is the old blues done by the original artist and Beatles and Stones.
And all the other music I play is like the wall around the fundaments.

In absolutely no way did I imply I oppose that. I can also listen to some old stuff, and it can get powerfully emptional when we step into that music time machine that brings memories back to us.

I can't listen to Kevin Mahogany's "Wild Honey" without starting to shed tears I'd rather not admit to.

I love that Oscar Wilde quote from "The Critic as an Artist": "Music always seems to me to produce that effect. It creates for one a past of which one has been ignorant, and fills one with a sense of sorrows that have been hidden from one's tears". Except is sometimes brings up real emotions from the past that elp us understand ourselves better. There's a power in music no other art form has.

 

[pablolie]

I have "Superfreak" on regular rotation in the car.

I loved funk. So much that I totally overplayed Superfreak into total oblivion for myself. Brilliant song. Hence it's been sampled a zillion times and then you could hear it in "Can't touch this" and many others. Rick James was a great musician - listen to "Soul Sister" on his last album.

 

[theREALdotnet]

And Ella had unusual musical gifts, such as perfect pitch.

I've always wondered about that. Is perfect pitch really a musical gift? Is it not more of a parlour trick, where someone plays a note you say "G", or they tell you to sing an E-flat and you nail it? Does it have any actual impact on the quality or beauty of the music said musician puts forth? I suppose it can have practical benefits when performing with an ensemble, for example, but what else is it good for?

Also, will a different tuning pitch (A' other than 440Hz, like 422Hz or 455Hz) throw off people with perfect pitch?

 

[theREALdotnet]

I'm not criticizing

I'm Asking to find out if I’m missing something

An open mind, perhaps?

 

[Robin L]

I've always wondered about that. Is perfect pitch really a musical gift? Is it not more of a parlour trick, where someone plays a note you say "G", or they tell you to sing an E-flat and you nail it? Does it have any actual impact on the quality or beauty of the music said musician puts forth? I suppose it can have practical benefits when performing with an ensemble, for example, but what else is it good for?

Also, will a different tuning pitch (A' other than 440Hz, like 422Hz or 455Hz) throw off people with perfect pitch?

There's a lot of cases in opera where it comes in handy and is quite rare. It's particularly valuable in choral music and even rarer. To get a proper vocal blend in choral music proper intonation is a must.
In any case, Ella's purity of pitch is beautiful in and of itself and also made her scatting/vocal improvisations on par with Charlie Parker's saxophone improvisations.
I've heard musicians who used baroque scales (lower in pitch than A=440) be thrown off when the rest of the ensemble is playing using a higher scale. The effect is quite raucous.

 

[Ron Party]

And endless tributes by great artists. I mentioned Roberta Flack, but there are so many more great ones. George Benson did one in the early 70s which is very cool to listen to. Bob Baldwin did one a few years back. Ramsey Lewis... many more.

And the just discovered, newly released version of Michelle by the great Luther Vandross.

 

[pablolie]

I've always wondered about that. Is perfect pitch really a musical gift? Is it not more of a parlour trick...

I am not a great musician by any means, but someone with perfect pitch is amazing - they make any band and being in a band much better. It's an amazing ability. Imagine immediately being able to turn anything you hear into a reference - not just your instrument, but any other. And true perfect pitch is a super rare quality even with very accomplished musicians. Not a carnival trick at all - it's been essential in music. And it seems you are born with it - or you are not, no matter how much you try.

 

[Robin L]

I am not a great musician by any means, but someone with perfect pitch is amazing - they make any band and being in a band much better. It's an amazing ability. Imagine immediately being able to turn anything you hear into a reference - not just your instrument, but any other. And true perfect pitch is a super rare quality even with very accomplished musicians. Not a carnival trick at all - it's been essential in music. And it seems you are born with it - or you are not, no matter how much you try.

 

[diddley]

In absolutely no way did I imply I oppose that. I can also listen to some old stuff, and it can get powerfully emptional when we step into that music time machine that brings memories back to us.

I can't listen to Kevin Mahogany's "Wild Honey" without starting to shed tears I'd rather not admit to.

I love that Oscar Wilde quote from "The Critic as an Artist": "Music always seems to me to produce that effect. It creates for one a past of which one has been ignorant, and fills one with a sense of sorrows that have been hidden from one's tears". Except is sometimes brings up real emotions from the past that elp us understand ourselves better. There's a power in music no other art form has.

O I did not thought that you ment it that way. same feelings here. music is first and foremost an emotional thing. and we all rooted on different taste.
But when it comes to songwriting and composing there a a few greats. who stand with head and shoulder between the rest.
Viva tailors swift. ;-)

 

[mhardy6647]

I am just sayin'...

 

[Petrushka]

I've always wondered about that. Is perfect pitch really a musical gift? Is it not more of a parlour trick, where someone plays a note you say "G", or they tell you to sing an E-flat and beyou nail it? Does it have any actual impact on the quality or beauty of the music said musician puts forth? I suppose it can have practical benefits when performing with an ensemble, for example, but what else is it good for?

Also, will a different tuning pitch (A' other than 440Hz, like 422Hz or 455Hz) throw off people with perfect pitch?

Different modern orchestras have tuned to different standards. New York and Berlin, for example.

Makes me wonder what perfect pitch is. The tempered scale is based on the twelfth root of two, rather than on natural overtones, so chords are always a bit dissonant.

I’ve wondered if someone has made electronic analogs of musical instruments with overtones that fit the tempered scale.

Edit: I put this question to AI and got a squishy answer. Electronic instruments could do this, but no actual examples were given.

 

[oceansize]

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I am just sayin'...

Hippy shit.

 

[pablolie]

Different modern orchestras have tuned to different standards. New York and Berlin, for example.

Makes me wonder what perfect pitch is. The tempered scale is based on the twelfth root of two, rather than on natural overtones, so chords are always a bit dissonant.

I’ve wondered if someone has made electronic analogs of musical instruments with overtones that fit the tempered scale.

We are on the wrong topic here... but does Bach ever sound disonant to you? The tuned orchestra "standards" are merely protocols, they don't intend to inject innovative dissonance into it. Otherwise we'd be listening to a lot more dodecaphony... and we don't seem to ever do, unless it's picked to fit expectations.

I know the Beatles experimented with different tunings in some of their songs - but was it genuine or just for intellectual experimentation "Oh look at us we're into Hinduism now" stuff?

 

[theREALdotnet]

And true perfect pitch is a super rare quality even with very accomplished musicians. Not a carnival trick at all - it's been essential in music.

Thanks, appreciated! But it cannot be both super rare and essential, right?

 

[EJ3]

And endless tributes by great artists. I mentioned Roberta Flack, but there are so many more great ones. George Benson did one in the early 70s which is very cool to listen to. Bob Baldwin did one a few years back. Ramsey Lewis... many more.

I like AC/DC's cover of George Benson's "On Broadway"

 

[oceansize]

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[pablolie]

Thanks, appreciated! But it cannot be both super rare and essential, right?

I have never ever performed at those levels, so can't comment on how essential it is. But many accomplished musicians I have known are "Just give me the sheet" people, they'll play anything they read, but they can not simply improvise any tune by listening to it right away. That's where jazz is a bit different, many talents there can pick things up and go. And many very accomplished musicians admit they are not good at that. And jazz is different isasmuch as you have a lead and play along with them, so when and if you get a chance to solo you learned the coordinates. Plus jazz thrives on leaving behind the original coordinates of the tune very often, so welcomes your own departures, and if you listen to jazz musicians often enough you see they have personal "licks" they invariably work into their solos.

 

[Robin L]

Different modern orchestras have tuned to different standards. New York and Berlin, for example.

Makes me wonder what perfect pitch is. The tempered scale is based on the twelfth root of two, rather than on natural overtones, so chords are always a bit dissonant.

I’ve wondered if someone has made electronic analogs of musical instruments with overtones that fit the tempered scale.

Edit: I put this question to AI and got a squishy answer. Electronic instruments could do this, but no actual examples were given.

There's a great example - Wendy Carlos Switched on Bach 2000, Telarc CD - 80323. Ms. Carlos developed several different tuning systems for this recording, tempering scales in different ways. Baroque tunings were different than modern tunings. On one level, "perfect pitch" only applies under different and unique circumstances. I used to work for a man who studied different tuning systems of the Baroque era and deployed them in recordings he produced of harpsichord music.