Welcome back

Hi Tunelings,

I got back from an extremely enriching
workshop at the School for Improvisational
Music in NYC ( www.schoolforimprov.org ).
Questions about that can be directed to
private email.

I missed meeting Paul while in the Boston
area due to car trouble and air conditioner
trouble at a club I was playing. Sorry
Paul, next time.

I had a great talk with David Beardsley while
in NYC. David, I never called you to come with
me to pick up the 31ED2 G&L as it wasn't ready
yet (arggghhh!!!)

Some have you have received cryptic emails
from me lately. When I got home, I found that
my computer was thoroughly infected and has
been spewing infected emails cleverly disquised
with fragments from saved Outlook messages (in
case any of you were wondering why I was informing
you of my late step-mothers estate).

Regarding tuning issues on my trip....

I had the pleasure of playing one of my more
Mideastern tunes with a Saz player in NYC. (Brad
Shepik, who plays in a few Balkan/jazz groups
on the "downtown scene" as well as less ethnic
jazz groups, he was my guitar teacher at SIM).

The Saz is an interesting 19-of-24 instrument. It
has a very long, thin, 12ED2 fretboard with seven
added quartertone frets. It has three string pairs
which give the following notes in the octave(s)
(I'm reconstructing this without my notes so it
may not be exact, but the principle is correct).
Basically it has the "white keys", the "black
keys" and the "white keys lowered by a quarter
tone" (which may be the tuning paradigm for
mideastern synths which allow flexible rather
than "fixed" Makam tunings).

v = quartertone flat

D4 D# Ev E F F# Gv G G# Av A A# Bv B C C# Dv
G3 G# Av A A# B Cv C C# Dv D D# Ev E F F# Gv
C4 C# Dv D D# E Fv F F# Gv G G# Av A A# B Cv

One interesting thing about the playing technique
was that the middle course used a less brilliant
type of string than the outer courses. This could
be used as a drone while melodic passages were
played on the outer strings using the thumb on
the C string and the fingers on the D string.

You could also use the C as a drone and play
melodies with the other two courses as a "tuned
in fifths" pair.

The 'stylistic' useage of the quartertones in
one case was something like a major scale being

C D Ev F G A Bv C

however, the Ev and Bv would very often be trilled
with their 'in tune' upper neighbors.

This is all very rough from what I was digging
while we played. I was working pretty hard on my
end since we were playing in some interesting time
signatures which are also part and parcel of that
music.

Bob Valentine

--- Robert C Valentine <BVAL@IIL.INTEL.COM> a �crit�:
>
> Hi Tunelings,
>
> I got back from an extremely enriching
> workshop at the School for Improvisational
> Music in NYC ( www.schoolforimprov.org ).
> Questions about that can be directed to
> private email.
>
> I missed meeting Paul while in the Boston
> area due to car trouble and air conditioner
> trouble at a club I was playing. Sorry
> Paul, next time.
>
> I had a great talk with David Beardsley while
> in NYC. David, I never called you to come with
> me to pick up the 31ED2 G&L as it wasn't ready
> yet (arggghhh!!!)
>
> Some have you have received cryptic emails
> from me lately. When I got home, I found that
> my computer was thoroughly infected and has
> been spewing infected emails cleverly disquised
> with fragments from saved Outlook messages (in
> case any of you were wondering why I was informing
> you of my late step-mothers estate).
>
> Regarding tuning issues on my trip....
>
> I had the pleasure of playing one of my more
> Mideastern tunes with a Saz player in NYC. (Brad
> Shepik, who plays in a few Balkan/jazz groups
> on the "downtown scene" as well as less ethnic
> jazz groups, he was my guitar teacher at SIM).
>
> The Saz is an interesting 19-of-24 instrument. It
> has a very long, thin, 12ED2 fretboard with seven
> added quartertone frets. It has three string pairs
> which give the following notes in the octave(s)
> (I'm reconstructing this without my notes so it
> may not be exact, but the principle is correct).
> Basically it has the "white keys", the "black
> keys" and the "white keys lowered by a quarter
> tone" (which may be the tuning paradigm for
> mideastern synths which allow flexible rather
> than "fixed" Makam tunings).
>
> v = quartertone flat
>
> D4 D# Ev E F F# Gv G G# Av A A# Bv B C C# Dv
> G3 G# Av A A# B Cv C C# Dv D D# Ev E F F# Gv
> C4 C# Dv D D# E Fv F F# Gv G G# Av A A# B Cv
>
> One interesting thing about the playing technique
> was that the middle course used a less brilliant
> type of string than the outer courses. This could
> be used as a drone while melodic passages were
> played on the outer strings using the thumb on
> the C string and the fingers on the D string.
>
> You could also use the C as a drone and play
> melodies with the other two courses as a "tuned
> in fifths" pair.
>
> The 'stylistic' useage of the quartertones in
> one case was something like a major scale being
>
> C D Ev F G A Bv C
>
> however, the Ev and Bv would very often be trilled
> with their 'in tune' upper neighbors.
>
> This is all very rough from what I was digging
> while we played. I was working pretty hard on my
> end since we were playing in some interesting time
> signatures which are also part and parcel of that
> music.
>
> Bob Valentine
>
Arggghhh :)))
If I have one watch who work with seconds non standart
value I will never use it :P True ?
Mr Dimitrov

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