Real life tunings

Whenever the subject of alternatives to 12 eq are discussed, I always wonder how they might work in the sorts of freelance gigs I do, and how they might be employed on a wide range of instruments. Since I play guitar, when you get much past 19, bar chords are mighty tough to pull off, so since I'm doing Man of La Mancha right now, and much of it involves Spanish style playing with a lot of barre chords, a tuning with a whole lot of notes would be rather impractical. And, I always wonder what symphony orchestras would consider a good alternative for 12. How about country musicians, or folk singers who accompany themselves on guitar? I think fretless would work well for blues guitarists, but how about bluegrass musicians? And 19 is a great way to expand on most traditional American forms of music, cause it's similar to 12 and you can use a lot of the same shapes for chords/scales, at least on guitar.
But keyboard players would have to relearn how to finger everything in 19, or any other tuning. It's a fun subject, but boy, 12 is so entrenched in European derived music that in a real way, it's hard to imagine that there's ever going to be a switch from 12 to anything too esoteric. Myself, I would like to see Western musicians learn to play in a multiciplicity of tunings, and have the ability to switch tunings to perform compositions in a wider range of tuning styles. I'm doing it, and it isn't that difficult once you have a basic understanding of what's required. I think most musicians would be intimidated by the time involved, and for most players, what's the point of learning new tunings anyway, since virtually all Western music has been in 12 for the last few hundred years?
And, although I make CD's cause I want to hear and document my music, by getting a new repertoire recorded and available for people to hear in non 12 tunings, we can open the door for musicians to at least realize that non 12 tunings even EXIST, and that you can make vital and interesting music in these tunings as well. I give my CD's away to as many professional musicians as possible, folks I see at concerts for example, I feel like Johnny Appleseed at times.
And, of course I really enjoy the tuning list and what people here have to say, I've learned a lot...but, even better, I love it when people apply their tuning concepts to making music, recording it, and let others hear it as well. That's the way things will change in the larger world of music, but no matter what, it's gonna take a lot of effort for things to change. But, I'm optimistic that, if more people were just exposed to non 12 tunings, there would be a change in the way people think of music. Most people I've exposed to alternate tunings are very interested and receptive, and the reactions to my music are, overall, very positive. And now you've got guys like David Fiuczynski, teaching a fretless class at Berklee, and getting into microtones as well. That's a very positive sign, Fuze plays with the very best fusion players in the world, so perhaps they, too, will start to hear about tuning concepts through him.
Anyway, as I see it, that's the way it will happen, so get some music recorded and get it to people...then things will change....best...HHH

Neil,

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, <microstick@...> wrote:
> Anyway, as I see it, that's the way it will happen, so get some
music recorded and get it to people...then things will change...

So, I don't know if you've been reading your MMM mail, but just this
weekend Prent Rodgers, under the impetus of Jacob Barton, put together
two podcasts of a day of making microtonal music. There are over 20
people who contributed music, either specifically done for this day,
or done at some point. And Prent's podcast gets a lot of listens -
we've got to keep in mind that CDs aren't the only way to go anymore,
and we have to get to people's ears in as many ways as possible.

Check out the music:
http://podcast1024.libsyn.com/

Just didn't want you to think people weren't making music. It looks
like that on the tuning list a lot of the time, but this isn't the
only venue...

Cheers,
Jon