Listening to players play out of tune.

[Jacksons Shred]

I for one, never use to care if my guitar 100% tuned or not, but ever since I started caring about pitch and vibrato a lot, tuning is something that is super important to me now! I definitely don't have "perfect pitch", possibly far from it, but as of lately, if I'm listening to a song, and the guitars aren't in tune, it really sets me off and practically kills the song for me, I end up paying attention to how out of tune they are.Even if I'm playing, and I notice my guitar is slightly out of tune, I have to stop and tune it. It's gotten pretty crazy, anyone else go through this issue?

[Endrik]

no, you are not the only one... intonation is one of the most important things... it's such a headache to hear a guitarist bend or vibrate out of tune... you don't need a perfect pitch (which is mostly recognizing different notes instantly) to have an accurate ear.

[scotty]

Good thing you don't live in South Texas! We have a lot of Norteno bands and the play a guitar called the Bajo Sexto. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bajo_sexto Most of the players remove the top strings and they almost always sound out of tune. This guy has all the string and sounds better than most. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqKmI2iLwgs

[Jacksons Shred]

no, you are not the only one... intonation is one of the most important things... it's such a headache to hear a guitarist bend or vibrate out of tune... you don't need a perfect pitch (which is mostly recognizing different notes instantly) to have an accurate ear.

I can't believe I left out intonation.. That's really been driving me up the wall as well. The funniest thing about this though, is that if I'm tuning a guitar, I still use a tuner, I definitely can't tune up perfectly without it... Kind of embarrassing.

[Spivonious]

Perfect pitch isn't required, but relative pitch sure is. If you can't tell me that one note is two steps higher than another one, then you shouldn't be playing guitar.

[Endrik]

Perfect pitch isn't required, but relative pitch sure is. If you can't tell me that one note is two steps higher than another one, then you shouldn't be playing guitar.

yeah but you don't use relative pitch to tell if something is in tune or not.

there's so many levels of what the ears can do... recognize the pitch of the note, recognize the relationship between different notes, recognize the pitch tune-intonation wise, recognize different timbres (you hear the difference between a strat and les paul or in worst cases tuba and violin )

but all they are closely related as they are in a certain area of the right side of the brain... that's where the creativity, intonation, passion etc. comes from as opposite to the left side of the brain which is for logic, calculations etc.

[Grandturk]

I can tell when my guitar is in tune.

I can tell when my guitar is out of tune with people I'm playing with.

I can tell when my intonation is off when playing along with a rhythm track.

But damn it if old Aerosmith don't sound really good - and they were all kinds of out of tune.

[QuantumRider]

I started out on piano and have perfect pitch, but have been playing stringed instruments long enough to de-tune (e.g. play guitar in Eb) and transpose in real time as I play.

My first guitar teacher probably forced me to develop this skill, because he would tune his guitar so that it was pretty much in tune with itself, and say,

"Well, that's about good enough for rock'n'roll".

[heartfielder]

Then DON'T listen to Van Halen's version of "Dance the Night Away" !!! (middle part ... ouch !!!)

[DonP]

I for one, never use to care if my guitar 100% tuned or not, but ever since I started caring about pitch and vibrato a lot, tuning is something that is super important to me now! I definitely don't have "perfect pitch", possibly far from it, but as of lately, if I'm listening to a song, and the guitars aren't in tune, it really sets me off and practically kills the song for me, I end up paying attention to how out of tune they are.Even if I'm playing, and I notice my guitar is slightly out of tune, I have to stop and tune it. It's gotten pretty crazy, anyone else go through this issue?

My ears are getting better, but still aren't that good that songs are ruined for me if the guitars are out of tune.

[ulijdavid]

I have no problem with the guitars being out of tune if the FEEL is still there. I have more of a problem if the singer has problems with pitch - one of the biggest reasons I despised the whole grunge era.

[Musician78]

I honestly don't ever remember hearing people play out of tune on a studio recording. I notice all sorts of other things (timing issues, obvious editing cuts, and other weird things like that).

[Endrik]

I honestly don't ever remember hearing people play out of tune on a studio recording. I notice all sorts of other things (timing issues, obvious editing cuts, and other weird things like that).

ever heard Sonic Youth

[Newc]

I sold my 7-string Warrior to Nick from the band Zilch last year after NAMM. I went to their MySpace to check out their stuff, and I like it - except one of the soloists is playing horribly out of tune. Not just warbly, need-a-tuner out, but rather everything's one fret higher than the rest of the song.

http://www.myspace.com/zilchband

I seriously thought about emailing the guy about it - I mean, it's gotta be a mastering issue. Like the solo is 48KHz and the mix is 44.1, but then it's on more than one track, so it's gotta be done on purpose.
http://www.myspace.com/zilchband

Check out Betrayal - it's on the 2nd solo.

[triplehold]

Listening to old Led Zep really throws me off sometimes. I think they tune somewhere above or below E flat. It definitely sounds different.