Players of string instruments with frets can't make the slight
adjustments between true temperament and equal temperament that can be
made on unfretted instruments by slight finger position adjustments.
Maybe they can do something with finger pressure, but I ignored that in
order to make my pun. I am now calling that kind of thing punetic
license, or punetic licence if you're British. Still, I don't think
using finger pressure on fretted instruments would really do the trick.
The word "fret", fifth from the end in my quote above, was the nucleus
of the pun.
Other than the pun, the comment about adjusting temperament was serious;
and probably, the most experienced players do it without even thinking
about it.
You are right about doing it without thinking. It is just instinctive.
Isn't the link between the human brain and the body's physical reaction
just amazingly incredible where a player can move his hand and one of
his fingers to land quite a few inches higher or lower as the case may
be, and certainly much larger distances in the case of cellos and double
basses to the exact location on the fingerboard within a fraction of a
millimeter. Basically the player hears the sound in their head and the
hand and fingers move by themselves to the exact location.
Nothing strange about this of course. Read Zen in the Art of Archery.
The Zen master shows the German tutor who keeps thinking that one has
got to take aim to shoot the arrow while the Zen master tries to instill
in him the idea that he has got first to be relaxed and then to "let the
arrow go". He also proves to him that aiming is completely unnecessary
by shooting at a target in a completely dark hall with only the target
lit. He can't even see the arrow let alone the tip of the arrow! He just
looks at the target and "lets his arrow go" and has a bull hit. He then
"lets another arrow go" with the second arrow splitting the first arrow
on the target!
But we DO have the equivalent of this in the West. What is "shooting
from the hip" if not exactly the same thing?!
Incidentally did you know that with fretted instruments each higher fret
is spaced 1/17th* less than the distance between the lower two frets?
*Don't take this ratio as the gospel truth but this is what I have
retained in my memory which I can't for certain say is foolproof!
Therefore it stands to reason that the pitch adjusters on instruments
like the harp and the kanun are not all of the same size but get smaller
and smaller for strings with higher and higher pitches. It is all a
question of ratios.
While I am at it I might just as well mention something else. In my very
young days I managed to lay my hands on a viola which as you well know
is a larger instrument and tuned a 5th lower than the violin.
Consequently the strings are longer and the distances for fingering the
notes are greater than on the violin. Of course, to the uninitiated this
would look like a great obstacle for a violinist to get used to playing
the viola. But in fact after less than half an hour I had instinctively
adjusted my hand and finger movements and could play the viola with no
problems even managing quite large jumps to land a finger right on the
dot quite high up on the fingerboard. The only problem the violinist has
in playing the viola is in fact learning how to read the C clef fast
enough, violin music being written in the G clef.
Of course this doesn't make sense to the uninitiated but what if I
mention to you that a good touch typist can type equally fast on their
regular full sized keyboard and transfer at a moment's notice to the
much smaller keyboards on laptops or notebooks?! The same principle as
with violins versus violas.
Now, cellos are a different kettle of fish as the hand position for
playing cellos is quite different to holding a violin or a viola. In
fact the left hand assumes the same shape on the cello as it does on the
classical guitar. This is necessitated by the instrument being much
larger and therefore the distances between the notes much greater.
Cellists even hold the bow differently!
And last but not least don't get me wrong about "fingering it" -- pun
intended or not! ;-)
