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Originally Posted by Slartibartfast
Marichico, your friend makes sense. I understand it is more important to enjoy the music than it is to figure it out, or else why bother listening to or playing it in the first place? Let me draw a comparison to watching a movie. Most of the times I watch a movie, I don't look at how it is put together, I just go to have a good time. But sometimes I get the urge to look closely at the lighting, the framing of the shot, the props, the background music, the pacing, and all the other little things that are pieced together to make the whole. I find that doing this is fun. Not all the time, just on occasion.
Tuning just happens to be a nuance I've gotten stuck on right now. Its kind of funny because the one example I have demonstrating it shows me I can't really notice it yet. But then again, it took me a while to consciously hear the difference between a semitone and a whole tone (I don't know how hard it is for other people, I might have wooden ears). Does it help me appreciate music better? Maybe not a whole lot, but it might, and it's a good listening exercise.
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I think my friend is different than many classical musicians you might encounter. He is incredibly good, but he does not have a formal education in music theory. He attends the Master's Class for classical guitar each summer in Aspen, but the rest of the time he works on his music on his own. Music to him is simply second nature and very intuitive. He will attack a Bach lute suite (and talk about differences in tuning, etc.!) and work on it alone until he has it right. I think he is one of those people who can look at a sheet of music and "hear" it before he ever even plays it. At any rate, when he finally performs whatever piece he is currently working on, it sounds absolutely "right." When I first met him, he would come over to my house and start playing and I'd think the music was coming from the radio or a CD, but it was him! I love music and feel incredibly lucky to have encountered such a person and call him friend.
We lesser mortals who don't "think in music" - he says he does, and I believe him - have to fall back on music theory, etc.
PS He just wandered in and advised you further to become aware of the sound waves. He said tuning is like going out to a still pond and tossing a stone in and watching the waves. Then toss the same sized stone in the identical spot and make the waves match up. That's what tuning an instrument is like he says.