Hacker News Reader

Comment by mike_hock | Hacker News Reader

How does it sound to you when somebody sings/whistles a song in the "wrong" (a different) key?

Similarly, how does it sound to you when people sing in a slightly detuned pitch grid (e.g. all notes a quarter semitone flat)?

Is one or the other more irritating? Are they irritating at all?

Edit: I suppose we do a combination of both, most of the time.

View on HN

Watch some Jacob Collier, he often changes tunings mid-song (i.e. on Hideaway, he starts with A432 and ends at A440 (?), and in In The Bleak Midwinter, he modulates mid-song to G-half-sharp, or A453 iirc). This is just mind blowing when you notice it, like it's a very detailed painting which shifts slightly right before your eyes, and the shapes are still familiar, but if you squint, you can see some weird colors

And he talks about it extensively in master classes, fascinating stuff

As for songs in wrong keys, for me they just sound kind of wrong(-ish). Like, correct, but not quite at the right place maybe?

I don't have perfect pitch so I can speak by experience, but there is this video on youtube where the parent of a kid with perfect pitch detunes the keyboard without telling him, and then asks him to identify pitches.

The kid really doesn't care, he notices that the notes are detuned but is not a problem to him, at some point he says that the note he is hearing is a mix between two notes and he is ok with that

Sorry for not linking the actual video, but I can't remember which one is, is the channel of Rick Beato if you want to try to find it

Personally, it depends, but it’s not as irritating as people often imagine it might be. If I have a particular relationship to a piece, it can be strange hearing it in another key, just as it’s sometimes strange hearing something performed by another instrument. The cultural context also matters; it would definitely be odd going to a piano concert and hearing a Steinway not tuned to A440, but hearing a group playing on period instruments at Baroque pitch feels fine.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com