Close Enough For Jazz

"Close enough for jazz..."
That was a running joke between friends 35+ years ago. Its a phrase I still use today. Musically, I use it for whether I get a musical phrase right but more often, I use it in regard to tuning my instrument.

Most would believe that being in perfect tune is important. To that, I say BULLSHIT. I have a deep and abiding love for old blues, jazz, and hillbilly records. A lot of those are nowhere near concert pitch unless a piano was involved. Even then, its questionable.

Why? Back in the day, electric tuners weren't a thing yet. If you wanted everyone in tune together, you'd all have to tune to the one instrument with set pitch...like a piano. I remember doing that at home when I first started playing. Hell, I think I played guitar for almost 10 years before affordable electric tuners were available. Tuning forks were readily available but not exactly useful for solidbody instruments. Sure, I could have spent $300 (of 1980s money!) on a good strobe tuner...but that was the price of a brand new guitar or amp then. Wasn't gonna happen.

Probably unlike most guitarists, I didn't spend my time playing along with records or trying to pick out solos from records. That seemed tedious then and still does now. That said, I did try to perfect my pitch by tuning to the opening note of "Day Tripper" by Them Beatles. But here comes a lifetime WHOOPS! Either the recording wasn't in concert pitch or there was a slight drag in my turntable...so I basically tune automatically to somewhere in the neighborhood of E flat. It hasn't exactly slowed me down. It's only ever an issue if I'm working with someone using a set pitch instrument (piano, horns, etc). When necessary, I tune to them. And yes...I do use a tuner at most gigs simply because its just easier.

I love playing old blues and old country blues. LOTS of open tuning stuff. Again, concert pitch is rarely a concern. A lot of those songs sound better, more resonant and soulful in a less-than-perfect tuning. While discussing this phenomenon with Phil Alvin once, he described it as giving it 'the moan'. And as usual, Philip is correct.

While he could have easily (but thankfully didn't) go into the mathematics of it, suffice to say it simply has a more organic sound/tone. Listen to people speak. Listen to animals or the wind. Things are rarely in a perfect concert pitch.

I was just listening to an old Mississippi John Hurt tune. I wanted to figure a certain phrase he was playing, so I grabbed the nearest guitar. I knew roughly where on the neck he was playing but I also knew it was nowhere near concert pitch. So down I tuned...almost a full 1.5 steps down. But MAN it sounded killer. The low E string just had that BOOM! and the higher strings, where he was playing melody lines, had that moan!

So now my guitar is sitting here, in whatever pitch it is, and I've been playing different old blues and jazz bits and thinking
CLOSE ENOUGH FOR JAZZ!