Other Fiddle Blogs

The theme and purpose of this blog is to advocate the tuning pitch of A-432. We can call it the Mozart A, the Verdi A, or the organic A. It's all A to me.

Much of what I wish to say about music belongs elsewhere. That's why I have made two other blogs.

Fusion Fiddle describes my playing, my esthetic, and my intention. General opinion's and tips belong there.

My new band Fiddle Matrix is using a blog to help organize our practices and communications.

FiddleMatrix Band Tunes Down to A-432

For the past two practices Brad Sutton on keyboard and Mark Musser on bass have tuned with me to A-432. The practices have been creative and easy. I believe the Mozart tuning helps that.

Our plan is to practice every week this summer. By September we should have two sets ready for performance. Before that we may have some mp3 files to share.

It has been my observation when just practicing fiddle or violin, I can practice longer with less stress when I tune to A-432. Now it seems that the supportive tonality of the A-432 pitch helps the other members of the band as well.

Out Ahead of the Fiddler A-432 Curve

In the time since my last post, I haven't convinced anyone of the efficacy of A-432 tuning for the fiddle. Well, there is one exception, myself.

I've been into it for a while. Even so, I would pick up my A-440 violin as often as not. Whatever was handy.

Now, I go to extra effort to unpack and prep the A-432 fiddle for a practice session. At some point I began to believe that I could practice longer and with less physical stress on that one.

A few weeks ago I gave the first program in The Money Tunes live at the New Port Richey Library. The room was packed, thanks to a timely article in The Suncoast News by Cheryl Bentley. The article even hints of "a different pitch."

The program went well. People liked it. They accept the slight difference in pitch without conscious effort. It just works.

Maybe on this issue of tuning to A-432, I'm just too far ahead of the curve for most musicians.

Getting Real with the A

It was determined in Bach’s time that middle C was produced by 256 vibrations per second. That number is a power of 2.

Any vibrational rate, when doubled, produces the same note an octave higher. Half the vibrational rate produces a tone that is the same note an octave lower.

We can take Bach’s middle C and by halving it and continuing to half it, finally arrive at 16 cycles per second. That would be a very low C at the threshold of audible hearing, the lowest C that can be heard and identified as such by humans.

Eight vibrations per second goes into the subsonic zone. Continuing by halves, we get four, two and finally one cycle per second. This means that the fundamental tone of Bach’s C was in natural harmony with the division of time into its smallest part.

I believe that the division of time into 12 or 24 parts, the zodiac houses and the hours, respectively, is in harmony with the natural cycles of the earth planet. some people say the underlying etheric grid of the earth is a dodecahedron,or 12 sided Platonic solid. And further, they say that the natural grid lines of subtle force correspond to major divisions of our sphere into 360 parts.

This suggests that the one second interval is a natural subdivision of the larger cycle of our spinning planet. The doubling and redoubling of that frequency leads to the middle C that was recognized in the time of bach as the standard tuning of middle C equals 256 vibrations per second.

Multiplying by 3, rather than 2, creates the third partial, the interval of the fifth in music terminology. If the C of one vibration per second is multiplied by 3, the result is a subsonic G. When that is multiplied by 3, the 9 cycle subsonic result is D. That D being multiplied by 3 results in an audible 27 cycle per second A. Now we continue by doubling the vibratory rate. From 54 cycles per second we proceed through 108 and 216 to arrive finally at 432 cycles per second, the Verdi or Mozart A.

Just as the Bach C is anchored to the natural cycles of our planet, so is the Mozart or Verdi A of 432 cycles per second.

Pay the Reckoning

"You can be anything you want to be...
Do anything you want to do...
Have anything you want to have...
if you are willing to pay the price."

Have you heard that one before? I know I have many times.
Is it encouraging or discouraging?

It reminds me of the story of the angel sent by Almighty God
to a couple of serious meditators. They both had been sitting
a long time for enlightenment. They both had prayed hard for the answer.

God told his angel that the first man had to sit 12 more years.
The second man had to continue sitting under the same tree
for as many years as there were leaves on the tree.

So when the angel, disguised as a holy man, told the first man
that he only had to sit 12 more years, he was surprised.

The man jumped up as angry as could be and said, "What?!?!
I've already been sitting here 12 years. You want me to sit 12
more years?" And he chase the angel away, threatening him with a stick.

The angel felt cautious about what he had to tell the second man,
but he did it because that was his job.

The second man smiled and said, "Thank you for this good news.
I'm greatly encouraged that I will have what I long for in a definite
number of years."

Because of his gratitude, he was given the enlightenment right away.

The point of the story, this time, is acceptance of the price we have to pay
to get what we want. I believe that having a good idea of the cost of success
and the willingness to pay it, actually speeds up the process.

That's what Pay the Reckoning is about.

Banish Misfortune

Last month's public performance on March 16th went well, as far as the A-432 is concerned. The music sounded very normal.

The only hassle was a feed back problem induced by inexperience and slightly mismatched microphones on the violins. Can't blame Mozart for that.

I'm using the occasion of this message to announce my major project for this year: the Money Tunes.

This is a multi-media project. The big hairy part is producing the concept tunes for the album. the creative work is well under way. I've lined up partners for the recording. There's still a lot of work to do.

Another part of it is the philosophy of Money Energy. The web site carries the writing of the explanations, the insights, the knowledge factor.

The first essay in this series is Banish Misfortune. This also is the name of a fiddle tune. It's one of the tunes selected for my current music project, Money Tunes. You will find a link to the MP3 file on
Grassapelli Banishes Misfortune.

The Ups and Downs of Fiddling A-432

My commitment to playing in public with A 432 tuning gets tested.

Most recently, when I did the New Port Richey library gig, I was challenged.
Just before starting my program of talking and playing, I opened my case, rosined the bow and started adjusting the tuning.

The was when one of the people in the audience, a man who plays in the Richey Community Symphony, called out, "Tune it up!"

I was hit by the sudden doubt that the difference in pitch between 440 and 432 was painfully obvious. My second thought was that this fellow was just teasing me in a light hearted way. So I went ahead with my planned program.

After I've performed publicly enough times, this doubt will vanish. It quickly went away after I began playing that day. The program went well. I got good feedback on it. No one said that the tuning was off, even though I revealed my secret.

In a couple of days I get to test the concept again. This will even involve other musicians--a first for the idea. We will play a mostly Irish fiddle program at a local bistro, the Ka Tiki, down on Sunset Beach.

My very able helpers are members of a folk string band, The Juniper Trio. They showed a little reluctance to tune down at first. But, only a little.

Just as my expectations and belief in this program go Up and Down Again, (and up again), and just as my colleagues must tune up after a practice and down again when we perform...so I offer this little Irish slip jig, Up and Down Again.

Butterflies in Formation

This new year has me asking how committed I want to be in using A-432.

How much do I want to browbeat others into tuning down?

When I appear as a soloist player/presenter, as I will this Saturday,

there's no problem. But, playing with others. Hmmm.

Thinking about the new year in January, I had an insight. I wrote

out a piece about the number of the year and published it at

Money-Energy.com.

The article goes into numerological detail. It also references an online

marketing campaign called Butterfly Marketing.

The deal is a little too pricey for me right now, but I respect it.

That's why I recorded the slip jig, The Butterfly, for this blog.

The Heron Dance

Looking at the cover of the Heron Dance catalog, I remembered images from nature programs. Lanky, elegant birds bobbed in my imagination.

A fiddle riff popped into my head. The next thing I knew, there was a whole tune to represent the title "Heron Dance."

The tune is still a little shaky, not having been played very many times. But, it stands on its own already, without the need to wait any longer to take flight.

Here is a fiddle tune written in the 21st century that is published in the tuning of the 18th century: Heron Dance fiddle tune.

Ragtime Annie, the Authentic Version

Last night was another of those "play while people eat and drink" gigs. This time the place was a nursing home. The occasion was a Christmas party for the people who make up their guests, and their relatives.

One of the tunes I played was Rag Time Annie. This is said to be the oldest authentic American fiddle tune. Certainly, when it was composed, or "made up"....I mean, how can we speak of composing a fiddle tune...the tuning of the fiddle was at the old standard, A-432. Or in that vicinity.

The tab chart for this tune was requested by a subscriber not long ago. And so it is going out in December with the Fiddle Tech Notes for this month.

I made a casual recording of it a while ago:
Ragtime Annie 1.
Listening to it, I felt it was a little slow, so I played it again faster:
Ragtime Annie 2

My moderate tempos for these tunes is just an indication that I don't practice enough. "So many tunes, so little time."

A-432 Musical Wallpaper

Monday night I played a gig at Ruth Eckard Hall in Clearwater. It was one of those play while people eat, drink and talk gigs. Musical wallpaper, or as it's sometimes called, "Musician Abuse."

As a strolling violinist, I'm country and folk. Don't look for "Feelings."

The ambiance was country in honor of the featured artist in the big hall, Dolly Parton. My mix of hoedowns, reels, jigs and swing tunes fit right in.

It was the usual scene of me playing as if I had an audience in the palm of my hand. In other words, taking the music seriously and doing the very best I could do. In these gigs you con't get much energy from the audience. Well, none, really. And when you do get a positive reaction, it almost is a shock the first time. After that, you see that people are actually warming up to your performance.

It went well, I must confess. Nobody said, "Hey, man. Tune it up already! Sheesh."

Small victories. That's what we leading edge advocates of A-432 look for. And that's what we get.

Handling MP3 files

When you click on a link to an MP3 file, you either want to have a broadband connection, or plenty of time. They tend to be a little fat, even in the data reducing format.

This means a heads up for the tune Mississippi Sawyer

I played this with lots of open strings, to really get some resonance in the lower tuning. To me it all sounds very natural.

Florida Blues sounds like...

Credit to Gatorchick and her Florida Blues blog. Got me off the dime of inertia.

This blog is about A 432 and all the etheric baggage I can cram into this concept. It needs some sounds to show what it's all about.

When you click on Profile and then click on the audio, you get to hear someting. Right now you hear "Florida Blues," as I fiddled it on Nov. 12.

In a week, I'll change that to an intro that talks and plays fiddle. I may play new segments to create new audio files to go with that link.

Archived stuff will be at the A-432 section of my Grassapelli site.

Norbert Brainard and the Verdi A-432

Norbert Brainard was a violin virtuoso. He founded the Amati String Quartet. He passionately supported the use of the "Mozart A'" of 432 Hz "in opposition to today’s absurdly high “Karajan tuning” of A well above 440 Hz."

In Italy this came to be known as the Verdi A:
"In a parliamentary hearing in Rome, which became the basis for a parliamentary initiative to pass a law on the “Verdi A,” Prof. Bruno Barosi, the director of the world-renowned International Institute of Violin Making, in Cremona, Italy, invited brainin to his laboratory, recorded certain tones (and their octaves) both in the low and high tuning, did a spectral analysis, and finally evaluated the findings.

The other findings were not so surprising, but equally clear: The lower tuning created a larger sum of overtones, which explains the fuller sound; it was also proven, that Brainin’s Strad had its best resonance by far at exactly C=256 Hz, which is about A=432 Hz."

Passing a law to command the use of this frequency seems a little extream, (not to mention unlikely.)

Still, we can choose to use this frequency if we have a tunable instrument. Strings anyone?