Am I getting musical dementia?

[sunjamr]

So, I’ve been listening to some of the jamtracks – mostly ones from the past year or so – trying to choose one for the upcoming monthly challenge. I’m purposely only listening to jamtracks that are totally unfamiliar to me, those where I never listened to the lessons. That way I won’t be influenced by what the original melody was, and I can come up with an original melody of my own, which is the goal of the challenge.

The problem is, even though my guitar seems to be tuned to absolute perfection (I’ve checked it with several different tuners) it seems like it’s not even close to being in tune with many of the jamtracks. I’m usually very quick to figure out what key a song is in, but it’s to the point where I can’t even figure out the key, much less jam along with it. I can start picking out notes on a string, and none of them land on the exact notes of the jamtrack. Seems like they are maybe 1/4 step out, or even more.

Am I the only person who has ever noticed this? Do I have ear dementia?

Sunjamr Steve

[Nick Ll]

For example?

[sunjamr]

EP589, EP457, EP415 (slightly) for example.

Actually I’m starting to think that my ears have just become more discerning, and it’s not really ear dementia. Hearing two notes that are not perfectly in tune seems to distress my brain. Maybe more like “Tuning OCD”. The problem goes away after a few glasses of wine.

Sunjamr Steve

[San Luis Rey]

I did what you said you were doing and the first few songs were no problem. Then the next one I knew was in E but the opening riff threw me for a loss. Oh, it was in the open E position. No tuning issues though Steve. 🤷‍♂️

Mike

[Nick Ll]

I can’t replicate your issue but it might be helpful if you could identify a specific example of a jam track you believe to be out of tune.

[sunjamr]

So, what I can do is import the jamtrack into Logic Pro, and from that I can check to see what frequency individual notes are. So now I see a scientific experiment coming on. I’ll report back (later, I’m traveling at the moment).

Sunjamr Steve

[Nick Ll]

Ah, you’re travelling! That explains everything – it’s our old friend Doppler at work

[AndréM]

Maybe it’s your ear intonation or a case of old age,lol

AndréM

AndréM

[Andy N]

I have had something similar in safari but only when listening back through my audio interface. The track is almost a semitone or tone lower. If it’s a lesson Brian sounds like he’s recovering from a heavy session the previous night!
Putting the track into cubase and it’s fine so be interesting to see what happens with pro logic.
I’ve had to restart the Mac to cure the safari issue but it’s occurred a number of times.
I’ve noticed playing music on an Apple Watch noticeably drops in pitch too if I leave the house and leave the phone at home.
I idea if that’s remotely related to your issue but it does sound as if apple software makes some marginal decisions over the speed it plays mp3s or other digital formats

[Michael Krailo]

All I know is tuners don’t lie. So if you know the guitar is tuned, it must be the track or app playing it back out of tune. I think your ear is just fine.

Go slow and practice correct technique, and your abilities will dramatically improve.

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