musician

musical equipment

musical instruments

We've already talked about this one before. If one string on one instrument is out of tune, and heard by the crowd, all is lost. Surely you've seen a band that was tuned badly. Seems like everyone but the band knew it.

Most people think they have an inferior ability to hear pitch. They think they are pretty much tone deaf, or at least very limited. While I agree that most can't just pick up an instrument and play it by ear, or sing in perfect key, or even name notes and intervals, most people's sense of pitch when they're listening to someone play is pretty good. They may not know why a band sounds bad, but they know bad when they hear it.

Funny thing is I've watched bands that were badly out of tune with each other and even though they have the trained ears, supposedly anyway, the crowd almost always knows. Usually, at least one member of the band doesn't realize it. Don't let that be your band.

Being too far out of tune is terrible. Do yourself a favor and make sure you have a tuner and that everyone you play with uses it. Listening to someone tuning by ear is annoying, admit it. That means you sound annoying when you tune as well. There are very reasonably priced tuners out there that are cheap and reliable. They can also be worth their weight in gold.