jacob collier tunes the piano

he looks so genuinely troubled when he says its not in tune at all

#jacobcollier

[BunniBuu]

For non-musicians who might stumble upon this video and be confused, Jacob Collier here is essentially explaining the *INTENTIONAL* tuning discrepancies of a piano called "equal temperament" as opposed to "just intonation". Mathematically, it is only actually possible to tune to one musical "key" at a time (ex. A major). This is a problem for many reasons, but one of the main ones is that it takes a very long time to tune a piano. If you were to play one song in A major, then the next song you're meant to play is in C major, you would either have to spend hours re-tuning your piano, or roll out a completely new piano. This is, of course, completely impractical, so a system was designed where every note is very slightly "equally out of tune" with each other.

Collier is saying that he instead wanted to approach must with "just intonation", which refers to tuning based off of "simple" ratios between notes (simple is relative... it gets complicated quickly). This is generally considered a bit more easy on the ear, and is a more traditional method of tuning.

This is obviously an overly simplified explanation, and entire encyclopedias have been written on the principles of tuning instruments, but I hope it helps someone understand a bit more.

[vedantchauhan]

people check their voice with the piano, jacob checks the piano with his voice

[neil.musique]

jacob: yar fookin 14 cents out of tune

piano: yes chef sorry chef

[zubin]

If anybody is wondering, the reason he says "you guys know this" is because he is speaking at MIT.

[Simoran]

Jacob has converted us to join in his conspiracy against equal temperament.

[ash]

It's not out of tune, it just has yet to find the right context.

[robindegen]

Piano ever so slightly out of tune... Guitar: Hold my beer

[lillip]

The fact that he can sing the right tune next to the untuned note is just stunning

[grigoridj]

Being able to modulate sure is fun though.

[cesardmora]

"The piano is not out of tune, it just lacks confidence"

[arendleejessurun]

“I’ve had to disregard computers for knowing better than I did.” Well that’s my reassurance against the robot apocalypse for the day.

[MiloMcCarthyMusic]

We all know this, but it was absolutely amazing that he was able to demonstrate that with his voice

[ambere]

I don't understand what he's saying but I'm impressed anyway

[jambonejim]

The human ear is pretty darn remarkable and Jacob got a pretty good pair. 30 years of tuning pianos for a living and only had one customer who could actually tell me when the partials were right for A4 without a reference point and be accurate within 2c- cents. Absolute pitch. She considered it a curse.

[davidcookemusic]

"Every note can be played with every chord." -Jacob Collier

Also "Every piano is out of tune."

[eteoklisfrydas]

“Disregard what computers know” funny.

[FelixSR]

That is absolutely insane, my mind cannot comprehend this, jacob keeps impressing me

[ABc-wfry]

it's not out of tune it's just a ✨✨jazz piano✨✨

[TripleZesty]

This is why in chamber choir you try to avoid relying on the piano to give you a harmony: you should be able to do better than the piano.

[Quonchon]

You can hear a slight wobble in the sound when he sings with the piano, this is what happens when you play two notes slightly out tune from one another.
This guy is legit an alien.