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jacob collier tunes the piano

George Collier
Demos
YouTube
2 HN users recommended this demo2 months2021–2026 score 2
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Used as an example in music theory and tuning discussions of continuous-pitch thinking beyond equal temperament.

A one-minute clip of Jacob Collier tuning a piano, remarking that it is not in tune at all. It touches on his views on equal temperament and tuning.

“Jacob Collier has a good example of this[1] (I'm a huge fan).” (HN, 2022)

2 recommendations · 1 citations · Demos

3 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@kwakja Feb 2022 Recommends
on HN thread Music theory for nerds (2016)
> On continuous pitch instruments (e.g. violin, voice), this is entirely possible to do Jacob Collier has a good example of this[1] (I'm a huge fan). Separately, I've previously heard this referred to as "equal temperament" tuning which makes me wonder what led to this difference in wording. [1]: [this video]
Example of continuous-pitch tuning by Jacob Collier
@williamdclt Jun 2026 Recommends
on HN thread Show HN: Teach your kids absolute (perfect) pitch
> adjust between A440 and A400 Someone shared this recently: [this video] I struggle to conceive being able to hear the difference, but _singing_ it entirely blows my mind
Singing between A440 and A400 demonstrates tuning differences

Citations, criticism and jokes

@srcreigh Aug 2021 Cites it
on HN thread Apple acquires classical music streaming service Primephonic
Read more
Ever really loved a classical piano song? No? Maybe you just don't like the controversial new way we've been tuning pianos for the last ~200 years. Check out the 1/4 comma meantone version of Mozart Fantasie KV397 [1] which you can compare to equal temperament. (Please note this piece was unfinished, and the final section is believed to have been written by someone else.) My secret love is Chopin Ballade No. 4 Op. 52 in unequal temperament [2]. Last year this video had ~4k views. I may be responsible for 1k and it's now ~8k views. You can compare a good ET version Krystian Zimmerman [3]. Jacob Collier has referred to Equal Temperament as a "hoax" [4] [1]: [link] [2]: [link] [3]: [link] [4]: [this video]
Jacob Collier calls equal temperament a hoax while tuning piano

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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