Nicely said, But there is yet the question as to what note is correct. I'm sure we all know the format of the tempering of the natural scale, but that has put a memory scale into our heads that is the equal temperament "piano" scale.
But you have made the point, the sound in one's head is the goal. The ascending and descending scales are different when dealing with other temperaments, or the natual scale. But most of us are indoctrinated to the sound of equal temperament - even in singing where the variations are infinite. There is no note that is correct, the Scot's pipes are in a limited mode, and the various whistles all have a bit of a variation in relative pitch. Nothing is perfect. I don't know the serpent, but I'm sure it all fits. The wind instruments, whether horn, trumpet, reed or whistle, all have fixed formats that can be bent a bit by fingering. The stringed instruments can be bent a bit by tuning, or on the fretted ones a bit of fussing behind the fret. It all comes back to the same thing, some instruments work off the modes and scales of the West, and some the less accurate (in the Pythagorean sense) of their own scales. Ir is fun to work with the quarter tones and the "disharmonies". Best, Jon To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
