440 "plus or minus"

[Michael Wathen 556-9565]

Our rule here is CCM is as follows.  Between mid-November and
Jan. 1st no studios get tuned unless it is really awful.  Halls
are maintained year around between 440 and 442.  Tunings in
Studios take place en mass on or After January 1st and on or
after July 1st.  Piano teaching studios are generally attended to
at the beginning of each quarter, likewise with classrooms and
rehearsal areas, and piano performance practice rooms.

Each X-mas season I pray that there is a drop in temperature
below zero before Jan. 1st.  This makes the instruments in the
building reach their lowest point.  Our buildings have humidity
control that works fairly well considering. It ranges from 25% to
60 % throughout the season.  No Humidity system is capable of
total control.  By July 1st pianos have again stabilized and our
rule is that we tune automatically to 442 everywhere except the
halls.  Pitch is allowed to float between July and January but it
shall not fall below 440.  From January to April everything is at
440.  This system works fairly well.  There are pianos in
practice rooms (Baldwin 243s) which have not been tuned for three
years.

P.S. We always buy the HVAC people presents for Christmas  We
consider their job very important.  A couple of years ago we gave
them Hygrometers.


Michael Wathen
College-Conservatory of Music
University of Cincinnati