Tuning exam unisons, was: Odd partial

[RVCARR@aol.com]

Bob Davis' recent post, including this paragraph:

"If any of you are practicing for the tuning exam, tune your unisons by ear,
then check ALL of them with the box. You will find some errors that cause you
to say, "Hmmm, I couldn't have missed by that much," then you will find that
they actually sound worse when you tune them to the box. Check all their
partials, and you will find a mismatch.

Bob Davis"

brings to mind that I was asked once by an examinee during a tuning exam
"When I tune the unisons, which partial should I tune?"

This was many years back and, for whatever reason, it had never occured to me
to wonder about this. Clearly it was a great question -- another of those for
which the answer may be different in the EXAM context than it would be in the
real world. FOR THE EXAM, of course, you want to match the partial that the
SAT reads if the examiners question your unison. Octaves 3 and 4 are tuned
for the unison portion of the exam (notes 28 through 51). The SAT is set to
read in Octave 5 for the unisons. So one should match the 4th partial in
octave 3 and the 2nd partial in octave 4. This is probably NOT what one would
aim for when tuning otherwise.

 If the above is correct (bear in mind I am a recovering CTE and am not
thoroughly current on the specifics) should we be pointing this out to
examinees, as we now counsel "beatless 2:1 octaves" in the top octave.

If the above is not correct, you'll read about it real soon . . .


Lurking, mostly, and enjoying the contributions of others to this list . . .

Robert V. Carr RPT (not currently CTE but thinking about it)
(We do, however, have a tuning test site established in Sept at Stetson
University School of Music here in DeLand and will be setting one up in Tampa
in 2 weeks. Thanks to SERVP Michael Travis for his help and encouragement in
this endeavour. Florida will test again!!)

RVC
DeLand FL

"Remember Orlando in '97" See you in July