Hi, Avery. I don't know anout A-442, but a couple of years ago I was asked to tune a piano to A-441. The instrument in question was an S&S D that I had been tuning at least once a month for the last ten or eleven years, always to A-440. The piano and I had become good friends and because it was kept in top shape and tuned so frequently, it almost tuned itself. Anyway, the music director made a big deal about what a great ear he had and how he wouldn't accept anything less than an A-441 tuning. When he asked me if I could tune it to A-441 I told him, "No problem". When I was finished he came over, pulled a little electronic gizmo out of his pocket and checked the A which read 441. After playing the piano he was so elated that he paid me twice my standard fee. What he never knew was that I tuned my "friend" to A-440 the way I always did. Then, when I was finished, I went back to the A and tweaked it up one cps to 441. :)))))))) Les Smith lessmith@buffnet.net On Thu, 5 Sep 1996, Avery Todd wrote: > List, > And then we get into the discussion about tuning to A-442, which, > thankfully, I am not asked to do around here. Except once for the Houston > Symphony. > Do many of you get asked to do that? I've heard that some orchestras > have gone so much even above 442 that some of the instrumentalists have had > to have special instruments built to be able to tune to it! > > Avery > > >On Wed, 4 Sep 1996, Aaron Bousel wrote: > > > >>An anecdote: > >> <snip big section> ... > >> I've never gotten a complaint about a piano being too sharp, though if it's > >>flat, I hear about it. > >> > >>Aaron Bousel > >> > > > >Aaron, > > > For instruments, especially > >winds, pitch is critical, for many of them have no lattitude on the > >"sharp" side-- it is not unusual for a trumpet to be dead on 440 with > >the tuning slide all the way "in," with no option to tune any sharper. > >They have trouble playing with a normally tuned piano, because the > >higher notes of the piano are stretched higher than the higher notes of > >the trumpet. This is even more pronounced with clarinets and flutes-- > >they must tune sharp of 440 in order to sound best in tune with a piano. > >All of these instruments have no trouble tuning flat though, by > >elongation or pulling out a tuning slide. So my conclusion is, to be > >safe, never tune sharp and opt for flat for purposes of "floating." In > >the case of playing with winds, flat may always be better. > > > >Bill Bailer > > _____________________________________ > Avery Todd, RPT > Moores School of Music > University of Houston > Houston, TX 77204-4893 > 713-743-3226 > atodd@uh.edu > _____________________________________ > > >
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