Hawkeye Harriet -Reply -Reply

[Richard Moody]

I would like to ask violinists if they notice that the thirds on
pianos are sharp, if the piano played M C and they played E do they
notice a difference from the piano E. I suppose it might be amusing
to ask four violinists to play three thirds and see if the fourth
player's octave was pure.   Perhaps vibrato would be the only 
musical way "out".  But what music would  have such a chord last long
enough to notice the discrepency?

Richard Moody 
----------
> From: Steve Pearson <SPearson@yamaha.com>
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: Re: Hawkeye Harriet -Reply -Reply
> Date: Thursday, July 10, 1997 12:07 PM
> 
> Moxie I can spell, but I apologize for misspelling Eidetic....oops.
 It means
> the ability to precisely recall something one has seen.  Many a
time a
> customer smacked a note repeatedly and stated, that note's flat!" 
I too
> lacked the moxie to ask "...compared to what?"  As a string player
I am
> also aware that we as a group tend to get sharper and sharper the
> higher we go, fudging those thirds and sevenths unconsciously. 
Tuning
> for  violinists is usually my greatest challenge, because they
don't
> understand why a piano can't be tuned to match these extreme octave
> stretches, or match the perfect fifths we fiddlists tune.  sigh... 
> Sometimes I suspect there is subconscious need to demonstrate their
> extraordinary ear, and test your willingness to comply.  It usually
goes
> away after the first successful manipulation.  "This is only a
test".
> just some thoughts...
> Steve