Jim Coleman, Sr. writes: "You know, I have already done listening and comparison tests in 3 situations where the audience did not know ahead of time that I had tune a piano completely in a Well temperament. The audience definitely expressed how much they liked the sound of the piano as far as octaves and unisons were concerned, but did not have a clue that there was anything "wrong" with the temperament. In that situation more than one person said in essence: I have never heard a Yamaha C3 sound that big and clear before." Yes, we did have selections played in the more distant keys as well as the favored keys. Poulenc was played as well as Debussy. I was surprised at the reception this particular mild Well temperament had received (is that redundant or what?). BTW I had used that same Moore 18th Century Well temperament on a CD recording of the complete piano works of Ravel." At the 1993 PTG CA State Convention in Long Beach, Jim Coleman, Sr. gave a unison class that I attended. He announced at the beginning of the class that he had a little secret to tell us, but we would have to wait until the end of the class to learn the secret. The class was wonderful. Near the end of the class, after Jim had all the unisons tuned, which were previously detuned before the class started, he asked if anyone would like to come up to play it - test it out. A wonderful pianist, can't remember her name (maybe she's on the List!), came up to play. Not only did she play beautifully, but she was able to modulate into different keys per Jim's request! Wow! The piano sounded great! Jim asked the pianist and the audience if they noticed anything different or odd about the piano's tuning. Nope, we couldn't hear anything unsual, except that it sounded great. Then Jim sat down and played a couple fifths, I think. Those intervals howled like wild banchees! Jim subsequently revealed that it was not an ET, but a WT, to prove his point: If you get nothing else "correct," at least get the unisons right! This one class, taken very early in my tuning carrier, has made the biggest impact on me as a piano technician. The experience will remain with me for the rest of my life! Thanks Jim, John Piesik, RPT
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