Partial Hearing

[Susan Kline]

Dear Ken,

Have you made a metric set for use with Asian pianos?

Susan

P.S. I'm a couple of hours early replying to this, but what the heck? I don't
want to wait up.

At 12:02 AM 4/1/99 -0500, Ken wrote:
>
>List, 
>I think I may have hit on something to help us all do our work better and
>more efficiently. Recently I was tuning and having a little trouble hearing
>the partials I wanted to hear. Though I use an Accu-tuner now, I learned to
>tune aurally and I always check as I tune to try to improve on the machine.
>Well, I was tuning the high treble and noticed that I could hear the 2nd
>partial, the 2:1 octave, better when I opened my mouth. Try it, you'll
>definitely notice a difference. If you open your mouth just a little it
>seems like the second partial just gets isolated a little more than normal.
>There must be something of a synergistic effect in using your eustachian
>tube as a resonator chamber. So I then went the next step, and opened my
>mouth as wide as I could and I noticed that the 6th partial just rang out
>as clear as a bell. It was really simple to hear and tune the bass this
>way, except that my jaw got tired. So what I've come up with is a series of
>"Partial Props" that I carry in my toolcase, four of them, to help me hear
>what I want to hear. They range in size from 3/4 inch to 2-1/4 inches,
>pieces of dowel rod, turned from beautiful tropical hardwoods, with teeth
>protecting rubber caps, for different ranges of the piano. Thank goodness I
>don't have to use that 2-1/4 inch one very often, that's for an 8:4 octave,
>but the 1-7/8 inch works great for a 6:3, the 1-5/32 inch for a 4:2, and
>the 3/4 inch for the 2:1. Customers do look at me a little funny, but I
>just take the prop out of my mouth and explain that it's for the good of
>the piano. I was hoping to go into business manufacturing these, until I
>realized that each person is going to have to find their own best
>dimensions, their own 'sweet spot', if you will, to get the best effect. So
>don't let your eustachian tube just sit there, make it work for you! My
>tunings have never gone so smoothly or so quickly.
>Ken Jankura
> 
> 
>