Partial Hearing

[Jon Page]

Some pianos from the UK may require Whitworth standards.

Jon Page

At 10:20 PM 3/31/99 -0800, you wrote:
>
>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
>> 
>> 
>> 
>