octave test?

John M. Formsma jformsma@dixie-net.com
Sun, 18 Apr 1999 16:10:51 -0500


This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
Greetings List,

Last night I was tuning my mother's 1922 Bechstein grand for practice, and
noticed something while doing the M3-M10 test to check octaves up from the
temp octave. While I can hear if the M10 beats faster or slower than the M3,
when all three are played together, there is a much slower beat that can be
heard besides the faster third/tenth beats. This can be "tuned out" so that
no slower beats are heard while all three are played together.

Since I am basically a beginner in aural tuning, is this useful for
anything? For an example, if you are tuning E5 to E4, checking for equal
beats with C4, play all three together. If all are in tune, there will be no
audible beats other than the third/tenth beats, which will be rather fast.
Otherwise, if C4-E5 beats a little faster/slower than C4-E4, there will be a
slow beat when C4-E4-E5 are played together.

I realize this shows only that the E4-E5 octave is in tune, which can be
accomplished by playing the M3 and M10 separately. But are the three notes
played together useful as a test, or do I merely qualify now to be called
Mr. MOTO (Master of the Obvious)? <grin>

John Formsma

P.S. I have been scratching around on a piece of paper, wondering which
partials would cause the slow beat. Is it the 5th partial of C4, the 4th
partial of E4, and the 2nd partial of E5? Just curious...

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/1e/c8/04/f9/attachment.htm

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--



This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC