A440 under fire

[Newton Hunt]

Oh Ed, go tuna fish.:)  He is right.  Knowing the environment and
using good judgment are the best tools we carry with us.  Heavy
stuff but useful.

		Newton

A440A@AOL.COM wrote:
> 
> Newton writes:
> 
> >Why bother!  Tell them different pitches cost you more time
> >therefore more cost to them and charge it.  If it gets them where
> >it hurts they change their tune quickly enough.
> 
>    Hmm,  not to advocate no devil or anything,  now tripping over this
> soapbox.......
> 
>      As far as 441 goes,  that is just 4 little bitty cents away from 440.
> In a stage environment, with people, horns, and lights  all getting heated up
> during a performance, it isn't uncommon for there to be a two or three cent
> change over the course of the evening. Pianos are often cooler before the
> show,  so 441 to start might be what these people have found effective in
> minimizing problems.  With a machine that compensates for the difference,  4
> cents is easy to do in one careful pass.  (Any more than 5 and I go through
> twice).  It is one beauty of the ETD.
> 
> On the other side of machina,  I got this soap right here..............,
>      (IMHO), a tuning machine is of little value when the piano has "sagged"
> unevenly   throughout its scale during a hard first half under the lights and
> inspiration of, say, Liszt and Brahms and the tuner has perhaps 10 minutes to
> deal with it.
>      It is at these times that the judgement and ear of the tuner must make
> the maximum repair to the harmony in a triage sort of way. Sometimes unisons
> absorb all available time and the octaves are left alone, perhaps  in some
> "angelic",  choral stretch.  I have heard beautiful music out of a piano
> that "expanded" between tuning and performance. (think an extra 20 cents over
> three octaves!)
>     When there is time to do more than unisons, the piano's worst octaves
> will have to be thrown together, but there are some very harsh thirds waiting
> for the tuner that haphardly makes octaves out of things.  ( don't ask me how
> I know)
> 
>    This is a point that the beginning tuner should grasp;  that the machine
> will get you up and tuning very quickly, but if you neglect learning how to
> tune aurally, there will be a place you can't go, i.e. the performance
> platform.  If you do find yourself in this situation, and have only a machine
> to give you information,  the odds are very good that you will do  damage to
> your reputation.
>    There is no substitute for being able to aurally judge all the normal
> interval widths, and being able to arrange them in one or more consistant,
> acceptable temperaments.
> Regards
> Ed Foote RPT
>