?Scientific American?

[Marcel Carey]

To me A to D is a 5th. It would be interesting to hear a piano tuned with
5ths beating 10bps.

Marcel Carey, RPT, accordeur Technicien
Rock Forest  QC
(819) 564-0447
----- Original Message -----
From: Larry J. Messerly <prescottpiano@juno.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 06, 2000 2:02 PM
Subject: ?Scientific American?


> Just had a friend give me an article from Scientific American Oct. 1973
> page 94, on Auditory Beats in the Brain.
>
> It concerns itself with binaural beats created in the brain when tones of
> different frequency are presented separately to each ear.  Interesting
> article, BUT:
>
> "The tuning of pianos is another precess that depends on beats.
> Typically the piano tuner will first listen for the beats produced by a
> tuning fork of 440 hertz and the A above middle C, and tighten or loosen
> the A wire until the beats slow to zero.  He then strikes the A key and
> the D key below it and tunes the latter wire until 10 beats per second
> are heard.  That frequency is produced by the interaction of the A
> string's second harmonic, or second multiple (2x440=880), and the D
> string's third harmonic (3x290=870).  In this fashion, key by key, the
> piano is tuned; in theory it could be done even by someone who is
> tone-deaf."
>
> Larry Messerly, RPT
> Prescott/Phoenix
>
> (too much time on my hands, I don't get to tune until noon today.)
>