Learning Aural Tuning

[David Andersen]

>You don't really need to decide on a beat rate for the F3-A3 third.  Tune 
>A4 and then tune A3 and A2 to get octaves and double octave that you want. 
I'll say again what I've said before.  The best tunings I've ever done 
have been achieved by making the fourths in the temperament wide or sharp 
in the same easy, slow rolling way.  When the fourths are tuned 
properly---and it's much, much easier for me to hear fourths and fifths 
with precision than 3rds and 6ths---all the tests you want to do work out 
"perfectly." 
Hope this helps......it's dead simple.
David A.


> How wide you can set these octaves will vary from piano to piano.  As 
>Bill says, aim for a compromise between a 4:2 and 6:3 octave checking the 
>double octave to be sure that it isn't so wide as to be objectionable.  
>This is a bit of an artistic judgment call and the width of these octaves 
>will vary from piano to piano.  In general they will be narrower on a 
>smaller piano and wider on a larger piano.  On some spinets you may need 
>to set the octaves a pure 4:2 or even narrower.  Then set a sequence of 
>contiguous thirds from A2 to A4 so that their beat rates have a 
>relationship of 4:5.  The narrower you set up your initial double octave 
>spread, the slower the F3-A3 third will beat.  Let the piano rather than a 
>preconceived notion about what the F3-A3 third should sound like guide 
>you.  Once you have laid in the sequence of thirds it is relatively easy 
>to fill in the rest.