Tuning Notes

[Richard Brekne]

David Andersen wrote:

>     Stretching the bass? I heard of stretching the top octaves but how
>     does one stretch the bass?
>
>     thanks,
>     Julie,
>
>
>
> Oooohhhhh, a huge can of worms. How the bass is tuned is how most 
> artist judge a piano. IMO.
> I’ll say 95%---and I’m being a bit generous---of the tunings I follow 
> up on within 2 to 14 days---and usually in a well-controlled 
> micro-environment of studio, store, or expensive house/venue. (and 
> remember, friends, we’re in fabulous Mediterranean Southern 
> California---stability made flesh)....uhh...anyway, 95% of those 
> tunings are from a little to a LOT sharp in the bass, in my system. 
> The trick, the challenge, the game, is to get the note juuust on the 
> flat side of “beatless;” if you pay attention to your body at this time 

I've seen several posts come through like this one, and even a few 
simply out of hand discounting the idea that partials matching is a 
useful tool at all. While David Andersen is a fellow I've understood 
deserves all the respect in the world, and he certainly gets it from me, 
I have to distance myself from this whole approach to advising new 
students.

Partial matching seems more and more to me to be a very misunderstood 
affair. Its like most folks simply reduce the whole idea to a simple 
easy to follow recipe and dont really want to get the bigger puzzle 
clear in their minds. It seems no better in ETD users who apparently all 
to often simply choose a given octave stretch without really 
understanding what it results in beyond some very stretch issues citing 
simply that said stretch "sounds best", offering no further qualifiers.

Partial matching in itself is simply a tool. Understanding the tonal 
results of various partials alignments from a holistic perspective is a 
rather daunting task, and its easy to get crossed up many times along 
the road.... but there is nothing about that that in the end is at odds 
with the Virgil Smith philosophy of tuning. For that matter establishing 
any kind of piano <<tone>> (in the sense Andre uses the word) can be as 
easily accomplished by conscious and informed use of partial matching tools.

The nice thing about partial matching is that the approach lends itself 
very easily to clear concise explanations that are easily understood and 
learned. It also lends itself well to developing and understanding of 
the tuning puzzle that in turn can find its end in one or another 
holistic perspective like Davids above.

One other point... there simply is no such thing (within a quite wide 
set of parameters really) as a bass that is too sharp or too flat... too 
stretched or not stretched enough. Acceptable beat rates for the 4:2 in 
the lowest bass area range from 2 bps wide to even a bit narrow given 
the many many articles and treatises written on the subject. The amount 
of stretch is in itself a purely subjective matter.

The only real criteria for <<correctness>> or <<quality>> is how well 
the tuner understand what they are trying to accomplish, and how well 
they succeed in
executing those.

Cheers
RicB