Octave Tuning

[Bec and John]

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Hi Matthew,

The technician I studied with used a very old upright (with water=20
damage from a basement flood!) to teach on. Though the beats were=20
fairly easy to hear. If you know any other technicians you may want to=20=

get their opinion on your piano. It might be fruitful to ask around at=20=

churches if they have any pianos that aren't used which you could use=20
for tuning.

I thought it was generally believed that learning on a good piano is=20
better. After I was done studying with the technician most of my tuning=20=

was on a Baldwin SD-10 - I'd say doing much early-tuning on such a big=20=

piano gave me a different perspective, particularly in the bass.

-- John


> Thanks for the replies.=A0 I am practicing my tuning on a 1913 Hinze=20=

> upright.=A0 Is that doing me more harm than good here?=A0 I think it =
is=20
> hard to hear lots of stuff on that piano, but then again, I am a=20
> beginner, so I don't know if it's more the piano or more me not having=20=

> trained ears yet.=A0 I know lots of families with much newer pianos,=20=

> should I try to hook up with one of them and maybe work it out with=20
> them to practice my tuning on it?
> =A0
> Matthew
>
> BobDavis88@aol.com wrote:
> Matthew writes:
> When I tune the temperament octave (A3-A4), it needs to be a 4:2=20
> octave, correct?=A0
> No. Read the many replies which said that it should usually be wider=20=

> than that.
> And one way to test this octave is to play the A two octaves above the=20=

> lower note as the test key, to hear the partials in the octave, am I=20=

> right?
> Not exactly, but read Don Rose's comments on ghosting.
> =A0 If the octave you are testing has no beat whatsoever, you have a=20=

> perfect temperament octave, is this true?
> No. There is no such thing as a beatless octave. An octave which is=20
> not beating at one level, such as 4:2, will be beating at all other=20
> coincident partials, such as 2:1, 6:3, 8:4. The higher the beatless=20
> coincident is in the chain, the wider the octave. A good compromise=20
> octave is usually pretty quiet, though,
> =A0
> Matthew,
> =A0
> If you have kept this trail of posts on octave tuning, please go back=20=

> and re-read it, and the links to which you were referred, including=20
> the ones to the AccuTuner manual Appendices F and H. People are happy=20=

> to spend time helping you, but you've got to do your homework and read=20=

> the replies. At the risk of repetition, I include, directly below, a=20=

> copy of my post from last week on this subject:
> Bob Davis
> -------------
> Matthew's original question was how to tune a 4:2 octave. Several=20
> people, myself included, sent the tests, aural and visual. Whether=20
> that [meaning 4:2] is appropriate for the temperament octave on a=20
> particular piano is a second question. Tuning so that "the 10th is=20
> just noticeably faster than the third" might produce a good width of=20=

> octave, but it is NOT a 4:2. [It's wider]
> =A0
> A clean 4:2 octave IS wide at 2:1, and narrow at 6:3. Most aural=20
> tuners naturally gravitate towards a temperament octave that is very=20=

> slightly wide of 4:2 ("the 10th is just noticeably faster than the=20
> third"), which will be substantially wide of 2:1 and a tiny narrow of=20=

> 6:3. This gives an octave that is pretty clean-sounding, and produces=20=

> fifths which are pretty clean and fourths that aren't too trashy. Any=20=

> octave size can be divided into 12 equal half steps. A true 4:2=20
> octave=A0will produce cleaner fourths and more movement in the fifths,=20=

> and on most pianos will be unnecessarily narow. However, on some=20
> pianos with high inharmonicity,=A0a wide temperament octave added to=20=

> a=A0clean octave below, will produce a double octave that is too =
noisy.=20
> It's a balancing act.
>
> Do you Yahoo!?
> vote.yahoo.com - Register online to vote today!=

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