Learning the overtone series

[ed440@mindspring.com]

David-

I've listened very carefully to Marshall's posts, and to other's answers to him.
And although you may not believe it, I've thought very carefully about my responses to him.
I know there are a small number of "intuitive" tuners out there, some of whom do excellent work.
I know of one who passed the tuning exam who could not say anything beyond "I just make it sound right, like it's supposed to."
If you can teach affinity, whole tone hearing, please do.  I'm sure I could learn from you.
But what terms will you use to tell us what you do?  If you say "Make the octave pure," how will you tell us what that means in a way that we can replicate and test?
Would it interrupt our affinity to learn the names of the notes on the keyboard?
It's hard to think of another field in which the basic knowledge (the overtone series) is so simple.
I don't know of a single tuning teacher who does not refer to this again and again.  There is no other way for us to communicate about what we do.  It is easy.  Once you learn it, you can talk with anyone else in the world about what you are doing.  And it is tragic if a person who wants to be a tuner does not learn it.

Sincerely,
Ed Sutton


Marshall-
 
If someone taught you to check A4 with F3, they don't know how to tune a piano.
Do you know the overtone series? (Also called partial series)
Do you know what coincident partials are?
These are the first things you need to know.  If you know them, you can figure out almost every problem of tuning for yourself.  If you don't know them, you won't really understand the answers, even if someone gives you the right answer.
1) You need to be able to play an overtone (partial) series on any note, up to the 8th partial.
2) You need to be able to find the "least coincident partials" between any two notes, and especially between thirds, fourths and fifths.
You need to stop everything and learn these two skills.  It may take a few days to learn them.  Eveything will begin to make sense when you have these skills.
 
Sincerely,
Ed Sutton


With all due respect, Ed, making these kinds of statements is ill-considered; very judgemental and dogmatic.  There are many, many ways to get to be a proficient piano tuner.  Perhaps Marshall has a natural affinity for listening to the whole tone, as artists hear the piano.  Maybe following that affinity, and trusting it, will take him to the place he wants to go.  Who are you to tell him he’s wrong, or that his mentor is wrong?  Is this the way we welcome new people into our little world? Marshall obviously has a big passion for this, and is trying to find his way. We need to be supportive. I’ve never done a tuning with an ETD, and I’ve never consciously “partial-matched”  during any of the 25,000 tunings I’ve done.  I’ve got a pretty good practice, and I can tune as well as almost anyone in the world.

Different strokes for different folks.......please.

David Andersen
Malibu, CA