Contiguous Major Thirds Accuracy?

[John Formsma]

On Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 7:17 AM, <paulrevenkojones at aol.com> wrote:

>
>  One tip I do have for tuning a ladder of CM3s, perhaps known to the
> posters but not to some readers, is to tune 4ths (I prefer temporarily
> tuned just 4ths) above and below A3. The resulting chromatic M6s with F3 and
> C#4 can help assure that the notes are evenly spaced.
>
>
>  So how do you know the fourths are accurate enough to give you accurate
> M3rd"s?
>
> PRJ
>

I think he's referring to the placement of C#4 by the temporary tuning of
just P4s E3-A3 and A4-D4.

Here's what I do to "rough in" and figure out what will work well.  (Note
that I said work well -- not what will be perfect, as perfection here is
temporary at best. Not to mention how few people there are besides tuners
who even care that much about perfectly ascending and descending M3s, M6s,
etc. <G>)

Tune A4, then A3. Quickly tune D4 and E4 to see what kind of octave there is
(and also to "rough in" D4 and E4).  Just get those two test notes close.
 Remember that a 4:2 A3-A4 octave will produce equal beating from A3-D4 and
D4-A4 (also A3-E4 and E4-A4).

Then tune F3 to your best 7 bps approximation. Tune F4 from F3. Quickly tune
A#3 and C4 from F3.  This will help verify the F3-F4 octave, and also "rough
in" A#3 and C4.  Now that the A3-A4 and F3-F4 octaves are verified to be the
same width, move on to the contiguous M3s.

Do the contiguous M3s F3-A3, A3-C#4, C#4-F4, and F4-A4.  If you refine your
A3-D4 interval, that's a good test for the placement of C#4.  A3-C#4 should
beat roughly the same as F3-D4.

Anyways, it's a fascinating thing, but I gotta run off to make some money so
I can "share the wealth." :-(

-- 
JF
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20081028/3f341c55/attachment.html