[pianotech] stretch in tuning back to the original question please

[Susan Kline]

On 5/31/2012 2:59 PM, John Ashcraft wrote:
> In the case of the top octave, you want broken and simultaneous 
> octaves to sound equally bad (equally good if you are an optimist).

Exactly. That's why I said I "temper" between melodic and harmonic 
stretches in the top octave. I think too many people just go with 
beatless octaves, because it's what they've been doing with the rest of 
the piano, but in recordings one often hears the result as sounding flat.

Actually, I don't think that one should make the melodic and harmonic 
octaves EQUALLY good -- or bad.

We have to think of how that top register is going to be used, not just 
whether there are more simultaneous octaves played up there ("harmonic" 
octaves) but also which variety of octave (harmonic or melodic) will be 
the most prominent in the music being played. Usually the truly exposed 
high notes which one can hear clearly, the ones which usually sound 
flat, are melodic.

This is one more reason why it's important to go to concerts, instead of 
just depending on one's own tests and maybe a few minutes of playing 
one's most familiar pieces. Unless you are there in a concert, you won't 
be able to get a really good line of how your work is doing. I once 
thought of this as being like someone who grinds colors for oil paints, 
but never looks at paintings.

Susan Kline
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