Klarinet Archive - Posting 000781.txt from 1996/02

From: Gary Bisaga <gary@-----.ORG>
Subj: Re: String tuning
Date: Mon, 26 Feb 1996 08:14:13 -0500

>Please correct me if my interpretation is in error. Do you mean to say that
>string players tune higher than 440 because clarinet players play sharp in
>the upper register? Sounds pretty obsurd, but if this is the case, then they
>are blaming someone else for their own tendencies. It's a fact, that humans
>have a tendency to want to play high pitches sharp and very low pitches flat.

I have recently started on what will hopefully become a part-time
career in piano repair and tuning. There, you learn the technique of
"scale stretching," tuning the octaves towards the top of the keyboard
sharp and the ones towards the bottom flat. The reason, as I
understand it, is that strings are not perfect tank resonators as
described in sophomore physics. They always have a resistance
component, and this component tends to make the harmonics sharper than
where they should occur. (I haven't done the math but books and the
piano techs I work with assure me this is so.) So, if you play middle
C and the C two octaves above, the 4C needs to be tuned sharper than
4x the frequency of 2C.

Might the resistance of all other real resonators cause the same
phenomenon, causing the "tendancy" of "humans ... to want to play high
pitches sharp?"

Gary

   
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