Klarinet Archive - Posting 000871.txt from 1997/05

From: Ian M. Dilley <imd@-----.uk>
Subj: Re: Pitch of tuning notes
Date: Fri, 30 May 1997 10:51:19 -0400

Piano tuning - that takes a long time to learn. I did 4 years of
evening classes in piano repairing. I restored an old grand piano but
I thought piano tuning took too long learn as a spare time activity.
I did have a little try though and learnt quite a lot of theory.

Anyone who has studied piano tuning knows that tuning meters are
useless. The reason for this is that octaves on a piano are not tuned
so that the upper note has a frequency double that of the lower note.

The partials of a piano string are not in the perfect mathematical
relationship that most people assume. They tend to run sharp.
Presumably this is due to the strings not being infinitely thin and
flexible. When you tune an octave you make it as beatless as
possible. ie. match the first partial of the lower note to the
fundamental of the upper, the third partial of the lower to the 1st of
the upper etc.

I'm sure the same thing happens with other instruments. A unison
sounds in tune when most of the partial are in tune with each other.
I believe a clarinet has partials which tend to run flat. So, when
playing a unison with a piano that sounds in tune, the fundamental of
the clarinet could be sharper than that of the piano.

When this effect is combined with the vagiaries caused by equal
temperament (sharp thirds, flat fifths etc.) it is obvious that a
tuning meter cannot be used to correct the tuning of a particular
chord played by diverse instruments.

I seem to remember that Benade's book has some stuff about pitch perception where two notes sounded sucessively can appear to have the same pitch but sound out of tune when sounded simultaneously (and vice versa).

Ian Dilley

>
>
> The experience of learning to tune a piano (of which I am still on the
> starting side of the line) is a real eye and ear opening experience. Highly
> recommended for educating ones ears. After trying to tune a piano a couple of
> times, I actually learned to listen differently than before.
>
> Jerry Korten
> NYC
>
> In a message dated 97-05-29 14:34:48 EDT, Ed Lacy writes:
>
> <<
> It seems entirely possible that the availability of electronic tuners has
> caused a general decline in aural acuity. For too many musicians, it is
> too easy and too tempting to play pitches into the tuner, and assume that
> if they can get the needle to "zero out," they are in tune, and will be in
> tune in an ensemble.
> >>
>
>