[CAUT] Aural-vs-Electronic

[David Love]

Who's arguing?  I think we are just talking about balancing electronic
and aural methods.

David Love
davidlovepianos@comcast.net 

-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces@ptg.org] On Behalf Of
James Ellis
Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2005 8:07 AM
To: caut@ptg.org
Subject: [CAUT] Aural-vs-Electronic

I think the argument about aural-vs-electronic tuning has been run into
the
ground.  I think a piano tuner in this day and time should be familiar
with
BOTH.  Each one has it's own place in the scheme to things, but I still
think some aural proficiency should be required for whatever title the
tuner is to be awarded.  The tuner can always buy a machine, but he/she
cannot buy aural skills.  Those have to be learned.

In my own work, I sometimes use an ETD as a solution for certain
situations.  Most times, I do it aurally because that's the method I
learned 60 years ago and the one with which I am most comfortable.  But
if
I want to make measurements and see exactly what's going on, the ETD
does
that in ways my ears could not possibly do, and I would not be without
it.

I don't have any one set routine that I use in tuning.  I have a variety
of
them.  If the piano is well scaled, any of them will work.  If the
scaling
is crazy, some will work better than others, but none will work really
well.  At my age, I'm not taking any more spinets - only those I have
already been tuning for years.  In some cases, I will tune a temperament
from F3 to F4.  In others, I may tune from A3 to A4, or even from C4 to
C5
on rare occasions in those spinets with wild inharmonicity.  If one
routine
isn't going well, I will switch in mid-stream to another.  I know I
can't
make those pianos sound good - only better than they did before - and to
my
ears, they still sound like "you-know-what".  The big will-scaled grands
sound fine no matter which routine I use, and I may extend my
temperament
tests all the way from A2 to A4.

Having said all that, my point is that arguing which tuning is better,
aural or electronic, is like arguing which is better, a hammer or a
screwdriver.  It depends upon what you are trying to do with it.  You
just
might need both in your tool kit these days.

Jim Ellis 

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