Stringing Scales

[John W. McKone]

>
>John and Mark,
>
>We must be very careful here, to keep our terms straight and be sure we
>understand each other.  If Mark means "the inharmonicity of a single
>note does not effect the tone", he is right.  Human beings cannot
>perceive stretch in a single tone.  This may seem peculiar, but imagine
>the consequences if we could!  Piano tones would be imperfect!  But you
>might say, "can't we hear whether an octave is perfect?"  The answer is:
>no we can't.  I am talking about pure tones, no harmonics.  The
>harmonics in a piano tone are stretched, and not exact multiples, yet we
>do not hear beat rates--  it can (in a good string) sound very steady
>and pure.  I ask:  if think stretch in a piano tone can be perceived,
>what is the difference that is perceived?  How could one describe it, if
>there are no beats, conflicts, or differences in amplitude?
>
>Just something to think about,
>
>Bill Bailer
>
>\\\  William Bailer ("Bill")
>\\\  Rochester, NY, USA;  Phone (voice): 716-473-9556
>\\\  wbailer@concentric.net (same mailbox as wbailer@cris.com)
>\\\  Some interests: acoustics, JS Bach, anthropology, & education.

Hi Bill!

I'm afraid I must disagree with your premise that we cannot percieve the
stretch of a single tone.  Granted, "the out-of-tuneness" of individual
harmonics may not be percieved as such, but it is the aggregate effect of
the whole series of stretched harmonics blended together that helps create
the unique tonal quality of the piano.

Every instrument has its unique signature of harmonic configuration.  This
along with such things as attack, release, decay time, etc, combine to
create what we call "tone"

Of, what we're talking about here is a whole different can of worms from
the controlled variance of inharmonicity from string to string that allows
a piano to be tempered smoothly (or not, depending on the scale)  My
original point was more about this "global" inharmonicity and tone.  If I
piano can be tuned cleanly and smoothly because it has been scaled well,
the perception of the tone of that piano will be much different from one
that can't.

Just my 2 cents.



John McKone, RPT
Minneapolis, MN
http://www.skypoint.com/members/mckonejw