Sy Zabrocki wrote: > >.....The SAT was telling me I was tuning the last four notes, 85, 86, 87 and 88 sharp... > > Sy Zabrocki > only4zab@imt.net > > .- Sy: When I took over the tuning duties at UCSC in 1979, I found that my predecessor had left all of the pianos tuned 1/4 - 1/2 tone sharp in the last half octave. He had explained that musicians liked those top notes tuned that way. Well, I'm a musician and I thought they sounded sharp. It took me a couple of years to get this "kink" out of each piano. Over the years, I've learned to use more aural checks and have discovered that _I_ had been putting more stretch in those upper octaves than the checks would indicate. And now that I'm using CyberTuner (since Sept.), I'm able to get tunings that are very pleasing, even though I'm tuning the treble more conservatively than is my natural tendancy. It reminds me of the story I think Norman Neblett told about when he first tuned for Jascha Heifetz. The violinist wanted the top notes tuned a half step sharp and Norm, not knowing quite how to make that work, offered him the wrench... "Could you show me what you mean?" Mr. Heifetz declined but I think he made his point, that the ear wants to hear the top notes sharper than 2:1 octaves. (Especially violinists and sopranos.) "Tempering my wild ear with electronics" Tom -- Thomas A. Cole, RPT Santa Cruz, California
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