"Feelin' in Tune" (part II)

[cpstout]

PTG subscribers, <Pianotech.org>			10/24/97

	"Mr. Stout, I could care less about the OCTAVES on my 
	piano.  Just get the FIFTHS in tune" remarked Mrs. 
	Johnson, pastor's wife in n.w. Kansas some thirty years
	ago.  Trouble is just one thing - she couldn't or didn't
	tell me HOW!!!

	In passing, let me assert that undoubtedly she had one 
	of the best senses of hearing I have even yet encount-
	ered... she could 'name notes' (what I like to call what
	is often called 'Perfect (ugh!) Pitch';  was started on 
	development of 'naming notes' and 'how to hear' by her
	Dr. father;  was graduated with a Masters in piano per-
	formance and taught in a small college;  and could 
	actually hear the 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th + partials 'come in'.

	After playing an octave (mid-section of the piano), she
	showed me how to listen for all the partials sounding.
	After some 32 years, I can still remember her touching me
	on the hand when she heard them 'come in'.  Finally I could
	distinguish partials 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 sound but not when
	they become a whole step apart, i.e., 7, 8, 9, etc.  And 
	I have never, to this day doubted that she could discern
	partials even further distant from the fundamental!  All 
	this came with less than 18 months tuning experience, and
	WITHOUT the much help in tuning except a couple of PTG
	seminars.

		Note-  Mrs Johnson finally took the tuning
		hammer and finished the 5/6 single bass strings
		herself!  (Yes, I got paid the going fee, even
		though she probably had it re-tuned shortly
		thereafter...)

		Mrs Johnson was my first and, to this day, the
		ONLY person, privately or in tuning classes, to
		DEMONSTRATE how the ear hears partials sound.
		She pointed out that the snd partial (octave)
		takes the longest to 'sound' and then #'s 3, 4,
		5, 6, etc on higher much faster and not in
		rhythm on any sort.  .... hmmmm - would this be
		partial subject matter for a tuning class in
		the future???  (Probably the last few rows 
		couldn't hear the demo, though.)

	Now for the "Feelin' in Tune" portion.  Both HEARING and
	FEELING partials are in accretion to each other!  Since I
	am tall (6'4"), when first tuning I found hammer technique
	improved by placing my knees against the underside of the
	keybed.  Thus 20 years later I learned that BONE TRANSMIS-
	SION of vibration amplifies what we hear in the ear; to-wit,
	Dr. Berlin's New Orleans class at the 1989 national conven-
	tion (see email from 10/12/97 for details).

	Somewhere along the way I further implemented the fact that
	'placing the elbow - or the side of the hand holding the
	tuning hammer AGAINST the piano - also helped hearing the
	partial series, not that I would wait the three seconds or
	so required for ALL co-incidental partials to speak. 

	I use, as an aid, the Saunderson Accu-Tuner (and wouldn't 
	be without it!) but tuned sixteen years aurally first.
	Piano tuning, w/electronics, uses two of our five faculity
	senses - sight PLUS hearing.  Contiguously, even unkowningly
	we all use the sense of FEEL while tuning - again bone
	transmission of vibration.  That makes three of the five
	faculity senses we are given.  (If tuning employs the
	other two - tasting and smelling (pun intended!) I will
	completely retire from tuning.  :-) 

	In addition to using ears and eyes to tune, plus the 		
	afore-mentioned 'trickniques', there is still yet another 
	even more important 'feel'. particularly of unisons... by
	placing the thumb of the hand doing the actual playing of
	the note being tuned AGAINST the keyslip.  (If you tune
	right handed, it would be the LEFT thumb against the key-
	slip board, all the time striking the key with the MIDDLE
	left finger.

		Note - It is also very helpful, after temperament
		of F3 to F4, to tune up to B4.  (I like to unison
		as I go, correcting any slippage or error before
		continuing.) 

		After tuning B4, you can then tune down from F3.
		By actually sounding B4 BEFORE striking E3, it is
		very easy to both HEAR and WATCH E3 come in phase
		with the octave-fifth (12th) above.

	At the risk of needing more 'Hartford fire insurance', (pun
	intended) for my 'flaming', I make this statement.  "It has
	been a long time (how long? ...probably since the Accu-Tuner)
	since I have depended on the OCTAVE to tune any bass note.
	95% of the time, I never sound a bass octave, the octave 5th
	is that dependable. 

	As first mentioned, Mrs Johnson never told me HOW to tune the
	perfect fifths, but she knew she wanted those intervals PURE.
	Does any of the above comment amplify the present 'thread
	on PURE 5th Tuning'?  Anyway, thanks for listenin'..And may
	all your fifths be PURE - not liquid!!!  ...pun intended

			Clarence (Clancy) Stout, R.P.T.
			35 year member, P.T.G.
			Nebraska Chapter
			Holyoke, CO  80734-1757
			(970) 854-3328 (calls welcome)
		 
Jim - Your comments please!  and Thanks in Advance - Clancy