Pitch Floating

[Guy, Karen, and Tor Nichols]

At 02:40 PM 6/25/99 -0500, you wrote:
>List,
>
>   There have been discussions in the past of letting the pitch float a
>little. My question pertains to doing this on a concert instrument.
> <SNIP>
>   That's what I usually do, but have been curious about which note (or
>area) you "floaters" use to determine the pitch level.

Hey Avery,
	Good question, and I've got to go along with Roger on this one. The only
performance pianos I might float are the two on my stage, or a
church/recital venue where the piano doesn't get tons of regular service.
The ones here are no more than 7', and get exchanged, etc.... they're floor
pianos for sale, y'know. No big deal, and we host recitals, not major
concerts. The D's, SD's, and the one Imperial that I see most, when used
for concert, get re parked at 440 unless there's absolutely no time.
(almost never happens, but the schedule for Linda Rugrat next week looks
like it may) Now, on the other hand, there are a lot of other
considerations, and sometimes other factors make it possible to float TO
the right pitch. Stage lights, rehearsals, MATCHING the dern things, when
one is from another venue..... with swamp coolers... or whatever. Partially
it's because we don't always have a choice, with climate "challenges", etc.
Partially it's because so many of the performers, or their parties, have a
silly little inaccurate pitch measuring (read: guitar tuner) thinghy in
their pocket. For pop and rock, there's a bazzilion of the dern things on
stage. For classical, the time is almost always available to put the thing
at pitch, so, that's what I do. 
I'll use TL-97 if I have to, but 99% of my tunings are aural, with a 523etc
tone bar. Yup. Switched from fork 17 years ago, and never went back. I set
the C4 2nd partial, and wind up at 440. When we've had a swing up, rh wise,
I sometimes make two or three real quick heavy passes at the low tenor, to
bring it in line... so a "floater reference pitch" might be the one at the
point where the tenor stops being a little sharp.... like..oh ... A440. ;^)
My two cents.

Guy Nichols, RPT

"I leave you as I found you -- only some time later." 
                                -- John Lennon