In a message dated 3/7/99 4:29:06 PM Central Standard Time, pianotoo@imap2.asu.edu writes: << For those few who are interested: Yesterday I received an emergency call. >> (you know the rest...) This is a perfect example of how there is an appropriate time and place for every kind of technique. There is a time when we *must* tune as fast *and* accurately as we possibly can or fail. There are times when we take all day to do nothing more than one tuning for the evening's event and there is the whole range in between. I have a theoretical question that I think is in line with Kent Swafford's thinking on this. Wouldn't it have been just as effective to tune each piano to it's own program but ensuring that each piano is exactly at A-440? Maybe even to within 4 cents of it? Wouldn't the "orchestra effect" that you acknowledge be there if the different pianos had slightly different pitches in various parts of their ranges because of the differences in the programs? When I have heard two pianos that were completely "dead on" with each other, I have noticed a curious canceling out effect between them resulting in an apparent net loss of volume. If the two have slight differences, the combined sound seems louder just as a beating (some call it a "noisy") unison can seem louder than a purely beatless one. You may recall that I pointed out in my demonstration in Providence that I did not expect any two instruments to have *exactly* the same pitches in order to sound apparently in tune with each other. We all realize that this happens between a piano and a church organ and perhaps a piano and an electronic keyboard. It follows that it may be true for two pianos. After all, if two pianos are being used, would it be expected that the very same notes would be played on both of them at the same time? Or would it be more likely that they would be playing in different registers, one playing melody, the other accompaniment? If the latter is so, *must* they both be *exactly* the same to sound "in tune"? Also, here is where the question of whether aural or electronic is really better. The ETD can certainly insure that two pianos are *exactly* alike just as they can insure that a piano is tuned in a perfectly dull, uninteresting way. The aural tuner doesn't have much more choice than to sound the fork and try to get each piano on pitch. It would really be interesting to see which would sound better or more "in tune", two different kinds of pianos tuned aurally to standard pitch or two that were electronically tuned exactly together but both compromised. I would bet on the aural job any day's pay, any day of the week. When confronted with the situation you had that day, I like to recall the words of the famous jazz/blues pianist Mose Allison, "I don't worry about a thing, 'cause I know *nothin's* gonna be all right". Regards, Bill Bremmer RPT Madison, Wisconsin
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