Tuning shorthand

[Richard Brekne]

Dave... there is a great little book available from the PTG written by
Rick
Baldersin (I think his name is spelled that way.. grin). It is called on
pitch.
It costs 25 dollars and explains all this about octave types and why we
use them.

Briefly tho, the "ratios" you refer to are not ratios at all. They are
partial
number designations. A 4:2 octave is one in which the 4th partial of the
lower
note is compared to the 2nd partial of the upper, and so on.

Get Ricks book, learn about the overtone series and how this relates to
piano
tuning, and all will become very clear. Including what a task it really
is to
really tune well.

Richard Brekne
I.C.P.T.G.  N.P.T.F.
Bergen, Norway

DaveAAAP@AOL.COM wrote:

>  Can someone help me out in understanding tuning shorthand?  When I start
> studying different temperament and tuning techniques, I get bogged down
> trying to figure out what they are trying to say.  I'm sure it's simple and
> logical, but I've never seen a dictionary of terms and I don't want to miss
> anything.
>   Why is tuning an A3 to an A4 a 4:2 octave and tuning A2 from A3 a 6:3
> octave?  How do you figure these ratios?
>   Is the big "M" different from the little "m" (I'm assuming Major and minor)
> and does "P" mean perfect or pure?
>
> Dave Streit
> Beaverton, OR