List, In many respects, I am still considered a fledgling tuner. However, I have observed some things about tuning that have helped me progress. I am sure that you experienced tuners already know all of these, but since they have helped me, I will share them to get your feedback. For what it is worth... 1) When setting the temperament, listen for the beat rate of intervals *at the point* where the partials coincide. This is what we do when listening to octaves, and naturally should be done with all intervals, but I did not know of it until recently. Since doing the above, my temperament setting skills have dramatically improved. Before, I would listen for beats as beats themselves. Now, I listen for the beats at the pitch of the coincident partials. Example: when tuning a third, say F3-A3, listen for the beats at the 5:4 coincident partial A5. For fourths, listen at the 4:3 partial or an octave and fifth above the upper note: For A3-D4, you would listen at A5. For fifths, listen at the 3:2 partial, or an octave above the upper note: For G3-D4, listen at D5. Listening this way greatly improved my ability to hear the very slow beats of fourths and fifths. Now temperament setting is much easier for me and more accurate. 2) When tuning, use a soft touch while listening. I have noticed that if the ear is developed in this way it learns to hear things better so that it is totally unnecessary to pound, pound, pound away on the notes. (In my opinion, pounding does not contribute as much to the tuning stability as does good hammer lever technique. Therefore, why play hard when it is not necessary?) I have learned to listen better rather than playing harder. The ear is a marvelous example of the Creator's design, and is capable of more than we credit it with. Before I began practicing this soft touch, my ears would often be so worn out by the time I finished my last piano that it really hurt to listen. Tuning with as soft a touch as possible will save the ears. A soft blow has especially helped me in listening to unisons. It seems that unisons are much more manageable with a soft touch as opposed to medium or hard blow. I try to have a touch light enough that the hammer makes just enough contact with the strings to produce a tone. The key does not even have to make contact with the bottom of the keybed. I theorize that some distortion of the sound wave occurs with a harder blow, which would seem to make it more difficult to tune precisely. However, that is just my theory--does anyone have any data on this? 3) Think of your ears (and everything else involved in tuning) as "million-dollar-ears." They must last a lifetime, and for easy figuring purposes, if you consider an income of $33,333 a year, you will make a million in 30 years. Protect them! 4) Tuning unisons still gives me some difficulty at times. I tried several things, one of which was listening to the upper partials as they would "come together." However, I found that for me it is easier to know what a perfect unison sounds like and try to always duplicate it. If you have that sound in your head, you don't have to listen to the upper partials--listen at the fundamental and wait for that perfect unison to be there. I learned something from a mentor that has helped: think of trying to get the "meow" out of the tone. As you are tuning the unison, there is first a fast wa-wa; then it gets slower and slower until you hear just barely a little "me-ow" --like a cat. When you get rid of all of that, you have a perfect unison. Sometimes I visualize (or, should I say "auralize") a perfect unison--three strings that sound like one, a perfect tone sounding clear and continuing clear forever. Getting a mental image of perfection helps me in tuning unisons. 5) To ensure stable unisons, I have recently employed something mentioned at the KC Convention by the Steinway concert technician (I think his last name was Patton). After you have tuned two strings of the unison, apply a little sideward pressure to the string using a hammer shank. Then play the unison again, and if it has remained stable, it will be stable. Then do the same thing with the third string of the unison. You can hold the hammer shank in the same hand as your tuning lever. 6) False beats can be tuned out sometimes, but what about those pianos in which the majority of the treble strings have false beats? Or, on a piano I tuned recently...2 or 3 of the strings in each unison had some falseness in them--YIKES! In that case, I use the SAT, and tune unisons aurally, checking with the SAT. I have noticed that closing my eyes will help. I have found that intense concentration while focusing my listening for the beats at the pitch of the unisons will help to tune them well, even with the false beats. Maybe it is a thing where you make the mind take control over what the ears hear. "There is nothing new under the sun" and I do not mean to re-invent the wheel with these "observations." I realize that this is probably old hat to some of you, but I would like your thoughts as to the validity of them. I hope maybe they will help someone. If you have any tuning tips that have helped you listen better, I would enjoy reading them, and I bet others will too. John Formsma Blue Mountain, MS
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