Learning: was Violin

[David M. Porritt]

Richard:

On the contrary, I have lots of confidence in the engineers and
physicists you mention.  However, as far as we can tell none of them
have written anything about this current discussion i.e. which moves
first, the bridge or the sounding board (the chicken or the egg).
Quotes from these people about other things does little but try to
borrow their credibility.  Until someone attaches accelerometers to
bridge and sounding board of a real-world piano this discussion will
continue ad infinitum.  The "winners" and "losers" will be judged by
readers as to the number of off-topic quotes or the writing style.

dave

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 1/5/2002 at 4:50 PM Richard Brekne wrote:

>"David M. Porritt" wrote:
>
>> The one thing that has been most interesting in this discussion of
>> bridges, sounding boards, etc is the issue of credibility.  We all
>> know that the technician from out-of-town has more credibility
than
>> the local, and that the farther away he/she is, the more credible.
>> In this around-the-world discussion, the criterion for credibility
is
>> the one not involved in the discussion.  Therefore, the quote from
a
>> book published in 1903, is authoritative.  The quote from an
expert
>> on "The Internet" is gospel.
>>
>> Let's face it, in the physics of piano acoustics, this local
internet
>> group is pretty much the experts.  The guy/gal who got a "B" in
>> "Physics of Musical Sound 101" but has a web site does not have
that
>> much credibility with me.  Give me the experience of the people
>> actually putting pianos together.... the ones on this list.
>>
>> dave
>> _____________________________
>>
>
>Dave, I will grant you that it is defiantly in order to respect ones
>experience base. However the "physics of piano acoustics" as you put
it
>is not something the kind of builder /rebuilder or technicians in
>general  on this list needs to get toooooooo awfully deep into and
by
>necessity they don't. They have to actually work on instruments. I
>question big time that this local group represent the worlds
expertise on
>the subject of piano acoustics let alone the mechanics of acoustics
in
>general. I find it no less then incredible that anyone should
actively
>discourage readers of this list to take less then serious source
material
>unless it comes from a select few contributors to this list. It
might
>also be worth pointing out that major manufactures actually hire
folks
>from the physics / acoustics field with very high levels of
education and
>spend millions on research. I am sure they would be very much
pleased to
>know that all they need do is fire all those folks save all those
>dollars, yens, marks and whathaveyou and simply come to the "physics
of
>piano acoustics" "experts" that are only to be found ... here.
>
>McFerrins book btw was first published in 1925, updated in 53, and
>expanded upon and updated again in 1971. McFerrin himself was a
Professor
>of Physics. I personally see no reason why I should not place a good
deal
>of weight on what he, or Benade, or Olson, or Fletcher & Rossing,
or,
>Conklin, or Askenfelt, or Skala or a host of other authors,
scientists,
>and researchers have to say on any subject matter that comes on this
>list.
>
>Credibility ???
>
>--
>Richard Brekne
>RPT, N.P.T.F.
>Bergen, Norway
>mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no


_____________________________
David M. Porritt
dporritt@mail.smu.edu
Meadows School of the Arts
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, TX 75275
_____________________________