TLA Machine

[Michael Gamble]

Hello Robert Scott
In saying that "I do not use the facility offered me by my TLA" equivalent
to denying that the earth is round? It has the facility. I do not use it. If
my tuning is without 8ve stretching then that is what was dictated by the
piano. No two pianos are the same. I have analysed the attributes of the
frequencies of all the notes on the piano and have come to the
incontrovertible conclusion that.... when a piano sounds in tune... then
it's IN TUNE!!! My TLA just helps me start it off right. Even then I don't
agree with ALL that the TLA says because the beat rate exhibited between two
chromatically adjacent major thirds may not, to my ear, follow the curve
laid out by my earlier mentioned analyses. Likewise 10ths in the Bass break
MUST follow the mathematical projection - or be out of tune (unless the
quality of the Bass strings is poor). One cannot use this method of analysis
in the very bottom 8ve for the beat rate is too slow for the ear to detect
accurately. And if it's too slow for the ear to detect then what's the point
in being too darned clever about it? They must simply SOUND in tune - for
that, in the final analysis, is what tuning pianos is all about. I also have
to tune with early keyboard temperaments - and... you know what?... as you
continue to listen to music using these gorgeous tempered sounds you begin
to realise just how flat and bland the equal temperament of the piano is.
These temperaments are used mainly on pipe organs (mostly on the european
continent) and Harpsichords. So what I am saying here is that the ear can be
bent to accept whatever it is listening to - unless, of course, it is
grossly out of tune to any concept! Ask any string player whether a G# is
the same as an Ab.OK? :-)
Regards
Michael G (UK)