Using an ETD to hone aural skills

[Alan Barnard]

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Comment ... or maybe more of a question.

In doing this, we are using the ETD as the final judge, the standard if you will. Yet for the RPT exam, the standard is set aurally.

So, it seems to me, that when you are "off" by a few 10ths of a cent (or even more) you may actually be "on" to a better placement of that note than the machine has calculated.

I'd be interested in others' comments, including those of you who are examiners. And -- related -- how far different can an ETD calculated tuning be from a good aurally done exam tuning in your experience.

Alan Barnard
Salem, Missouri


----- Original Message ----- 
From: A440 Piano Service 
To: PTG List
Sent: 02/08/2006 7:22:53 PM 
Subject: Using an ETD to hone aural skills


 
Hi people,
I'm trying to hone my aural tuning skills and I've come up with a method... 
I'd like to hear others' feedback on this particular method, and about any other kinds of methods you might recommend.

Today I had a nice tuning in a quiet house.  It was a Yamaha Grand, a
C3 in good shape.  So I took the opportunity to "keep score" on my
aural tuning.  I used Potter F-A II.

What I did was:
1.  Take F-A-C readings and let the SAT calculate a tuning.
2.  Set the A4 with the machine.
3.  Tune the temperament by ear from there.
4.  Compare my note with the machine's calculation.
5.  Write down how far off I was (in cents).
6.  Re-tune with machine and go to the next note, lather, rinse and
repeat.

Here's my scorecard:
A3: -.1
F3:  -.2
F4:  +.9
C#4:  -.8
D4:  dead on!
A#3: -2.7, retried: -2.2.  Found out D4 (where I was tuning the third
from had drifted flat - gotta work on my stability!)

F#3: -.5
D#4: dead on!
B3:  -2.8  (oops!)  retry: dead on!
G3:  +.2
E4:  -.4
C4:  dead on!
G#3: -.8
F#4: -.1
G4:  dead on
G#4: -.3

So howzzat?  Not too bad, I'm thinking.  My tendency looks to be that
I tend to tune flat (slower beating), but I think I'll need a few more
scorecards to make a statistical judgement.  And I have to work on the
stability thing, too, obviously.  I get so caught up in the beat
speeds that I lose track of that fundamental skill of setting the
string and the pin.

Are any of you doing practice things with your ETDs?  How do you use them?
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