A=440 was Tuning

[Alan Barnard]

A very astute, perspicacious, and pithy answer, JS, despite my initial reaction to your brilliant missive which was, to whit, "Huh?"

Alan Barnard
Salem, MO




Original message
From: "J. Stanley Ryberg" 
To: pianotech 
Received: 5/5/2008 11:14:39 PM
Subject: Re: A=440 was Tuning


As a retired free-lance orchestral player, I agree also with Ric's comments, Dean.  But I think you're comparing apples with walnuts when wondering about the need to set A440 for the tuning exam...this is an exam, not a real-life situation.  It is testing one's ability to control the pitch...to set it exactly (well, within small tolerances, anyway) where the exam says it must be.  Indeed, the exam as a whole was never meant to be a real-life situation, only an assessment of one's ability to tune that instrument to a given, known standard.  It doesn't speak to the art of tuning or the musicality of tuning but rather, to the technique of tuning, which should be solid in order to be able to tune in a musical, artistic manner.  Whether one would ever tune a piano to the specifications set forth in the tuning exam isn't the question...or the answer.

Regards,
Stan Ryberg
Barrington IL

Astute comments. Makes me wonder why getting A so exact to 440 for the
tuning exam is so critical. 

Dean

Dean May             cell 812.239.3359 

PianoRebuilders.com   812.235.5272 

Terre Haute IN  47802




-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On
Behalf
Of Richard Brekne
Sent: Monday, May 05, 2008 6:58 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: A=440 was Tuning

Just saw the bit about getting exactly a 440.... and had to offer an 
observation which has become increasingly obvious with each passing 
year.  In practice... musicians seem nearly without exception totally 
inept, incapable and downright ignorant of what 440 really is.  In 
reality as long as you say you have tuned at 440, and have some device 
that shows 440 for A... even if its rigged... pitch can float anywhere 
between 438 and 442 and nearly no-one is capable of reacting.  A rare 
exception..

Orchestras are the absolute worst.... they nearly all have fast tuned 
instruments like vibraphones and the like tuned to various 
pitches...which makes the whole matter rather moot to begin with.  I
ran 
into a pop group with a big A= 440 in their contract and came with a 
rhodes tuned to 443... This is common place.

We deal with both 440 and 442 in contracts over here on a regular 
basis... and I've gotten into the habit of tuning to 441.... 99.8% of 
the time this is absolutely no problem.

I guess I've come to the conclusion that the whole pitch standard
thingy 
is basically overdriven bs. 

Cheers
RicB
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