[pianotech] Aurally pure octaves

[John Formsma]

On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 11:02 AM, Jim Moy <jim at moypiano.com> wrote:

> I happen to have read recently, and have in front of me, a copy of
> Virgil Smith's "New Techniques For Superior Aural Tuning," 2nd Ed.
> (Available at the PTG store, BTW)  Thought it might be useful to have
> a few excerpts:


<SNIP>

>
>
> I hope I have not mis-represented Virgil's intent, by not quoting in
> its entirety.  I am still striving to grok in fullness what I have
> read in his book.  I experience what he is describing when I play and
> listen.  But when I go to put it in practice tuning, I still feel as
> if I am encountering a Zen puzzle of sorts.
>
> Jim Moy
>


I would disagree with Virgil about where beats come from. Of course, they
come from coincident partials. But it is true that one can tune extremely
well without listening for specific coincidental partials.

However, one can still benefit from the concept of listening musically.
 Just relax and let the "force" guide you. <G> OK, all kidding aside, if you
do relax and listen for the sweet spot, you will hear it eventually.
 Assuming you have good lever technique.  You also need to learn how to set
the middle string slightly above that sweet spot so that when the other
strings are tuned to the middle, the pitch is correct for all three strings
sounding together. (Pitch does change somewhat when unisons are tuned to the
middle string.)

David Andersen, I'd like to attend the tuning soirée in GR. Would it be
during a normal class time, or after hours?
-- 
JF
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