David writes: << ET does rule... David I. >> Greetings, Umm, based on the empirical evidence, I don't know what ET might "rule". I do know that ET is rejected in side by side comparisons approx. 95 % of the time. This applies to not only roomfulls of piano technicians, but also to musicians in general, at least, the ones I have encountered. They all wonder why they haven't heard of this before, but they certainly do prefer a WT. Presently, at Vanderbilt, the majority of piano teachers have come to prefer the Victorian tunings. It has also been preferred for the Nashville Jazz Workshop as well as several very public venues around town. Techs must have found something attractive about a tuning that allows for interlocking octave/fifth/third checks, and I suspect that was the initial reason for the keyboard world finding itself with a strictly equal approach. The rise of ET seems to have occured two generations after the trade of "Tuner" came to be recognized. ET is easy to measure, requires little subjective decisions and thus, easy to quantify. However, the musicians don't see that aspect as a value when comparing ET to WT. I know of three different cities where the WT tech is taking business away from older, established tuners that refuse to believe anything is better than ET. The only advice I can offer is that techs that cling to an ET-only approach do so at their own peril. I know, I know, talk is cheap but experience might have some value. At this summer's convention in Dallas, I will be offering a comparison between a state of the art ET and a straight machine tuning done with Jorgensen's offsets,(which is how the majority of tuners are producing these temperaments today). See you there! Regards, Ed Foote RPT www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/ www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html
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