[CAUT] electronic tuning device preference?

[Don]

Hi Susan,

Total equality in temperament is impossible given the limitations of the
piano's design.

Another area where an ETD can shine is showing limitations of a particular
instrument. For example large Nordheimer pianos from before 1920 often have
rather strange "graphs" of the tuning curve. An aural only tuner may beat
themselves to death trying to "force" the piano into a standard tuning
"mold" that is neither desirable or pretty for that instrument.

All a good ETD does is provide more information to the technician than is
available with just "ears". Is there "magic" involved in good solid aural
tuning? Is this "art" or "science"? I lean to the science side.

BTW check a fifth high up in a piano--perhaps you may find that c7 to g7
is....wide (and needs to be, usually--except on a big old Nordheimer).

Also it takes me longer to tune with my etd than without it. So why do I
bother? The end result for the client is superior. I'm not working for
me--I'm working for them.

Now on the other hand--it saves me time on pitch correction and is far more
accurate than I am able to do aurally. Again the client (and the piano) win
from the use of an etd.

At 12:45 PM 3/17/2008 -0700, you wrote:

> You say, 
><<yet the aural skills most needed to help the ETD are 
> the musical listening skills of the unison, octave and 
>>> 
>
> And I agree. So, take away those skills from a decent 
> tuning, and what do we have left? The ability to set 
> an equal temperament. Is that such a hard task? And is 
> TOTAL equality so necessary, if the musically important 
>  
> are equally good/not good, according to their kind (fourths 
> faster than fifths) with none of them sticking out, and 
> the octave stretch is musically and tonally pleasing, 
> tiny differences in the thirds and sixths wouldn't 
> matter musically, IMO. 
>
> Is this really so hard to achieve, if one does it each day? 
>
> Okay, I can see the machines are very useful in pitch raises, 
> and in putting two pianos at exactly the same pitch, when they 
> can't be moved so one can play both keyboards at once, and in 
>"", whatever that really means. Or, if one is losing 
> hearing in the top register, a machine could help out up there, 
> enabling one to work for a few more years. 
>
> For the rest, I don't really see the desirability of using 
> an ETD while carefully checking and correcting for minor 
> problems in its stretches and unisons, versus just setting 
> them oneself unaided. 
>
> And no batteries, software upgrades, whatever. No staring 
> at little lights and spinning wheels (which would drive me 
> batty in short order.) Visual fatigue is an issue with me. 
> I try to turn off fluorescent lights and overly bright 
> lights when I can, because they are very tiring, and I 
> don't like looking at flashing blinking fiddly little things. 
>
>"" ...? 
> By substituting the crutch of a machine? 
>
> To each his own. As I said, I'm not trying to change 
> anyone's way of doing their work, just sharing my own. 
>
> Susan 
Regards,
Don Rose, B.Mus., A.M.U.S., A.MUS., R.P.T.
Non calor sed umor est qui nobis incommodat

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