[CAUT] using as ETD

[Jeff Tanner]

I've tuned the last two weeks with this discussion in mind. I promise I'll 
leave it alone, but I had to share this experience I had yesterday.

Susan Kline wrote:
(from the context copied below)
"I just don't see how it adds up to a great new understanding of and contact 
with a piano, compared to tuning it aurally."

Just yesterday I had one experience that makes a good case. When I took out 
my SAT and turned it on, and played the A4 just to get an idea of where the 
pitch of the Kawai KG-40 grand I tune 3 times a year was, the lights sat 
perfectly still. I thought, "great", this will go quickly. So, I punch in 
the FAC numbers only to realize that the lights are spinning very quickly on 
the flat side. Hmmmm.  After a little investigation, I learn that the 4th 
partial of A4 is not consistent with its neighbors, and if I tune the 4th 
partial in line with the G# and A# per the FAC calculation, then the 
fundamental of A4 will be 1.5 cents sharp, while the G# and A# are dead on.

So, a question begs. If I set the fundamental of A4 aurally with the fork or 
other device, how will an aural tuning affect the rest of the scale? Will 
the rest of the piano tune 1.5 cents flat, with only the A being dead on 
440? Hard to know because of the difference in the partials used for tuning.

Is it significant? Maybe and maybe not. It wouldn't be significant for this 
piano owner. The point is, the ETD revealed something to me about this piano 
that I would not have known tuning aurally. Where would it matter? Tuning 
for recording or tuning two pianos together 1.5 cents apart could be 
audible. It also could possibly affect a tuning exam score if scaling of A4 
is out of sequence with the rest of the piano by 1.5 cents.

But I now am more in touch with physical realities of this piano than I 
would have been without the ETD.

Jeff

> David, you might keep in mind the post I was replying to. Jeff had said 
> that when he started using the ETD he felt it put him much more closely in 
> touch with a piano. He said the diagnostic abilities of an ETD revealed 
> far more about a piano than we can do unaided.
>
> So, I was wondering what great revelations an ETD could produce which our 
> ears could not. (I really was ... is there some capacity of an ETD I'm 
> unaware of?) My idea of an ETD is that it says, "this note is high --  
> well, now you have it too low -- ah, that's just right. And by the way, 
> that unison you tuned five minutes ago -- one of the strings is exactly 
> 1.3 cents flat now." Not that this isn't all good information, I just 
> didn't see how it adds up to a great new understanding of and contact with 
> a piano, compared to tuning it aurally. In aural tuning one gets the full 
> tonal envelope and has the capacity to listen to different intervals and 
> therefore the voicing and tonal blend as the overtones from two or more 
> real physical strings mix with each other.