>>One can be immediately aware of drifting that has taken place when one
>>is using a visual tuning device.
>
>Do you mean to imply this is not easily accomplished while tuning aurally?
>Ken Sloane, Oberlin Conservatory
To me, this is a very interesting question. It may be that
temperature-induced drift could BEST be handled by tuning aurally. It
depends upon one's point of view and what one wishes the end result of
the tuning to be.
Assume one is tuning aurally and the drift happens after the last
time the pitch of the piano is checked with the pitch source. Whole
sections of the piano are likely to move together somewhat uniformly.
If all the notes within a section change the same amount, then one
could check through whole sections of the piano and not notice the
drift, since everything is being checked with notes that have
themselves moved. This is all I meant.
However, the various sections of the piano are not likely to move
uniformly in relation to each other. The bass and mid-range might be
more affected than the high treble, for example. Tuning aurally, one
might check through the bass and mid-range finding everything OK;
then when one comes to the high treble, it could sound wrong and in
need of re-tuning even though it is actually the LEAST affected.
Tuning visually through the bass and mid-range, the drift would have
been immediately apparent because each note would be checked against
the original electonic setting as well as against notes that have
drifted, and one could have decided immediately whether to go with the
new drifted pitch level, or re-establish the original pitch level
either by re-tuning or by trying to undo the temperature change.
Kent Swafford
"There are no rules here, and if you
break them, you will be punished."
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