Dear John: May I take the liberty of making some suggestions as to how you can use each tuning job as a practice session toward your passing the aural part of the PTG exam. Since you mentioned that you use the SAT, it can be a real help to you. On each tuning job, after you have established the type of electronic tuning you are to do, try tuning each note by ear first, then see how close you came, correct it with the machine and then go to the next note. For now, forget about trying to do it better than the machine. The right stretch program will keep you in a very good ballpark. After making a 95% score on your aural test, then you can think about improving (if possible) on the machine. For now, just practice seeing how close you can tune the A4 with a fork as your standard. A lot of people think this is too easy and they don't practice. This one note could cause you to fail. Of course, you must make sure that your tuning fork is exact. If you need to know how to file it write me. I would work on just this one note on several jobs until each time I could set A4 within .3 cents everytime. Only do this one note aurally on each job until you are confident about your accuracy. Next, I would work on setting the A3 and A2 octaves. Keep a little notebook to write down how close you came each time. The SAT usually will give you an A3-4 octave that is 1/3 beat wide at the 4-2 relationship (the 3rd-10th test). If it doesn't, you can increase the A4 stretch number up .3 cents or so till it does. If you change the stretch very much, you will have to reset the SAT lower to make the A4 fundamental be at 440 and with your fork. To check the spread of the A3 to A4 octave. set the SAT in tune mode to oct. 5. run the cents up or down to stop the dots while playing A4. Then play A3 and see if its dots stop at -.6 or -.7 cents. This will make a difference of 1/3 bps in the 3rd-10th test. If you want 1/2 bps difference, there must be a 1 cent difference at the oct 5 or 4-2 relationship. Once the A3 can be set accurately from one job to the next, then check yourself on setting the A2. The SAT tunes the A2-A3 octave as a 6-3 type octave with a little stretch (around .5 to 1.5 cents). The A2 to A4 double octave should be no more than 3 cents wide. If you are generally working on good pianos, you don't have to worry about how these widths work out. They will be in a pretty good ballpark as SAT programs them After you feel confident about your aural tuning of the octaves, you can merely set these notes with the SAT and then go on to practicing setting the contiguous 3rds between them. I would do this exercise on each job until the F's and the C#'s are all within .3 cents of what the SAT calls for. When you can do this consistently from one job to the next, The next project is to accurately locate the B3. If you or others are interested in a new approach to this, let me know. I'll do another installment on this series. When you can finally set the B3 with precision, you just can't make a misteak after that. Well, it's difficult to fail from that point on. Each of these projects above will only take 2 or 3 minutes extra time on each job. Once you have been all through the Temperament area like this doing just a note or two on your own each time, you can on special occasions try doing several notes on your own. Eventually you will be doing the entire temperament by ear. Over 2 or 3 months, you should be quite confident in your temperament area. Just don't start out trying to do it all at once. Jim Coleman, Sr. PS The above instructions are predicated upon using the Baldassin- Sanderson Temperament which is the most bullet proof and self adjusting system. If there is enough interest, I'll continue with how to set the B3 and on to the end.
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