PTG subscribers, <Pianotech.org> 10/24/97 "Mr. Stout, I could care less about the OCTAVES on my piano. Just get the FIFTHS in tune" remarked Mrs. Johnson, pastor's wife in n.w. Kansas some thirty years ago. Trouble is just one thing - she couldn't or didn't tell me HOW!!! In passing, let me assert that undoubtedly she had one of the best senses of hearing I have even yet encount- ered... she could 'name notes' (what I like to call what is often called 'Perfect (ugh!) Pitch'; was started on development of 'naming notes' and 'how to hear' by her Dr. father; was graduated with a Masters in piano per- formance and taught in a small college; and could actually hear the 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th + partials 'come in'. After playing an octave (mid-section of the piano), she showed me how to listen for all the partials sounding. After some 32 years, I can still remember her touching me on the hand when she heard them 'come in'. Finally I could distinguish partials 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 sound but not when they become a whole step apart, i.e., 7, 8, 9, etc. And I have never, to this day doubted that she could discern partials even further distant from the fundamental! All this came with less than 18 months tuning experience, and WITHOUT the much help in tuning except a couple of PTG seminars. Note- Mrs Johnson finally took the tuning hammer and finished the 5/6 single bass strings herself! (Yes, I got paid the going fee, even though she probably had it re-tuned shortly thereafter...) Mrs Johnson was my first and, to this day, the ONLY person, privately or in tuning classes, to DEMONSTRATE how the ear hears partials sound. She pointed out that the snd partial (octave) takes the longest to 'sound' and then #'s 3, 4, 5, 6, etc on higher much faster and not in rhythm on any sort. .... hmmmm - would this be partial subject matter for a tuning class in the future??? (Probably the last few rows couldn't hear the demo, though.) Now for the "Feelin' in Tune" portion. Both HEARING and FEELING partials are in accretion to each other! Since I am tall (6'4"), when first tuning I found hammer technique improved by placing my knees against the underside of the keybed. Thus 20 years later I learned that BONE TRANSMIS- SION of vibration amplifies what we hear in the ear; to-wit, Dr. Berlin's New Orleans class at the 1989 national conven- tion (see email from 10/12/97 for details). Somewhere along the way I further implemented the fact that 'placing the elbow - or the side of the hand holding the tuning hammer AGAINST the piano - also helped hearing the partial series, not that I would wait the three seconds or so required for ALL co-incidental partials to speak. I use, as an aid, the Saunderson Accu-Tuner (and wouldn't be without it!) but tuned sixteen years aurally first. Piano tuning, w/electronics, uses two of our five faculity senses - sight PLUS hearing. Contiguously, even unkowningly we all use the sense of FEEL while tuning - again bone transmission of vibration. That makes three of the five faculity senses we are given. (If tuning employs the other two - tasting and smelling (pun intended!) I will completely retire from tuning. :-) In addition to using ears and eyes to tune, plus the afore-mentioned 'trickniques', there is still yet another even more important 'feel'. particularly of unisons... by placing the thumb of the hand doing the actual playing of the note being tuned AGAINST the keyslip. (If you tune right handed, it would be the LEFT thumb against the key- slip board, all the time striking the key with the MIDDLE left finger. Note - It is also very helpful, after temperament of F3 to F4, to tune up to B4. (I like to unison as I go, correcting any slippage or error before continuing.) After tuning B4, you can then tune down from F3. By actually sounding B4 BEFORE striking E3, it is very easy to both HEAR and WATCH E3 come in phase with the octave-fifth (12th) above. At the risk of needing more 'Hartford fire insurance', (pun intended) for my 'flaming', I make this statement. "It has been a long time (how long? ...probably since the Accu-Tuner) since I have depended on the OCTAVE to tune any bass note. 95% of the time, I never sound a bass octave, the octave 5th is that dependable. As first mentioned, Mrs Johnson never told me HOW to tune the perfect fifths, but she knew she wanted those intervals PURE. Does any of the above comment amplify the present 'thread on PURE 5th Tuning'? Anyway, thanks for listenin'..And may all your fifths be PURE - not liquid!!! ...pun intended Clarence (Clancy) Stout, R.P.T. 35 year member, P.T.G. Nebraska Chapter Holyoke, CO 80734-1757 (970) 854-3328 (calls welcome) Jim - Your comments please! and Thanks in Advance - Clancy
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