?Scientific American?

[Avery Todd]

Marcel,

    Depends on whether you're going "up" from A or "down from A. :-)

Avery

At 03:58 PM 05/06/00 -0400, you wrote:
>To me A to D is a 5th. It would be interesting to hear a piano tuned with
>5ths beating 10bps.
>
>Marcel Carey, RPT, accordeur Technicien
>Rock Forest  QC
>(819) 564-0447
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Larry J. Messerly <prescottpiano@juno.com>
>To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
>Sent: Saturday, May 06, 2000 2:02 PM
>Subject: ?Scientific American?
>
>
> > Just had a friend give me an article from Scientific American Oct. 1973
> > page 94, on Auditory Beats in the Brain.
> >
> > It concerns itself with binaural beats created in the brain when tones of
> > different frequency are presented separately to each ear.  Interesting
> > article, BUT:
> >
> > "The tuning of pianos is another precess that depends on beats.
> > Typically the piano tuner will first listen for the beats produced by a
> > tuning fork of 440 hertz and the A above middle C, and tighten or loosen
> > the A wire until the beats slow to zero.  He then strikes the A key and
> > the D key below it and tunes the latter wire until 10 beats per second
> > are heard.  That frequency is produced by the interaction of the A
> > string's second harmonic, or second multiple (2x440=880), and the D
> > string's third harmonic (3x290=870).  In this fashion, key by key, the
> > piano is tuned; in theory it could be done even by someone who is
> > tone-deaf."
> >
> > Larry Messerly, RPT
> > Prescott/Phoenix
> >
> > (too much time on my hands, I don't get to tune until noon today.)
> >