Teaching.

[Conrad Hoffsommer]

Wim,

At 09:54 01/09/2001 -0500, you wrote:
>  Often times when I was teaching my wife to
>tune, she kept hearing what she referred too as "beats behind the beats." I
>though she was talking about false beats, but she knew what they were. She
>was hearing beat patterns created by other partials. Beats that I was
>ignoring, but she was hearing. And is some case, hearing louder than the
>beats she was supposed to hear.


On a piano with a rich envelope of partials, this is confusing for my 
students, too.

What I do to train them to listen for the right beat incorporates some of 
that basic music theory.

I drill the overtone series into their heads so that they can build one 
starting on _any_ note. {easy for us french horn players, eh, Wim?}  Then, 
I have them build series off the two notes of the interval and ask them 
where the lowest place they coincide is located.

Once they find that note I have them play it.  Then, I have them play the 
interval.  With the pitch memory of the lowest coincident harmonic fresh in 
their minds, they quickly recognise the correct beats.

Basically, it is the difference between hearing and listening.

I would draw a simile to canoeing some white water.  It's easy enough to 
see all of the waves, but you'd better know the difference between upstream 
and downstream "vees", or it won't matter what kind of paddle you have.

Speaking of...  A little bit of wave theory fits in, too.  If you look at 
that moving water, you may see waves that don't appear to move, even though 
you know that the water is.  Getting an appreciation of "standing waves" 
can tell you why you may have to move your head a little to hear some beats.



Conrad Hoffsommer - Music Technician -mailto:hoffsoco@luther.edu
Luther College, 700 College Drive, Decorah, Iowa 52101-1045
Voice-(319)-387-1204  //  Fax (319)-387-1076(Dept.office)

Education is the best defense against the media.