ET- Expanded Temperament..kinda long.

Billbrpt@AOL.COM Billbrpt@AOL.COM
Wed, 26 Sep 2001 14:57:31 EDT


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In a message dated 9/26/01 1:30:25 PM Central Daylight Time, 
tito@PhilBondi.com (Phil Bondi) writes:


> I realize this is not re-inventing the wheel, but to the aural tuners out
> there, do you expand your temperament and why.?.?
> 

This is a very well reasoned approach you are using.  The area you are 
speaking of is sometimes thought of as the "killer octave"  (although there 
are as many definitions for that as there are for "perfect pitch").  The fact 
is that the range from C3-C5 is where all of the harmony occurs.  Below that, 
close harmony starts to sound *muddy* and above that, 3rds beat so rapidly as 
to be beyond the range of perception.

This is the area of the piano which requires the utmost in precision.  Even 
an error of 1 cent is audible and does affect the quality of harmony.  The 
tolerance for an error on the PTG Exam in this area is 1 cent.

When attempting to truly equalize a tuning across the whole piano, it is 
important not to favor the Rapidly Beating Intervals (RBI) over the Slowly 
Beating Intervals (SBI) or vice versa.  Your control of contiguous SBI's 
however, gives you RBI's that apparently check out with little or no need for 
correction.

Piano tuning has historically been taught by thinking in terms of 
constructing a so-called "Temperament Octave" (usually C3-C4 or F3-F4 but 
sometimes other notes such as A3-A4) then simply to tune what were thought of 
as "pure" octaves.  Somewhere along the line, the notion of *stretching* the 
upper octaves began to be taught but with no clear consensus of how or how 
much would be appropriate.

It was again, the greatest of all tuning researchers, Professor Owen 
Jorgensen RPT who noted that PTG had brought new insights to the tuning of 
the modern piano.  He described it as expanding the temperament across the 
entire piano.  Rick Baldassin RPT, Jim Coleman Sr. RPT and Dr. Al Sanderson 
RPT all have written about the concept of "expanded temperament".  Their 
concept is the full C3-C4 range I spoke of.

A really well tuned piano requires a great deal of precision.  The old 
fashioned ways of setting a temperament with 4ths & 5ths, then simply tuning 
out the octaves will produce mediocre if not very poor results by today's 
standards.

Be content and have faith that your insight and techniques as described in 
your post are the kind that help acheive the kind of superior results called 
for by today's high standards.

Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin

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