ET temperament beat ratios

[Jim Coleman, Sr.]

Hi to all:

In regard to the recent emails of RicM and Mr. Hufford, none of the 
published beats rates are exact. It all depends upon the specific 
inharmonicity of the particular piano and the area which is under 
discussion. I would surely not argue about ratios to the 4 decimal 
place. If we were talking about organ tuning, then, yes we could argue
about the decimals, but with pianos, forget it. They vary too much 
from note to note as to their inharmonicity content.

In regard to hearing the color of HTs, I have given several 
classes during the past 10 years, in which I had a piano tuned in a 
very mild HT (Cole-4 or Cole-11) and another piano tuned in ET. I 
would play the Chopin "Raindrop Prelude" in Db on the HT piano 
first, and then play it in ET. Most everyone could tell that
on the ET piano it sounded rather bland. It lost its mysterious 
or macabre quality. On some occasions where I had only one piano 
available, I would tune it in HT and then play the Chopin number 
in Db and then transpose it to C. In this case, there was even 
more difference that could be heard by almost everyone.

Jim Coleman, Sr.