Sanderson Beat-Rater

[Dave Nereson]

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  ----- Original Message -----=20
  From: Craig Glasser=20
  To: pianotech@ptg.org=20
  Sent: Wednesday, May 08, 2002 8:18 AM
  Subject: Sanderson Beat-Rater


  <<Hi folks:
  =20
  <<I'm another newbie who's been lurking and reading.  Everything is =
very enjoyable so far, though I only sort of barely grasp a lot of it.  =
I'll be taking a class in tuning this summer with the Sacramento, CA =
chapter and the instructor, Peter Clark, has suggested that a Sanderson =
Beat-Rater might be helpful.  I looked them up and they are $150.00 both =
at Accu-Tuner.com and in the PianoTek supply catalog.  I'm willing to =
spend the money if it helps me to learn, but I was wondering if any of =
you had other suggestions of things which might be as helpful or had one =
used the you might wish to part with.
  =20
  Thanks:
  Craig Glasser>>

  Craig,=20
      $150 isn't that much, I guess -- depends what your financial =
situation is, but when I was going to piano tuning school, I was broke, =
and even the $32 for a tuning hammer was a lot of money for me. =20
      As for learning to count beats per second, we memorized how long a =
second was by mentally counting off seconds and checking ourselves =
against a watch.  Once we could count seconds pretty accurately, we =
started learning to subdivide one second into 2, 4, 8, 3, 6, 5, 7, etc.  =
If you can count accurate seconds for 3 or 4 seconds, that's good enough =
because you don't usually listen to an interval any longer than that =
when tuning.  There's also the method of setting a metronome to 60 (1 =
bps), 120 (2 bps), etc.  and the method of tying a nut or washer to a =
certain length string so that it swings once or twice a second, and use =
that for your metronome. =20
      There are other methods of learning beat rates by associating them =
with verbal phrases or noises produced by certain things around us, but =
some techs think this isn't scientific or accurate enough.  I say it's =
accurate enough for "roughing in" a temperament, which varies slightly =
from piano to piano anyhow.
      So although the Beat-Rater may be helpful, you can still learn to =
tune without it.  All these ETDs and Accu-forks and cyber scope =
tone-a-lyzer units have come about only in recent years.  Somehow piano =
designers, builders, pianists, composers, and tuners got by without them =
(and many still do) for 250 years or more.  This is not to say they =
shouldn't be used, but sometimes they can become a crutch, as =
calculators are for a younger generation that didn't learn basic =
arithmetic in school. =20
      One inexpensive item (that you can also make yourself) that may =
help a beginning tuner is the Coleman beat locator.  It shows at a =
glance where the coincident partials lie for a given tuning interval. =20
      --David Nereson, RPT, Denver

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