[ExamPrep] Temperament (John Formsma)

[John Formsma]

First, how did something on ExamPrep list get transferred over to
here?  I thought I was writing primarily to that list.  Oh well.  :-)

I think it's better to start building your finished product by
starting with the best foundation.  If you want evenly ascending M3s
and M6s, then you begin with an octave that is exactly divided into
three or four contiguous M3s.  Then you fill in the blanks from there
using P4s and P5s, along with all the other intervals that work for
you.

For me, settting the contiguous M3s within F3-A4 works.  After that is
done, I like tuning with P4s and P5s because the beats are slower.  I
mean, you have 1 bps and 1/2 bps, so it's easy to clue into that. :-)
I always listen to how the M3s and M6s progress after tuning with P4s
and P5s.  And sometimes I use m3s if things aren't lining up and I
need more clues as to why.

There are compromises that have to be made.  (As Ed Foote said.)  I
don't like to hear P5s wanging around, so I will fix that and let the
M3 suffer.    However, if the beating is from the 6:4 partials,
there's only so much you can do.

Quoting Ed Foote again, " I believe the perfect progression of thirds
is something that we tuners pay far more attention to than the
majority of pianists."

Exactly!  It's good to be able to do a perfect ET.  It shows a level
of skill in that you are in control of how the piano sounds.  I
personally like HTs, but also tune ET a lot as well.

JF

On 9/5/07, holly quigley <hollyquigley at gmail.com> wrote:
> I've always been a little mystified by the debate of M3s *vs.* 4ths and
> 5ths. I thought the point of tuning a temperament via 4ths and 5ths was to
> make it easier to get to the contiguous M3s as a finished product - ? That's
> how I was taught, anyway, and I have recently transitioned from an F3 to F4
> temperament to F3-A4 starting on A4 instead of C4. Not much changed in my
> process, I still make 4ths and 5ths my basis with the goal being contiguous
> M3s. I regularly check my intervals (and octaves) with several different
> tests, and my tunings take me anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a
> half, depending on the piano and circumstance. But then again, I still
> haven't bucked up to take my RPT exam, so what I'm doing might suck ;)
>
> Cheers,
> Holly Quigley
> associate member
>
>