[pianotech] Justify pitch raise

David Boyce David at piano.plus.com
Fri Apr 3 10:43:45 PDT 2009


>Pretty simple really.  Strike middle C or what tuning fork you use, place it on the piano so it resonates, play the same note on the piano so they can hear that it's 1 >key flat or whatever it happens to be lifting the fork up and down a couple of times, makes a bigger impression that way and then explain how it has roughly 20 >tons of tension on the strings up to pitch and that much of our time is spent raising pitch on it. 

Absolutely! That's my method too.  The only time it can let you down is if the person you're talking to is not the piano player and not musical at all, and can't tell the difference! But in that (generally rare) event, there is really no method that will explain it to them so that they truly comprehend. They just have to trust you!

In addition to using my C 523.3 fork I have a C 517.3 fork, and if the customer is really interested in how tuning is done, I gave a little demonstration of beats, by sounding one, then the other, then both together. They can generally hear the 6Hz beat quite clearly.

It's also useful to have an A440 fork, since most people who are to any degree musical may have heard of A440 but may not know the pitch of other notes, and you can see the A440 stamped on the fork, then compare with the note on the piano.

Incidentally, for some reason, the sound of my C517.3 fork decays much more rapidly than the others, and I'm not sure why that should be - it's the same brand.

Best regards,

David.

P.S. Anyone heard of a Seidel piano? Tuned one this afternoon, not a name I've come across before, and not in The Musicians Piano Atlas. 1920s small grand, quite nice quality.
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