Heee, heee, Boy I hope you guys are zipped up. David, "don't shoot the messenger"? Your not the messenger, you're the originator of the opinion and as such, should be shot if that's what is called for. ;-] Note the smiley face, please. Intended to be a funny quip, not suggesting you be shot. I have no trouble discerning between 440 and 441. I'm sure most don't. I'm guessing you're suggesting more along the lines of 440 and 440.1hz which is difficult to hear when comparing but not impossible. When listening to one string at a time, another story. Guys, get this: Tuning is listening. Period. If you can't listen, you have no way of knowing whether your results are acceptable or not. Those who lack the ability or skills to hear well enough to tune, shouldn't, unless they are actively developing those skills. Saying someone who can't hear to tune shouldn't be [deterred] from being a tuner is like saying someone who is blind shouldn't be deterred from racing cars. You need to see to drive a race car, you need to hear to tune pianos. Listening is the foremost skill necessary to be a tuner. Now, if you want to be a rebuilder and can't hear to tune, there's nothing that says you cant be the best rebuilder in the world. Different skill set. Your ideas on art are somewhat different than mine, BTW. I've never thought of art as perfect. Rather, it is either pleasing to me or not. What pleases me tends to be very different than what pleases others to greater or lesser degrees. Similarly, no tuning is perfect. We all consciously make choices as to where we want our pianos. You stretch more, I stretch less. Not perfect. Different. And artistic. ;-] William R. Monroe On Sat, Apr 4, 2009 at 8:28 AM, Dave Foster <pepsi29 at sbcglobal.net> wrote: > It is completely impossible to hear aurally the difference between 440 > and 441. Or better yet, 880 and 882. And that’s what the EDT will check > for in the test. The test isn’t designed to measure “the best tuned > piano”. It’s designed to measure certain criteria that’s the human hear > can’t hear without assistance. > > I tune with EDT most of the time, not because it’s a better tuned piano, > but because after tuning 5 or 6 pianos per day, my brain starts to hurt. It > takes a lot of mental endurance to tune ALL DAY, and using a EDT takes the > thinking about the tuning away. I know the customers I have, and which > ones want a better tuning, and I’ll take the time aurally to check my work, > whether it’s aligned with the EDT or not. But I also know my customers > that don’t necessarily care about the tuning. As long as their Pearl > River is sitting out in the front window with the sun beating down on it, > and everyone in the neighborhood can see it, and little 8-year-old Suzie can > do her scales. It is not worth my mental stability, or a headache, to > give this customer a perfect 99% accurate aural concert tuning when in 7 > days it will be flat or sharp again because of the furnace vent blowing up > on the soundboard. There are certain customers that just don’t seem to > care, no matter how much I try to persuade them to treat their beautiful > instrument (and I use that term loosely in the PR case) with TLC. And in > this case, and EDT tuning will suffice. > > Don’t get me wrong, I tune aurally regularly, when needed. But I disagree > that a technician NEEDS to know how to tune aurally to be considered a Piano > Technician. So people just aren’t born with the natural ability to hear > certain things. That shouldn’t detour them from being a well-respected > great Piano Technician. I know a few Techs in the area that don’t tune > well because they can’t hear sharply beats and harmonics, but they have the > intellect and respect of the technical end of being a technician, and they > are considered one of the best rebuilders in the area. > > I use the example from Matt, when he checked the older gentleman’s tuning > and it was “all over the place”. I also knew a guy, in this 80’s, great > technician, funny, experienced. He tuned aurally for 60 years and > considered his tunings “right on and perfect”, when truth be told.. they > weren’t. But his stubborn nature won’t change his mind, because he had > refused to believe his aural tuning had faded. And anyone not willing to > listen to the EDT-pro crowd is also stubborn, and some day will refuse to > believe their aural tuning will fade. > > The art of aurally tuning is not an art at all. A tuning is either > perfect, or less than perfect. How is that art? Art is considered > perfect in the eye of the beholder. A piano tuning has to be perfect for > everyone to enjoy it, as pianos were meant to be heard. > > > > That’s my opinion… don’t shoot the messenger. > > > > Dave Foster > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20090404/c3323630/attachment.html>
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC