[pianotech] Aurally pure octaves

[William Monroe]

Ed,

Thank you for responding.  I had a suspicion that this is what was
happening.  Your experience pretty much mirrors mine.  Though at this stage
of my career, being able to focus on partials at a multiple locations, or,
particularly locations, is not instantaneous, I certainly do that, as well
as listen "musically".  I think when I first started I listened "musically"
because it was the most obvious for me, then with training, learned to
isolate partials.  I suppose over time I've come to think of musical
listening as undesireable, unfocused.  Perhaps it would serve me well to
revisit that idea.

Do you think in your experience that MOST technicians can isolate partials
at different levels?  It would seem likely to me.  And it also seems likely
that we are all capable of listening "musically," too; we probably all first
hear intervals that way.  For me, I think it's harder to listen
"musically."  My brain is just drawn to the partials.  I'll fiddle around
with it a bit.  Thanks again for taking time to respond.

William R. Monroe


On Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 12:08 AM, Ed Sutton <ed440 at mindspring.com> wrote:

>  William-
>
> Since I can do both, I'll explain:
>
> When I listen "musically" to a Major third, say F3-A3, the beating sounds
> like its a vibrato happening at the pitch level of the thirds; imagine, say,
> a violin playing the third with vibrato.
>
> When I listen "analytically," I let my hearing scan up the overtones until
> I hear the co-incident partials where the beating is occurring. Now I can
> recognize that the beating that I first heard at the fundamental level is
> really happening at the 5/4 level and that there is no beat at the
> fundamental level.
>
> As long as I can remember I have been able to listen to a tone and
> consciously isolate many of the partials of the tone. I thought everyone
> could do this, but in teaching I've learned that not everyone can. I've also
> seen people who could not hear the partials of a tone suddenly become
> able to hear them.
>
> When I talk of different modes of perception, I am referring to these two
> different ways of hearing which I can usually effect at will by just
> imagining how I want to hear.
>
> Ed Sutton
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> *From:* William Monroe <bill at a440piano.net>
> *To:* pianotech at ptg.org
> *Sent:* Thursday, March 12, 2009 10:13 PM
> *Subject:* Re: [pianotech] Aurally pure octaves
>
> SNIP
>>
>>
>> I was drawn to the idea that tuners need not listen to beats at their
>> specific pitch levels, since I am one the tuners who has never heard
>> coincident partials at a their actual pitches.
>>
>> Whole sound tuning is where it's at. It is not secret knowledge. I'll be
>> attempting to demonstrate next week at the Central-West Regional Seminar in
>> Wichita.
>>
>>  Kent
>>
>
> Kent,
>
> Can you explain this more clearly?  I know it's been (re)hashed many times
> and, recently, but, where DO you hear the coincident partials if not at
> their specific pitches?  I'm more than open to learning/experiencing this
> technique, and I've no doubt standing behind you (Virgil, DA, etc.) would be
> far more instructive, and I intend to do that at GR if DA gets it going; but
> for now, are you just listening to "everything presented" at once?  Or is it
> something different, specific to partials, but with a slightly different
> focus?
>
> William R. Monroe
>
>
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