[pianotech] 440/442?

[Porritt, David]

Ron:

All I can say is that while you may not have met any people who can tell 440 from 442 yet, they are indeed out there.

dp


David M. Porritt, RPT
dporritt at smu.edu<mailto:dporritt at smu.edu>

From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of RON MAY, RPT
Sent: Friday, May 01, 2009 5:08 PM
To: Pianotech
Subject: [pianotech] 440/442?

 Tom, Dave, whoever else,

I am sorry but I have to play with this 440-442 thing a little more and totally disagree.

1. It is my understanding that at 440hz, or 440 vps, we are talking about a string vibrating 440 times a second. That also means that a pure octave above would be 880 and then 1760, etc, etc  Now you are trying to tell me and other old timers that someone can hear the addition of 1 or even 2 vibrations with a string vibrating 440 times a second and 2 or 4 times out of  880.   ????SURE!!!

2. Now lets look at a violin, cello, string base or even a guitar for that matter.  What you are trying to tell me is that a musician can place his or her finger directly on the same spot on that string probably within a thousand of an inch every time.  Please realize that when that artist moves her finger (quivers it) to produce a vibrato they are actually changing the pitch or vibration of that string, I'm guessing a 1/4 of an inch and the pitch is changing up and down in the case of A440 to between 437 and probably 444.  I purpose to you that when she tunes her violin she isn't listening to beat rates. There is no way that all of the violin, cello or whatever are all ever  at 442, 444 and with some of the supposed great symphonies I been privileged to work for 436. The Oboe player stands up, blows a pitch and everybody thinks they are tuning to it.  They simply blow what they think sounds right.

I couldn't believe it but yesterday afternoon I tuned a piano for an old customer that I had never met.  I've tuned his Baldwin now for 5 years but this was the first time he was home. I never knew it but he had been ( believe it or not) and oboe player for a symphony some years ago.  I found out he played the oboe when he appeared after I had tuned his piano A-440 as usual. He wanted to check his oboes against the piano. The first one he pulled out was  435 (5 beats a second flat) I suspect it may have just been very old.  The second oboe was much newer. It ranged between 438 and 440. This happened just by the way he held his mouth.

Last but not least, My major instrument for many years was the trumpet. As a young man, along with several other bands, I played this trumpet in what was then the Dayton Ohio Symphony which I would guess in no longer around. This was tuned by sliding on of the tubes which I never saw anyone do. I got my vibrato by also shaking my hands over the valves which moved the pitch rapidly up and down. Some better players could produce their vibrato simply by their mouth. This pitch varied minimum 4hz. I have played the piano myself for on over 60 years. That has a very large input on what I want and expect out of my tunings

I'll say it one more time after tuning for some 70 symphonies, most being European----THERE IS NO WAY!!  I've proven it to many times.

If their ears were that great they would be piano tuners.

Ron May


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20090501/61f16dad/attachment.html>