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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: =
black"><B>From:</B>
<A href="mailto:cglasser@hotmail.com" =
title=cglasser@hotmail.com>Craig
Glasser</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A =
href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org"
title=pianotech@ptg.org>pianotech@ptg.org</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, May 08, 2002 =
8:18
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Sanderson =
Beat-Rater</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><<Hi folks:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><<I'm another newbie who's been lurking =
and
reading. Everything is very enjoyable so far, though I only sort =
of
barely grasp a lot of it. I'll be taking a class in tuning this
summer with the Sacramento, CA chapter and the instructor, Peter =
Clark,
has suggested that a Sanderson Beat-Rater might be helpful. I =
looked
them up and they are $150.00 both at Accu-Tuner.com and in the =
PianoTek supply
catalog. I'm willing to spend the money if it helps me to learn, =
but I
was wondering if any of you had other suggestions of things which =
might be as
helpful or had one used the you might wish to part with.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Thanks:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Craig Glasser>></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Craig, </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial> $150 isn't that much, I =
guess --
depends what your financial situation is, but when I was going to =
piano tuning
school, I was broke, and even the $32 for a tuning hammer was a lot of =
money
for me. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial> As for learning to count =
beats per
second, we memorized how long a second was by mentally counting off =
seconds
and checking ourselves against a watch. Once we could count =
seconds
pretty accurately, we started learning to subdivide one second into 2, =
4, 8,
3, 6, 5, 7, etc. If you can count accurate seconds for 3 or 4 =
seconds,
that's good enough because you don't usually listen to an interval any =
longer
than that when tuning. There's also the method of setting a =
metronome to
60 (1 bps), 120 (2 bps), etc. and the method of tying a nut or =
washer to
a certain length string so that it swings once or twice a second, and =
use that
for your metronome. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial> There are other methods of =
learning
beat rates by associating them with verbal phrases or noises =
produced by
certain things around us, but some techs think this isn't scientific =
or
accurate enough. I say it's accurate enough for "roughing in" a
temperament, which varies slightly from piano to piano =
anyhow.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial> So although the =
Beat-Rater may
be helpful, you can still learn to tune without it. All these =
ETDs and
Accu-forks and cyber scope tone-a-lyzer units have come about only in =
recent
years. Somehow piano designers, builders, pianists, composers, =
and
tuners got by without them (and many still do) for 250 years or =
more.
This is not to say they shouldn't be used, but sometimes they can =
become a
crutch, as calculators are for a younger generation that didn't learn =
basic
arithmetic in school. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial> One inexpensive item (that =
you can
also make yourself) that may help a beginning tuner is the Coleman =
beat
locator. It shows at a glance where the coincident partials =
lie for
a given tuning interval. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial> --David Nereson, RPT,
Denver</FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>