<HTML>List, I got this testimonial this morning from a scientist who had discovered my webpage.  As it says in my website, I've been tuning my octaves this way for about 20 years.  I clearly remember Jim Coleman rushing up to me after the recital at the Convention in 1993 saying, "You've done something with the octaves.  I don't know what it is but I like it!".  From what Richard Brekne has written recently, I believe he is on to the same idea. Not everyone gets it though.  None of the ETD stretch programs can tune the octaves this way.  There is one individual out there who can't bear to see his name associated with his own words.  According to him, this way of tuning octaves "doesn't make sense at all".  He is actively trying to disallow me from quoting him by force.  I think it would be a lot easier if he just admitted that he might not know eberything there is to know. Here is what one visitor to my website had to say this morning: Your web site was an eye-opener or better an ear-opener! I am a scientist, a physicist, play piano for fun, not too good. However, I started to teach myself to tune the piano since I was 18 (that is almost 30 years ago!). I did it always by ear but I only tuned my grandmother's upright and our Bluethner grand (which is in Germany). When I came to the US, I bought an electronic tuner, thought it would speed things up, since I almost every time had to 're-learn' how to tune and sharpen my ears' perception. Until then, by the way, I checked my tuning always by scaling up the large 3rds and 6ths. I found this out by myself, probably because my tuning wasn't that great and I need some other means of testing how well I did. It can easily happen to mistakenly made the 5th larger instead of smaller, as an example. Then I noticed that pure octaves aren't satisfying at all. Especially in the lower keys, I liked to spread the octaves, since there were other harmonics that were prominent in their beats, and the ear didn't mind a slow rolling octave. And therefore I dispised my electronic tuner. Then I became fascinated by the idea to use the 5th as a pure interval instead of the octave. I just fumbled a bit with this last week. However, the octaves take a beating, so I thought of maybe a compromise, then I stumbled upon your web site -> the 'ear-opener'!! I thank you so much to put this on the web, I will try your technique! Did you ever think of possible (psychological or whatever) effects of a pure 5th (Pythagorean) tuning on the listener? It might require the 'right' music that avoids octaves, so you don't hear their beat too much. How about the RIGHT pitch, is A 440 what it should be, is there a better 'fundamental tone' - the right frequency and can it be 'felt'? I am thinking about the human chakra system, there might be more behind this. I am not sure if you are into this - but since you figured all this great stuff out I wondered if there was more... With best regards, Stephan Fuelling, Ph.D. Bill Bremmer RPT Inventor of octaves which "don't make sense at all" </HTML>