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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
Tuning a Piano.1
P
LUNK — plunk — kerchug — twang —
twang—bang!"
You have heard these sounds before,
though they look a little unfamiliar when
reproduced on paper. They represent the
performance of a piano-tuner from an out-
side and tympanic standpoint. They are
the tangible and disagreeable part of the
necessary business of putting in tune an
instrument which, alas! too many people
spend a deplorably large portion of their
lives in putting out of tune.
This business of tuning pianos, which
certainly looks rather mysterious as you
watch the manner in which the operator
pries up first one string and then another,
sounding meanwhile a confused jargon of
notes, until the puzzled listener does not
know an octave from a fifth, is not, how-
ever, as difficult and as mysterious as at
first it appears.
All that is required is an exact ear, and a
few simple tools, viz. : a tuning-fork
(usually a Cfork), a long, hammer-like key,
and a wedge, or mute. The accuracy of
the tuner's ear is partly a natural gift, part-
ly the result of long practice.
Even the most unpractised ear can readly
distinguish sound from noise.
Sound is
produced by regular vibrations, while noise
is a mixture of sounds thrown together
without reference to any law. High notes
have a large number of vibrations per sec-
ond, while low notes have a small number.
The highest A is calculated to have 3,480
vibrations per second, while the lowest A
has only twenty-sevenjmd*a half.
The majority of tuners have adopted a
method of tuning which includes but two
intervals -the octave and the fifth. The
ordinary square piano has two strings, and
most uprights have three strings to each
note, except in the lower octave.
The
pitch of one of^these strings is tuned in the
relation of octave or fifth to some previous
note.
The remaining strings are then
tuned in unison with the first string. As
the strings approach unison, a number of
strong and rapid beats or pulsations are
perceptible to the ear; as they come still
closer, the beats become slower, till finally
they are no longer to be heard. The unison
is perfect.
The ear in tuning is guided by progres-
sion from a confused sound to strong beats,
and then from smooth waves to one con-
tinuous sound. Unisons and octaves are
always tuned perfect; that is, the beats
must entirely disappear.
In the fifths,
when perfectly tuned, there will be neither
wave nor beat.
It takes generally about three years to
learn the business, and a good workman
will make from $18 to $35 a week. A few-
women have been employed as tuners with
rgeat success. — Musical Record.
"TV Highest Type."
* * * *
H. G.
(Successors to STARK & STRACK.)
PIANOS
MANUFACTURED BY
Bos. 171 and 173 South Coal Street,
FARNHAM and
wife, and
Mr.
L.
Blasius, of Blasius & Sons, Philadelphia,
have engaged passage on the new American
Line steamer St. Louis, now being com-
pleted at Cramp's shipyard, which will
make her initial trip early in May, from
New York to Southampton.
ADOI.PH MEVKR made a very interesting
and instructive address at the tenth annual
meeting of the shareholders of the Mutual
Loan and Building Association, of which
he is the president, held recently at Omaha.
THE death is announced of Harry Cole-
man, the well-known publisher and musical
instrument dealer, of Philadelphia.
Mr.
Coleman's death occurred at his home,
Philadelphia, Thursday of last week, and
was due to heart failure. He was in his
fifty-second year.
S. E. CLARK & Co., music trade dealers,
Detroit, Mich., have moved to their new
store, 187 Woodward avenue.
A VKRV handsome "Phonorium," style o,
No. 86, is on exhibition at the Estey & Saxe
warerooms, 5 E. Fourteenth street. It is in
tone effects a pipe organ, and is provided
with other accessories in the way of pedals
and stops, which render it as effective as
the smaller makes of these instruments.
CHICAGO*
THE
Sterling Company,
AI.HKRT WEUER left the early part of the
week for an extended business trip in the
interest of the Weber Piano Co. He will
journey as far as California, from thence to
the South, and home.
GEO. W. SF.AVKRNS, the well-known action
maker, Cambridgeport, Mass., who has suf-
fered for some time from a cataract on his
eye, had a successful operation performed
recently. He will be able to attend to busi-
ness again in a short time.
W. H. HOWARD will retire from the firm
of Howard, Farwell & Co., St. Paul, Minn.,
on the first of next month.
HARVEY
MANUFACTURERS OF
Pianos and Organs,
FACTORY:
DERBY, CONN.
Tt is admitted by all that no piano ever put upon the
market has met with such success as THE STERLING,
and thou ands will testify to their superiority of work-
manship and durability. Why ? Because they are made
just as perfect as a piano can be made.
THE STERLING ORGAN has always taken the lead, and
the improvements made this year puts it far ahead of
all others. J2^~Send for Catalogue.
Hallet £ Davis Pianos
WENDELL, of
the
Marshall
&
Wendell Piano Co., Albany, N. Y., is back
from his trip to Ohio. While Mr. Wendell
found trade not unusually brisk, yet he
managed to pick up quite a few substantial
orders.
JACK HAYNES' warerooms look "spic and
span" since the new flooring was laid down.
They now present a very attractive appear-
ance. Mr. Haynes finds trade picking up,
and is optimistic about the business outlook.
The Indicator w T ill occupy offices
May 1st in Steinway Hall, Chicago.
after
AN addition to the D. H. Baldwin Co.'s
factory at Cincinnati, is being built.
GRAND, SQUARE AND UPRIGHT.
Indorsed by Liszt, Gottschalk, Wehli. Bendrl, Straus, Soro, Abt,
Paulus, Titiens, lleilbron and Germany's Greatest Masters.
Established over Half a Century.
BOSTON, MASS.