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his educational propaganda to them, and to
them only. He must cooperate with the
teachers of piano, find out what families are
paying for lessons for their children, hunt
up amateur players, make friends with the
officers and members of the feminine music
clubs. • All this means working on a higher
level than has hitherto been necessary. It
means, too, divesting himself of that trouble-
some ''workman" complex, which so often
causes the tuner to class himself with the
plumber or the house-painter, and to de-
mean himself towards his patrons as if he
rather expected to be treated with conde-
scending contempt. Henceforth, the tuner, if
he is to live at all, must classify himself as
belonging with the musical world, as an
essential element of it and as a prime neces-
sity to it. If he will not or cannot do this,
ie will find himself doomed. For, mark my
words: if the independent tuners do not
come to their senses and adapt themselves
to the new situation in which they find
themselves, they will wake some day soon
to discover every music school in the land
offering instruction in tuning to students of
piano; not at all with the idea of furnishing
professional competition, but solely in order
that the pianist of tomorrow may be able to
tune and look after his own piano, just as
the violinist or the 'cellist looks after his own
fiddle.
FAST BEATS IN FIFTHS
One of my New England correspondents
opens a very interesting question, discussed
here more than once. He says:
"From your teachings I have a fair under-
standing of how the partials are generated,
and other elementary acoustics of the equal
temperament. But'. I hear on the tempered
Sth from about D-A below middle C down
to about an octave below a fast beat. Try-
ing from there down on my own piano the
same intervals as enlarged by an octave into
12ths, I hear this same fast beat still further
down to D-I. This beat I hear is not the
regular beat of the tempered 5th, which is
very slow; but one very much faster, like
a slow tremolo. On D3-A4, as near as I
can guess, it is about 4 beats per second when
the tempered 5th is correctly tunned-
"To me this beat sounds two octaves
higher than the upper note of the tempered
Sth. This fast 5th beat seems to get slower,
the lower dow y n towards the bass the Sth
is sounded, similar to the progression of any
tempered beat on intervals. It seems to be
influenced by the raising or lowering of the
string, the same as other interval beats.
"If the 5th is tuned smooth as regards this
fast beat then the octave is out of tune.
While this fast 5th beat is more noticeable
on some pianos than on others, it can be
located on all pianos with careful listening."
On my piano, which is, I think, a high ten-
sion scale with unvoiced hammers, it is
specially noticeable. Many other tuners have
heard it and others too who are not tuners;
otherwise I might think it functional with
me. Some tuners are bothered with this
fast 5th beat when trying to hear the slow
regular beat. When the piano is well tuned
in E.T. the beat often sounds like a rather
pleasing tremolo.
"Can you explain what this beat is and
its cause?"
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW,
O c t o b e r , 1932
Answer: The bass strings of the piano
always emit tones more or less distorted by
the physical properties of the copper or steel
wrapping over the core wires. The partials
hardly ever, if at all, come out on these
strings at the proper points, and nearly al-
ways there is a beating between some high
partial on one string and its corresponding
partial on another. And you know, beats
arise between partials supposedly coincident
but actually slightly variant. Now I find
that the best test of tuning all the strings,
outside the middle temperament octave, is
by the use of intervals like the minor third
and its complementary major sixth, or like
the major third with the tenth built from it
and the octave. Thus, in tuning below the
temperament region, I always test the minor
third above the tone being tuned, with its
complemenary major sixth. Thus, in tuning
from E 44 down to E 32 I test the minor
third E 32-G 36 with the major sixth G 36-
E 44. The number of the beats should be
the same in both. This test can be carried
on down to at least C 16 and often lower.
When it can no longer be heard clearly, the
tuner may then test by thirds and tenths.
Thus in tuning the octave C 28 down to
C 16, he should test the third C 28-E 32
with the tenth C 16-E 32. The beats should
agree in rate. It is well to remember that
in using this test it is necessary to compare
the beat rates of the tenths, semitone by semi-
tone down the scale as to see that thev run
along with steadily decreasing rapidity.
For instance, the tenth C 28-E 44 beats at
half the speed of the third C 40-E 44, namely,
at 5 beats per second. The tenth an octave
lower, from C 16 to E 32, beats at half
this speed or at 2.5 per second. And so on.
These tenth tests are very easy to hear
and quite reliable. So are the others I men-
tioned above.
The figures of beat rates given in my
Modern Piano Tuning will serve to guide
the tuner who wishes to find reliable tests
for octave tuning. They are the best I know
and if they are followed correctly no other
test of the tuning of bass octaves need be
undertaken.
They can also be used with assurance
above the temperament octave, at least as
far as C 52. The tenths test can be used
an octave higher. Along with these two and
from C 64 onwards, exclusively, the best test
is by double octaves.
It is not good practice to attempt to tune
correctly by the slow beats of the 5th proper.
These are heard only with some difficulty
even in the most favorable octave of all,
namely, from F 33 to F 45, within which the
temperament is adjusted. They are both
unreliable and inconvenient, owing to their
comparative slowness, in any other part of
the compass of musical sounds. I recommend
to all tuners the cultivation of the tests I
have described here. The whole subject is
treated fully in my "Modern Piano Tuning."
A PREPARATION THAT REALLY
MOTHPROOFS PIANOS
FINDS GREATER INTEREST
IN PLAYER PIANO ROLLS
The ravages of moths in pianos as well
as in clothing, rugs, furniture, coverings,
etc., is one of the most annoying incidents
of every piano owner's daily life-
Every piano owner, dealer, maker, tuner
or repair man ought to welcome Piano-Moth-
Ex, made by the Schall Laboratories, La-
Crosse, Wis. Its record of more than ten
years' satisfactory service is back of W. A.
Schall's ten-year guarantee that it perma-
nently and completely mothproofs the piano
in which it is once properly applied. It is
easily and quickly applied, kills all moth life,
and protects hammer felts, rail cloths, punch-
ings and all the fabric parts of the action.
The tuner or repair man can, without re-
moving the felt, stop any further ravages
of moths, and better still, prevent their first
inroads without the slightest injury to the
piano or any messy results.
And Piano-Moth-Ex is reasonable in price,
permitting the tuner to apply it at so lmv
a cost that he can practically assure himself
of every owner of a piano as a customer.
The Schall Laboratories have many tuner
customers now and a letter to them at
LaCrosse, Wis., will get quick response.
Roy A. Rose, Western manager of the Im-
perial Industrial Corp., 4827 South Kedzie
avenue, Chicago, made a short business trip
late in September and returned greatly
pleased with the changed attitude of many
dealers toward the player piano and player
rolls. The Imperial Co., whose New York
office and roll cutting plant is at East 135th
St. and Walnut Ave., where President Max
Kortlander makes his headquarters, is the
successor to the QRS Roll Co., having pur-
chased all its machinery, master sheets, copy-
rights, catalog, etc., several years ago.
A full line of the records of QRS and
Imperial rolls is carried at the Chicago head-
quarters as well as in New York, and Man-
ager Rose emphasized the fact that practi-
cally every order is filled and shipped the
day it is received. The trade has long been
familiar with QRS rolls and as its catalog
numbers some 15,000 titles in various groups.
They should be known to every dealer, for
the profit and prestige to the dealer in being
able to supply any roll music wanted, at
once, is an important factor.
D. L. Fisher has been appointed manager
of the branch store of the Knight Campbell
Music Co., in Casper, Wyo. An interesting
feature of the appointment is that Mr. Fisher's
mother, Mrs. C. B. Reed, opened the first
Knight Campbell store in Casper, later going
to Cheyenne.
The Hockett Music Store, Bellefontaine,
O., has recently suffered a loss of $5,000 to
stock and building as the result of a fire.
WILLIS & CO. INTRODUCE
NEW LINE OF PIANOS
Willis & Co., Ltd., Montreal, Canada, has
been carrying on an extensive advertising
campaign in Canadian papers announcing
the introduction of the new Willis exhibition
models of pianos and it is reported that sales
resulting from the advertising have proven
very satisfactory. In addition to instruments
of their own make, Willis & Company have
for many years represented the Mason &
Hamlin, Knabe, and Chickering pianos.