Music Trade Review
Issue: 1926 Vol. 82 N. 21 - Page 39
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
39
The Music Trade Review
MAY 22, 1926
The Technical and Supply Department—(Continued from page 38)
have the name always, if merely as a guar-
antee of good faith.
I have published this letter mainly because it
enables me to make some observations that re-
quire to be made, and because, too, it brings up
the old fifths and octaves tuning, which once
was universal and which some tuners have been
taught, even in these days, to practice.
In the first place it is really quite a mistake
to suppose that the Hale or any other thirds
and sixths system is per se more difficult to
the beginner. If the beginner, in fact, starts
under proper teaching auspices, he can learn the
beats of the thirds and sixths quite as quickly
and as easily as he can those of the slower
fourths and fifths. In fact, I think he can learn
the fast beats more easily, because they are
more obvious once they have been pointed out.
The important point in the discussion is the
position of the beginner. My correspondent
seems to imply that novice tuners necessarily
must obtain all their experience upon the pianos
of their customers, and for that reason, it
should seem, he feels that anything which will
enable them to gain rough approximations to
accuracy is to be welcome. Therefore, as I
take it, he thinks the student, in case he can
do no better, may start with the certainly in-
accurate and crude fifths and octaves system.
Now I dissent from this view, because I think
the whole point is as to how the student should
get his first knowledge. If he will only learn
a little something about the scientific facts first,
he will save himself an immense amount of
trouble, and besides will find that it is sheer
waste of time to mess around with inaccurate
and crude methods which sooner or later must
be unlearned. The fault is in the student's
desire to be earning before he has done learn-
ing; wherein, no doubt, he differs not at all
from those other thousands who want to be
president of the bank before they have mas-
tered the use of the adding machine at the
bookkeeper's desk. But tuning is not to be
learned by hit-or-miss methods. Unhappily, as
I know, there have been professional teachers
who preferred to send out their students
equipped only with terribly crude and incorrect
knowledge. Such teachers have excused them-
selves by arguing that the student who has paid
to be taught must have results as quickly a«
possible, to the end that he may not have to
wait, after investing in tuition, too long before
he .begins to get back his investment. The
excuse is plausible, but none the less it is
wholly unjustifiable. He who cannot take the
needed time to learn properly has no right to
call himself a tuner at all.
There is another side to it. When it comes
straight to a question of methods, I think that
Mr. Hale's method of tuning is just as easy
for the student as is any other. It is a method,
just as the fifths and octaves of the fourths and
fifths system. The aim is precisely the same in
each case. It is a question of chopping up the
octave into twelve equal parts; and the only
difference of opinion or practice that can legiti-
mately exist is concerned with the individual
practice of the individual practitioner. The
thing might be done equally well by any of the
methods mentioned, for all are roads leading to
the same town. The important question is:
"Which one is more likely to form good habits
in the learner and enable him to obtain the
most accurate results?" I think myself that the
answer is between Mr. Hale's method and mine,
as the letter has been fully set forth in my
FAUST SCHOOL
OF TUNING
Standard of America
Alumni of 2000
Piano TuMnf, Pipe and Reed Organ
aad Ptay«r Pi.no Tear Book Free.
27-29 Gainsboro Street
BOSTON, MASS.
book on this subject, "Modern Piano Tuning."
In this book I have carefully calculated all
the beat rates of which our Missouri corre-
spondent speaks. Everything is set forth step,
by step, nor can I see how a student who will
take the trouble to study the thing*»through
from first page to last can possibly misunder-
stand or go wrong, save by accident.
Let it be said once more, and as definitely
as possible, that the equal temperament is just
what its name implies, namely an equal division
of the octave in two twelve equal parts. It is
artificial, nor would it exist if the requirements
of musical harmony could otherwise be met
through the medium of a keyboard possessing
only twelve keys within each octave.
Correspondence
is solicited and should be addressed to William
Braid White, 5149 Agatite avenue, Chicago.
New Piano Patents
WASHINGTON, D. C, May 17.—Patent No. 1,581,-
955 was last week granted to John H. Karstet-
ter, Altoona, Pa., for a pneumatic music sheet
control for player-pianos. This invention re-
lates to automatic controls for the music sheets
of player-pianos.
The invention has as its general object to
provide a pneumatic device which will operate
to automatically maintain the music sheet of a
player-piano properly co-ordinated with the
tracker bar during the playing of a selection
and thereby obviate the discords which are pro-
duced when the sheet travels unevenly or shifts
across the tracker bar in its travel.
One of the primary objects of the invention
is to provide means which will operate auto-
matically to co-ordinate the traveling sheet with
the tracker bar and to maintain the same so
co-ordinated during the entire time of the travel
of the sheet over the tracker bar, the means be-
ing so constructed and operating in such a man-
ner as to obviate shifting of the sheet across
the bar an undue distance.
Another object of the invention is to provide
in apparatus of this class a novel pneumatic
control which will operate with precision and
in a most efficient manner.
The American Piano Co., New York, is the
owner, through assignment by Charles F. Stod-
dad, same place, of Patent No. 1,583,197 for
an expression mechanism for player-pianos.
This invention relates to automatic musical in-
struments and pertains more particularly to ex-
pression mechanisms for the same.
It is an object of this invention to provide a
unitary expression mechanism which may be as-
sembled as a unit for installation in a piano.
Jonathan O. Fowler, New York, has been
granted Patent No. 1,584,282 for a music-roll
feed mechanism. In this invention the inventor
employs preferably music-roll magazines or car-
riers adapted to carry a series of music-rolls
whereby, without changing the latter by hand,
the instrument may be enabled to play the se-
lections of each roll separately at will, or to
play the entire number of selections on all the
rolls seriatim as a continuous performance.
There is also provided a new self-playing in-
strument arranged so as to permit the use of
interchangeable music-rolls whereby any one of
the tune sheets may be brought into operative
position, simultaneously with the advance move-
ment of the winding or take-up roll in order to
draw the tune sheet over a tracker-board and to
cause the operation of the music instrumental-
ities and then to afterward automatically re-
wind the tune sheet upon its roll after the tune
has been played. Means are meanwhile pro-
vided for advancing the roll carrier a step.
Consult the Universal Want Directory of
The Review. In it advertisements are inserted
free of charge to men who desire positions.
TUNERS
AND
REPAIRERS
Our new catalogue of piano and
Player Hardware, Felts and
Tools is now ready. If you
haven't received your copy
please let us know.
Hammacher, Schlemmer & Co.
New York, Since 1848
4th Ave. and 13th St.
39
The Music Trade Review
MAY 22, 1926
The Technical and Supply Department—(Continued from page 38)
have the name always, if merely as a guar-
antee of good faith.
I have published this letter mainly because it
enables me to make some observations that re-
quire to be made, and because, too, it brings up
the old fifths and octaves tuning, which once
was universal and which some tuners have been
taught, even in these days, to practice.
In the first place it is really quite a mistake
to suppose that the Hale or any other thirds
and sixths system is per se more difficult to
the beginner. If the beginner, in fact, starts
under proper teaching auspices, he can learn the
beats of the thirds and sixths quite as quickly
and as easily as he can those of the slower
fourths and fifths. In fact, I think he can learn
the fast beats more easily, because they are
more obvious once they have been pointed out.
The important point in the discussion is the
position of the beginner. My correspondent
seems to imply that novice tuners necessarily
must obtain all their experience upon the pianos
of their customers, and for that reason, it
should seem, he feels that anything which will
enable them to gain rough approximations to
accuracy is to be welcome. Therefore, as I
take it, he thinks the student, in case he can
do no better, may start with the certainly in-
accurate and crude fifths and octaves system.
Now I dissent from this view, because I think
the whole point is as to how the student should
get his first knowledge. If he will only learn
a little something about the scientific facts first,
he will save himself an immense amount of
trouble, and besides will find that it is sheer
waste of time to mess around with inaccurate
and crude methods which sooner or later must
be unlearned. The fault is in the student's
desire to be earning before he has done learn-
ing; wherein, no doubt, he differs not at all
from those other thousands who want to be
president of the bank before they have mas-
tered the use of the adding machine at the
bookkeeper's desk. But tuning is not to be
learned by hit-or-miss methods. Unhappily, as
I know, there have been professional teachers
who preferred to send out their students
equipped only with terribly crude and incorrect
knowledge. Such teachers have excused them-
selves by arguing that the student who has paid
to be taught must have results as quickly a«
possible, to the end that he may not have to
wait, after investing in tuition, too long before
he .begins to get back his investment. The
excuse is plausible, but none the less it is
wholly unjustifiable. He who cannot take the
needed time to learn properly has no right to
call himself a tuner at all.
There is another side to it. When it comes
straight to a question of methods, I think that
Mr. Hale's method of tuning is just as easy
for the student as is any other. It is a method,
just as the fifths and octaves of the fourths and
fifths system. The aim is precisely the same in
each case. It is a question of chopping up the
octave into twelve equal parts; and the only
difference of opinion or practice that can legiti-
mately exist is concerned with the individual
practice of the individual practitioner. The
thing might be done equally well by any of the
methods mentioned, for all are roads leading to
the same town. The important question is:
"Which one is more likely to form good habits
in the learner and enable him to obtain the
most accurate results?" I think myself that the
answer is between Mr. Hale's method and mine,
as the letter has been fully set forth in my
FAUST SCHOOL
OF TUNING
Standard of America
Alumni of 2000
Piano TuMnf, Pipe and Reed Organ
aad Ptay«r Pi.no Tear Book Free.
27-29 Gainsboro Street
BOSTON, MASS.
book on this subject, "Modern Piano Tuning."
In this book I have carefully calculated all
the beat rates of which our Missouri corre-
spondent speaks. Everything is set forth step,
by step, nor can I see how a student who will
take the trouble to study the thing*»through
from first page to last can possibly misunder-
stand or go wrong, save by accident.
Let it be said once more, and as definitely
as possible, that the equal temperament is just
what its name implies, namely an equal division
of the octave in two twelve equal parts. It is
artificial, nor would it exist if the requirements
of musical harmony could otherwise be met
through the medium of a keyboard possessing
only twelve keys within each octave.
Correspondence
is solicited and should be addressed to William
Braid White, 5149 Agatite avenue, Chicago.
New Piano Patents
WASHINGTON, D. C, May 17.—Patent No. 1,581,-
955 was last week granted to John H. Karstet-
ter, Altoona, Pa., for a pneumatic music sheet
control for player-pianos. This invention re-
lates to automatic controls for the music sheets
of player-pianos.
The invention has as its general object to
provide a pneumatic device which will operate
to automatically maintain the music sheet of a
player-piano properly co-ordinated with the
tracker bar during the playing of a selection
and thereby obviate the discords which are pro-
duced when the sheet travels unevenly or shifts
across the tracker bar in its travel.
One of the primary objects of the invention
is to provide means which will operate auto-
matically to co-ordinate the traveling sheet with
the tracker bar and to maintain the same so
co-ordinated during the entire time of the travel
of the sheet over the tracker bar, the means be-
ing so constructed and operating in such a man-
ner as to obviate shifting of the sheet across
the bar an undue distance.
Another object of the invention is to provide
in apparatus of this class a novel pneumatic
control which will operate with precision and
in a most efficient manner.
The American Piano Co., New York, is the
owner, through assignment by Charles F. Stod-
dad, same place, of Patent No. 1,583,197 for
an expression mechanism for player-pianos.
This invention relates to automatic musical in-
struments and pertains more particularly to ex-
pression mechanisms for the same.
It is an object of this invention to provide a
unitary expression mechanism which may be as-
sembled as a unit for installation in a piano.
Jonathan O. Fowler, New York, has been
granted Patent No. 1,584,282 for a music-roll
feed mechanism. In this invention the inventor
employs preferably music-roll magazines or car-
riers adapted to carry a series of music-rolls
whereby, without changing the latter by hand,
the instrument may be enabled to play the se-
lections of each roll separately at will, or to
play the entire number of selections on all the
rolls seriatim as a continuous performance.
There is also provided a new self-playing in-
strument arranged so as to permit the use of
interchangeable music-rolls whereby any one of
the tune sheets may be brought into operative
position, simultaneously with the advance move-
ment of the winding or take-up roll in order to
draw the tune sheet over a tracker-board and to
cause the operation of the music instrumental-
ities and then to afterward automatically re-
wind the tune sheet upon its roll after the tune
has been played. Means are meanwhile pro-
vided for advancing the roll carrier a step.
Consult the Universal Want Directory of
The Review. In it advertisements are inserted
free of charge to men who desire positions.
TUNERS
AND
REPAIRERS
Our new catalogue of piano and
Player Hardware, Felts and
Tools is now ready. If you
haven't received your copy
please let us know.
Hammacher, Schlemmer & Co.
New York, Since 1848
4th Ave. and 13th St.
Future scanning projects are planned by the International Arcade Museum Library (IAML).