Music Trade Review
Issue: 1951 Vol. 110 N. 7 - Page 21
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
PRACTICAL PIANO TUNING
By ALEXANDER HART
Formerly with Steinway fir Sons Tuning Department, Instructor in
Piano Tuning, Teachers College, Columbia University, N. Y.
Registered Member of the
National Association of Piano Tuners
CHAPTER 31 - Piano Tuning in Review
Let's get along with a few more prob-
lems.
No. 58
Here is a note I found on a grand
piano: "The third A sticks; the fourth
has a double sound; hammer bounces;
fourth G # key has to be lifted; fifth
—No.
1 —
repeating action poor; seventh C
harsh sound."
Let us take them in their order.
The first thing was to remove the
action and see if everything was intact,
and no parts missing. Most of the
trouble was in the back checks. The
buckskin was split in half through con-
stant wear and stopped keys from re-
peating and falling properly. A few
hammers required shifting. The harsh
sound or tinniness was soon righted with
a little tone regulating.
At No. 14, Model 2, one can see the
spoon, and just above it is a piece of
felt on the lever. It happens through
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, JULY, 1951
constant use the spoon wears the felt
away and leaves a small hole; conse-
quently, a prominent knocking sound is
heard. A new piece of felt fixes this
problem. The only difficulty is the
action must be removed.
I would suggest, whenever the action
is out of the case, always examine it
thoroughly before putting it back. The
same goes for when you are all finished
with the job.
Play a few chords, try the pedals,
examine for repetition, then check on
your tuning. Don't try to hear the im-
possible.
Check up on unisons. This procedure
is helpful in many ways. For instance,
a very good tuner may have worked
on the instrument only a short time.
So. stop, look and listen.
Don't start in and begin raising the
pitch at once, and alter the entire bal-
ance of the last tuner's art.
Try the temperament, and be quite
sure your tuning is up to par, because
it is better by far to let the pitch go
if only a fraction out of the way. The
inexperienced tuner may mean well by
this fractional alteration, but as I have
just remarked—be cautious and be able
to simplify the tuning instead of un-
doing nice work, which needs only
checking here and there.
How this is doen can be explained in
a few words.
No. 59
First try your A or C, then the octave
and note how far the A is from the above
A, then check the three A's. (Now check
the three C's and be sure they sound
fairly good, that is, that they harmonize
like one clear tone I. Clean up the uni-
sons by placing your felt wedge each
side of the three strings. If one is off,
right it. Then go from C down to A
flat. Should there be sufficient tremolo,
leave well enough alone.
One way to test this assurance is to
try C natural and A L below middle C,
then the octave above middle C—the A b
and G$: will sound sparkling as a tenth
tone from A 1 '. You must strike this
tenth harmonically, not melodically, to
obtain the desired effect. Once you
begin to hear these pronounced beats,
your temperament will have more life
to it.
To explain further, you can always
prove this desired effect by making the
major third pure, without beats, and
note the difference between the sound
of the tenth tone; you don't hear any
tremolo for the 10th and 3rd sound life-
less.
Now once more lower A b and observe
the desired result.
Unless there is a characteristic differ-
ence between major and minor thirds
and tenths and fourths, fifths and oc-
taves, the fine distinction in interval
relationships is lost.
Enharmonic comparison is found by
tuning major thirds, namely starting
on middle C, then octave below, then
to C, E, then to G^jt going upward,
F^jt to middle C, then to Octave E.
This test is, in the event you have
tuned all your fourths and fifths and
octaves absolutely perfect, no beats,
otherwise this practice will not be so
effective for the beginner.
Experienced tuners can start any-
where tempering as they go along. Of
course, this stunt takes lots of experience
and practice.
PLAYERS REBUILT
ACQUAINT YOUR PERSONNEL
with
ZEISS PRECISION TUNING CHARTS
Price $50.00 — A Must for Spinets
Zeiss Charts
Box 51
Brawley, Calif.
• Airmotors
• Bellows
Write:
• Pneumatics
• Rebuilt
TOLBERT F . CHEEK
11 Beauport Avenue , Gloucester, Mass.
21
PRACTICAL PIANO TUNING
By ALEXANDER HART
Formerly with Steinway fir Sons Tuning Department, Instructor in
Piano Tuning, Teachers College, Columbia University, N. Y.
Registered Member of the
National Association of Piano Tuners
CHAPTER 31 - Piano Tuning in Review
Let's get along with a few more prob-
lems.
No. 58
Here is a note I found on a grand
piano: "The third A sticks; the fourth
has a double sound; hammer bounces;
fourth G # key has to be lifted; fifth
—No.
1 —
repeating action poor; seventh C
harsh sound."
Let us take them in their order.
The first thing was to remove the
action and see if everything was intact,
and no parts missing. Most of the
trouble was in the back checks. The
buckskin was split in half through con-
stant wear and stopped keys from re-
peating and falling properly. A few
hammers required shifting. The harsh
sound or tinniness was soon righted with
a little tone regulating.
At No. 14, Model 2, one can see the
spoon, and just above it is a piece of
felt on the lever. It happens through
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, JULY, 1951
constant use the spoon wears the felt
away and leaves a small hole; conse-
quently, a prominent knocking sound is
heard. A new piece of felt fixes this
problem. The only difficulty is the
action must be removed.
I would suggest, whenever the action
is out of the case, always examine it
thoroughly before putting it back. The
same goes for when you are all finished
with the job.
Play a few chords, try the pedals,
examine for repetition, then check on
your tuning. Don't try to hear the im-
possible.
Check up on unisons. This procedure
is helpful in many ways. For instance,
a very good tuner may have worked
on the instrument only a short time.
So. stop, look and listen.
Don't start in and begin raising the
pitch at once, and alter the entire bal-
ance of the last tuner's art.
Try the temperament, and be quite
sure your tuning is up to par, because
it is better by far to let the pitch go
if only a fraction out of the way. The
inexperienced tuner may mean well by
this fractional alteration, but as I have
just remarked—be cautious and be able
to simplify the tuning instead of un-
doing nice work, which needs only
checking here and there.
How this is doen can be explained in
a few words.
No. 59
First try your A or C, then the octave
and note how far the A is from the above
A, then check the three A's. (Now check
the three C's and be sure they sound
fairly good, that is, that they harmonize
like one clear tone I. Clean up the uni-
sons by placing your felt wedge each
side of the three strings. If one is off,
right it. Then go from C down to A
flat. Should there be sufficient tremolo,
leave well enough alone.
One way to test this assurance is to
try C natural and A L below middle C,
then the octave above middle C—the A b
and G$: will sound sparkling as a tenth
tone from A 1 '. You must strike this
tenth harmonically, not melodically, to
obtain the desired effect. Once you
begin to hear these pronounced beats,
your temperament will have more life
to it.
To explain further, you can always
prove this desired effect by making the
major third pure, without beats, and
note the difference between the sound
of the tenth tone; you don't hear any
tremolo for the 10th and 3rd sound life-
less.
Now once more lower A b and observe
the desired result.
Unless there is a characteristic differ-
ence between major and minor thirds
and tenths and fourths, fifths and oc-
taves, the fine distinction in interval
relationships is lost.
Enharmonic comparison is found by
tuning major thirds, namely starting
on middle C, then octave below, then
to C, E, then to G^jt going upward,
F^jt to middle C, then to Octave E.
This test is, in the event you have
tuned all your fourths and fifths and
octaves absolutely perfect, no beats,
otherwise this practice will not be so
effective for the beginner.
Experienced tuners can start any-
where tempering as they go along. Of
course, this stunt takes lots of experience
and practice.
PLAYERS REBUILT
ACQUAINT YOUR PERSONNEL
with
ZEISS PRECISION TUNING CHARTS
Price $50.00 — A Must for Spinets
Zeiss Charts
Box 51
Brawley, Calif.
• Airmotors
• Bellows
Write:
• Pneumatics
• Rebuilt
TOLBERT F . CHEEK
11 Beauport Avenue , Gloucester, Mass.
21
Future scanning projects are planned by the International Arcade Museum Library (IAML).