Music Trade Review
Issue: 1953 Vol. 112 N. 9 - Page 29
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
PRACTICAL PIANO TUNING
By ALEXANDER HART
Formerly with Steinway & Sons Tuning Department, Instructor in
Piano Tuning, Teachers College, Columbia University, N. Y.
Registered Member of the
National Association of Piano Tuners
Notes of Interest on Tuning
plain how to harmonize interrelated
chords—likewise how to use the minor
sixth that takes in two major thirds.
This method naturally tends toward
training the ear in the direction pf
comparing them between tonal distance
or intervals apart.
Our last example was in the Key pf
F Major (the next key is D Major)
paring of beats in the intervals, i.e.,
gradually faster and faster towards the
treble.
In order to gain some speed in tun-
ing, it is advised that the novice use a
continuous felt mute, tuning one string
at a time. You can dodge around faster
and make corrections that save time
setting in the individual wedges.
It cannot be stated too often the im-
portance of watchfulness, i.e., taking a
and using the same procedure as we
did in our last example F Major is the
next stop to be harmonized from Da
—major third.
Tuning the octave below nine half
steps and raising D one-half step we
obtain a major sixth. Viz. Fft—D#, in-
cidentally harmonizing Eb and Bb, the
fourth.
Note on the Diagram C# or Db is
not marked, tuning C# from A a major
third includes all the enharmonic tones.
Viz. A to Cft, C# to E # , or F natural.
Returning to middle C, going down
to F a fifth you can harmonize Bb as
a fourth and a fifth to Bb chord.
If you like to make another you can
keep the F natural sharp and the
fourth Bb sharp from F and the octave
F, then test Bb to F natural as a fifth,
a sort of framework. Now tune all the
other intervals flat so you can blend
the thirds as tremolos or beats cor-
respondingly with the fourths and
fifths. You will soon get on to the corn-
moment to see that your tuning wrench
is in its right place.
It can be clearly stated here that no
one can be expected to get the tech-
nique that must be gained only by
seeking and finding and to be found
only within oneself. After all, talents
come from above from the one who
gave us the immutable laws and must
be developed, worked at to be truly
effective and understood.
When you will do it yourself, then
you can understand how it is done. But
you cannot learn to do it by being told
or by reading how it is done by some-
one else.
Good piano tuners must always
strive to become better tuners. It is not
an easy road to the skilled pathways,
but it is a long road that has no turn-
ing. Doing the very best we can surely
find the pathway a bit easier for ac-
complishment.
Before we proceed further, let me
quote a paragraph on Equal Tempera-
E have been over the various
W procedures
many times that ex-
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, SEPTEMBER, 1953
ment by Donald N. Ferguson, Univer-
sity of Minnesota ("A History of Mu-
sical Thought," Page 274), Appleton-
Century-Crofts, Inc., New York).
"With the clear recognition of
major and minor tonality, the sense of
key came to be relied upon by com-
posers for structural features of the
most fundamental order in compo-
sition.
"Obviously, also, if modulation to
closely related keys had proved valu-
able for certain types of expression,
modulation to remoter keys would be
useful for more vivid contrasts. But an
obstacle to such remoter modulation
existed in the accepted tuning of the
scale—an obstacle which was removed
only after the most painstaking study.
The result of that study was the estab-
lishment of the system of equal tem-
perament.
"The meaning of that term and the
process by which the system was per-
fected may be explained in detail only
by elaborate mathematical discussion.
The nature of the problem, however,
will be understood from a less intricate
exposition, and this must precede our
study of expanded musical form."
A worthwhile musical work espe-
cially for piano technicians.
v
Piano tuning is a science and an
art, and too vast to be truly compre-
hended in a series of short articles.
ASPT to Hold Regional Meetings
in October and January
The American Society of Piano Tech-
nicians will hold a two-day regional
meeting in Washington, D. C, on Oc-
tober 30th and Hist. The headquarters
will be at the Willard Hotel. The chair-
man will be Ulys S. Rogers of Alexan-
dria, Va.
Another regional meeting is sched-
29
PRACTICAL PIANO TUNING
By ALEXANDER HART
Formerly with Steinway & Sons Tuning Department, Instructor in
Piano Tuning, Teachers College, Columbia University, N. Y.
Registered Member of the
National Association of Piano Tuners
Notes of Interest on Tuning
plain how to harmonize interrelated
chords—likewise how to use the minor
sixth that takes in two major thirds.
This method naturally tends toward
training the ear in the direction pf
comparing them between tonal distance
or intervals apart.
Our last example was in the Key pf
F Major (the next key is D Major)
paring of beats in the intervals, i.e.,
gradually faster and faster towards the
treble.
In order to gain some speed in tun-
ing, it is advised that the novice use a
continuous felt mute, tuning one string
at a time. You can dodge around faster
and make corrections that save time
setting in the individual wedges.
It cannot be stated too often the im-
portance of watchfulness, i.e., taking a
and using the same procedure as we
did in our last example F Major is the
next stop to be harmonized from Da
—major third.
Tuning the octave below nine half
steps and raising D one-half step we
obtain a major sixth. Viz. Fft—D#, in-
cidentally harmonizing Eb and Bb, the
fourth.
Note on the Diagram C# or Db is
not marked, tuning C# from A a major
third includes all the enharmonic tones.
Viz. A to Cft, C# to E # , or F natural.
Returning to middle C, going down
to F a fifth you can harmonize Bb as
a fourth and a fifth to Bb chord.
If you like to make another you can
keep the F natural sharp and the
fourth Bb sharp from F and the octave
F, then test Bb to F natural as a fifth,
a sort of framework. Now tune all the
other intervals flat so you can blend
the thirds as tremolos or beats cor-
respondingly with the fourths and
fifths. You will soon get on to the corn-
moment to see that your tuning wrench
is in its right place.
It can be clearly stated here that no
one can be expected to get the tech-
nique that must be gained only by
seeking and finding and to be found
only within oneself. After all, talents
come from above from the one who
gave us the immutable laws and must
be developed, worked at to be truly
effective and understood.
When you will do it yourself, then
you can understand how it is done. But
you cannot learn to do it by being told
or by reading how it is done by some-
one else.
Good piano tuners must always
strive to become better tuners. It is not
an easy road to the skilled pathways,
but it is a long road that has no turn-
ing. Doing the very best we can surely
find the pathway a bit easier for ac-
complishment.
Before we proceed further, let me
quote a paragraph on Equal Tempera-
E have been over the various
W procedures
many times that ex-
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, SEPTEMBER, 1953
ment by Donald N. Ferguson, Univer-
sity of Minnesota ("A History of Mu-
sical Thought," Page 274), Appleton-
Century-Crofts, Inc., New York).
"With the clear recognition of
major and minor tonality, the sense of
key came to be relied upon by com-
posers for structural features of the
most fundamental order in compo-
sition.
"Obviously, also, if modulation to
closely related keys had proved valu-
able for certain types of expression,
modulation to remoter keys would be
useful for more vivid contrasts. But an
obstacle to such remoter modulation
existed in the accepted tuning of the
scale—an obstacle which was removed
only after the most painstaking study.
The result of that study was the estab-
lishment of the system of equal tem-
perament.
"The meaning of that term and the
process by which the system was per-
fected may be explained in detail only
by elaborate mathematical discussion.
The nature of the problem, however,
will be understood from a less intricate
exposition, and this must precede our
study of expanded musical form."
A worthwhile musical work espe-
cially for piano technicians.
v
Piano tuning is a science and an
art, and too vast to be truly compre-
hended in a series of short articles.
ASPT to Hold Regional Meetings
in October and January
The American Society of Piano Tech-
nicians will hold a two-day regional
meeting in Washington, D. C, on Oc-
tober 30th and Hist. The headquarters
will be at the Willard Hotel. The chair-
man will be Ulys S. Rogers of Alexan-
dria, Va.
Another regional meeting is sched-
29
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