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Jim RileyIf at least one of the three strings (for each note)
is still in tune, it is easy to tune the other two; and, with constant
attention, at least one of three will be in tune still. In some cases,
one's hearing is so bad up there that one does not notice the difficulty.
Most pianos should be tuned once a week and, conceivably, before every
use. In my experience, and I have very bad hearing (so where do I get
off making theoretical remarks about popular music most of which
(remarks) I am passing along from experts), most pianos are noticeably
badly tuned, which does not take very good hearing to observe as the
beats are quite audible. (Nevertheless, I prefer a slightly out of tune
acoustic piano-forte to the electric kind, which is what I can afford to
play nowadays.
I'd like to find the article in Scientific American, back in the 70's
I believe, which was called the "Physics of the Piano". As I
recall, it was really about piano tuning, and it pointed out that
the tuning of the three stringed notes is in fact an extremely subtle
business. These three strings share the same bridge, and thus
influence each other and make for a complicated resulting
vibration of the soundboard. The article pointed out that there is
no possibility of exact equality of the three tuned frequencies, they
will always be a bit off. On the other hand, a very good piano
tuner finds a subtle relationship between these three frequencies
which gives a superior tone. Anyone remember when this article
ran?
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Gary Hemminger
Dwight-Engelwood School
315 E. Palisade Ave.
Englewood, New Jersey
07631
e-mail: hemmig@d-e.pvt.k12.nj.us
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