{"id":1781,"date":"2014-03-25T08:11:05","date_gmt":"2014-03-25T15:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/?p=1781"},"modified":"2018-03-02T08:15:22","modified_gmt":"2018-03-02T16:15:22","slug":"bet-you-cant-listen-to-just-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/archives\/1781","title":{"rendered":"Bet You Can\u2019t Listen to Just One!"},"content":{"rendered":"

We used to go early when George Lucktenberg was playing harpsichord. The playing was delightful; we went early to hear the tuning. Pianos should be tuned as close to concert time as possible; but harpsichords must<\/i> be tuned just before the performance. It was the way<\/i> Lucktenberg tuned that gave us the giggles. He did the bottom note, then the next, then the next; and so on to the top, with only the occasional checking by intervals. Perfect pitch comes in types and degrees; but Lucktenberg\u2019s was stunning.<\/p>\n

His were the first complete tunings I listened to; and they seduced me into listening on my piano. Once you start, it\u2019s difficult to stop. Hear the first string tuned in a three-string unison, and you\u2019ll tell yourself, \u201cI\u2019ll just listen to the other two; till the unison is done.\u201d<\/p>\n

But when it\u2019s done, you want to hear the first string of the next<\/i> unison, played against the one just finished; and so on.<\/p>\n

Along the way you\u2019ll notice that each string is a process in itself, as the tuner pulls the tuning hammer (what you and I would call a wrench<\/i>) clockwise or lets it down counterclockwise, tightening and loosening the string, moving the pitch higher and lower. You\u2019ll hear \u201cbeats\u201d between strings; irritating, annoying or teasing. You\u2019ll hear a string pass through the exact<\/i> pitch and ask yourself whether the tuner can leave it at that pitch and \u201cset\u201d the tuning pins so the pitch is stable.<\/p>\n

\n\"tuning<\/a>
\n(No copyright asserted on photo, which is courtesy Jim Cannon.)<\/small>\n<\/p>\n

Just one more string. One more unison. It\u2019s hypnotic. And then, sometimes, there\u2019s an anomaly; so dramatic! A \u201cwild\u201d string, for instance: a single string that\u2019s out of tune even with itself. It may be new and defective; it may be old and tired. Either way, it needs replacing.<\/p>\n

And once in a blue moon a whole piano, or a whole region, has tuning problems. I\u2019ve run into three of these, and only one could be solved! Usually, though to hear a tuning by the hands of a master, is pure pleasure. Bet you can\u2019t stop listening! <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We used to go early when George Lucktenberg was playing harpsichord. The playing was delightful; we went early to hear the tuning. Pianos should be tuned as close to concert time as possible; but harpsichords must be tuned just before the performance. It was the way Lucktenberg tuned that gave us the giggles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1781"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1781"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1781\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1784,"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1781\/revisions\/1784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}