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guslThis morning, a man came to give our piano a major tune-up (no puns intended).
He spent about an hour looking at it and talking to us, in the end he managed to sell my mom a nicer, brand new piano for ~ US$ 2 000 + the old piano. It immediately sounds very different from the old one (which I figured might cause some regret): it's a lot more muffled and less metallic than the old one, but also obviously cleaner (and well-tuned).
At night, the tuner came. He borrowed my tuner (no pun intended again), and proceeded to do his thing. After he was done, I asked him to improve the highest C-C interval in the piano. It's strange that those extremes tend to sound so badly out-of-tune. I've heard that this due the fact that our perception of pitch is warped at the ends, which sort of makes sense, but it is nevertheless not satisfying.
After everything he agreed to try my thirds-octave tuning. C-E-G# in just intonation, G#-C a harsh third. I wanted to cry when I heard those just thirds... I didn't remember it being that beautiful. If I'm here for the next tuning, I will ask for a well-temperament or some sort of just intonation. I may need to print out a table of frequencies.
By the way, I am tired of pretending that I don't understand things so that "experts" don't feel threatened by my knowledge. This is not a positive action, it's things like: listening too humbly to explanations of simple facts, refraining from using technical terms, etc. I don't have this problem in longer relationships (such as music teachers), because after some time it becomes clear what they know, what I know, and how they can help me, though I often do have this problem when talking to computer technicians, piano tuners, insurance agents, etc.
Maybe I should be more blatant. I'm too nice. Hmm... well, I abstain from normal rituals of "niceness" quite often, though. Where lieth the balance?
He spent about an hour looking at it and talking to us, in the end he managed to sell my mom a nicer, brand new piano for ~ US$ 2 000 + the old piano. It immediately sounds very different from the old one (which I figured might cause some regret): it's a lot more muffled and less metallic than the old one, but also obviously cleaner (and well-tuned).
At night, the tuner came. He borrowed my tuner (no pun intended again), and proceeded to do his thing. After he was done, I asked him to improve the highest C-C interval in the piano. It's strange that those extremes tend to sound so badly out-of-tune. I've heard that this due the fact that our perception of pitch is warped at the ends, which sort of makes sense, but it is nevertheless not satisfying.
After everything he agreed to try my thirds-octave tuning. C-E-G# in just intonation, G#-C a harsh third. I wanted to cry when I heard those just thirds... I didn't remember it being that beautiful. If I'm here for the next tuning, I will ask for a well-temperament or some sort of just intonation. I may need to print out a table of frequencies.
By the way, I am tired of pretending that I don't understand things so that "experts" don't feel threatened by my knowledge. This is not a positive action, it's things like: listening too humbly to explanations of simple facts, refraining from using technical terms, etc. I don't have this problem in longer relationships (such as music teachers), because after some time it becomes clear what they know, what I know, and how they can help me, though I often do have this problem when talking to computer technicians, piano tuners, insurance agents, etc.
Maybe I should be more blatant. I'm too nice. Hmm... well, I abstain from normal rituals of "niceness" quite often, though. Where lieth the balance?