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Theory and practice of piano tuning - a manual on the art, techniques and theory

by Brian Capleton PhD

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Theory and practice of piano tuning - a manual on the art, techniques and theory

by Brian Capleton PhD

628 pages, 174 illustrations

 

The author is a Lecturer in piano technology at the Royal National College, a leading institution (a UK Beacon College) where piano tuning has been taught for more than a century.

 

The book covers in-depth theory and practice from elementary to advanced level. It answers common questions raised by students of piano tuning about the actual soundscapes and behaviour of piano tone that are encountered in tuning practice. It is suitable for both students and professionals of piano tuning, general readers, and academics with interdisciplinary interests in the subject.

 

Includes:

 

  • Why we need skilled piano tuners
  • Intonation and tone 
  • The distance between theory and the art
  • Theory of sound
  • Temperament theory
  • Elementary "traditional" tuning and beat rate theory
  • What contemporary acoustics reveals
  • What attenuation is, and why it is so important
  • Beyond the 19th century model - How “beating” and “beat rates” really work
  • Beyond the 19th century model - How tempered intervals really behave in fine tuning
  • False beat phenomenon and its influence
  • The effects of bridge coupling
  • How real tone- envelopes behave in fine tuning
  • Inharmonicity and small piano syndrome
  • What octave stretching is, why, and how it works
  • Setting the pin – the theory behind it and how to practice it
  • Scale plasticity, logic, and tuning technique
  • Psychoacoustics and how to listen

Contents:

 

Acknowledgments

Piano tuning and this book

 

Part 1 - Background Theory

1 - The invisible art and science

2 - The essential ideas

3 – Sound

4 - Temperament Theory

5 - “Traditional” piano tuning theory and elementary practice

6- The soundscape, spectrum and tone

7 - Partial decay patterns

 

Part 2 - Fine Tuning Practice

8 - Unison Tuning

9 - Tuning the Scale

10 - Octave tuning

11 - Setting the Pin

12 - Setting the pitch

13 - Small piano syndrome

14 - Hearing

15 - The Kirk Experiment

 

Part 3 - Advanced Theory

16 - The single piano string in one plane

17 - The Weinreich Model

18 - Two strings, two planes

19 - The Trichord

20 - Furrher comments on false partials

21 - Inharmonicity

 

Glossary of key concepts

 

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