Unorthodox Tuning Method

Many moons ago, long before the dinosaurs, when the earth was without form and darkness was over the face of the deep, I was an apprentice to another tuner. The apprenticeship didn't really last long as I had already been fairly experienced in the field (8 years at that point). I only went down that road because I felt stunted in my growth as a tuner (only tuning 4 or 5 pianos per year) and wanted to learn more of the technician work. He taught me how to regulate and clean keys, including felt replacement, but action regulation he decided was best I be taught in a course... and 4 to 5 piano tunings per year wasn't making me the money I needed to afford that.

But why I was an apprentice is not the point. The point is that I learned something else from him that I didn't expect. The Pythagorean Method. If you read me last blog, you are already somewhat familiar with it and my lack of knowledge of the math involved. Pythagorean math is used in comma meantone tunings when adjusting the frequency of the fifth while insuring that the thirds are pure (E is tuned pure to C, G is tuned pure to E, and so forth). This is the key point: Pythagorean math is used on the fifth. As such, The Pythagorean Method flips the pure tone from the third to the fifth. There is no comma... or adjustment to find beats that work with purity. It's straight up pure fifths. (G is tuned pure to C, D in the next octave is tuned pure to G, and so forth).

Before this tuner took me under his wing, I was familiar with this method already. Didn't know how to do it, but familiar with it. I had simply seen people tune middle A to 440 and work fifths around that and just slowly move up the piano. Tune a fifth pure, move on to next key and tune it's fifth pure. But not him. Instead of tuning A to 440 right off the bat, he would instead use an ETD to tune the temperament range (F3 to F4), then he'd turn off the device, check that he had successfully reached A440 with a tuning fork, and start tuning what seemed to be random keys all over the piano. But, they weren't random. What would look like a tuner gone mad with power to an outsider actually was a use of one of music's most useful tools: The Circle of Fifths. Once that temperament range had been tuned to the device, he hit the C in that range, and then the G... and he would get to work from there, tuning each fifth up the piano, and then go to the bass strings and move back up to temperament range where a different fifth would get tuned pure and he'd do it all again. By using the Circle of fifths, he would pass over the piano a few times, but when asked about it, he said that it prevented strings from popping by equalizing tension on the sound board evenly. Logically, this seemed to make sense on the surface. I never really dug deep enough into the calculus to verify his words, but seeing that he rarely ever had a string pop, I'm inclined to believe him.

The real issue with this is that the Pythagorean Method isn't the standard method of tuning a piano. Equal temperament is. But this was what he used with every piano and no one seemed to complain. It seemed to me, an unorthodox way of doing things, but that's the way the world of tuning works. Experienced piano techs rarely ever spend the time to watch other experienced techs because there's a myriad of ways to do the job and each piano tech/tuner has the key to the best possible sound and everyone else is wrong. (Not really, it's just the nature of the business for everyone to be a critic). The only time criticism of other tuners and their methods seem to calm down is when they are at a PTG conference where they are expected to learn from other tuners. Really, put someone in a position to expect learning, and they are as tame as a kitten. Psychology, am I right?

With my Sith Master, and I his apprentice, I can only assume that he either never obtained a client with such refined tastes in piano frequencies that they would hate his method, or the method simply doesn't really make much of a difference from equal temperament to merit a complaint regardless of client's ability to recognize beats in frequencies. Personally, I've never had anyone ask me to tune their piano to The Pythagorean Method and until I try it on my own personal piano (or a derelict one bound for the dump), I'm too nervous to try.

But man... if I could reduce string popping like he did? I'd be a much happier tuner and definitely a lot less scared of those spinets and their rusty strings.