Regular tuning of a piano not in equal temperament, which makes for purer home keys:

[00:00:00]Hello, this is a regular tuning of a Bluthner grand piano made in about 1920 and the client wants the tuning to be not equal temperament but the home keys to be purer and I'll try and explain that and I've had other videos that have tried to explain that as well. Uh this app isn't for tuning, this is a very useful to use as a a guide but it's not a official tuning app. I'm tuning by ear at the old school uh but um this is comforting to see what the pitch shows. If you've got a much better app than this then please let me know. This is a free app that you can download.

[00:00:34]So the A is about 441. I've got two here just to show that they're consistent.

[00:00:39]The app the app is is well designed. You can see that says 441 and this too.

[00:00:46]So they're almost identical.

[00:00:49]And that A is slightly out of tune.

[00:00:52]So if we look at C I start with C and that's slightly higher.

[00:00:58]And this C here doing the octave C.

[00:01:03]Now if you look at the E cuz that's how I go around the temperament, I'm flattening the fifths a bit more than usual.

[00:01:12]And now if we look at the C to E we can see the E is a lot flatter.

[00:01:22]And so there's less beating on the third here.

[00:01:26]That's a purer sound. Now of course normally you tune for equal temperament.

[00:01:33]So you've got that does mean that that's actually almost correct but D to F sharp is also narrow and that's much wider. So that's beating a lot.

[00:01:50]And there if we look at A flat G sharp to C again that's beating a lot. So you've obviously got to have these beating more.

[00:02:02]If you want that to beat less.

[00:02:09]So not not all clients want equal temperament.

[00:02:13]It sounds purer.

[00:02:14]And Bach apparently preferred this kind of temperament. He preferred Kellner temperament which is similar. I choose my own temperament uh what my ears tell me I it is not as pleasant. Uh if you're a tuner I'm sure you'd like to comment maybe criticize what I'm saying but uh I think it's good to debate this subject.

[00:02:33]So this is just a almost a check tuning. It's such a stable piano. These are original tuning pins by the way um and uh they might need setting slightly occasionally.

[00:02:42]That's with a pin setter just just tightening in a little bit but really this has been very stable this piano which is amazing considering it's 1920 100 years old.

[00:02:52]And that is pretty pure.

[00:02:57]And the octave very very slightly uh slightly stretched but I'm happy with that.

[00:03:06]Again I talked about concert tuning recently.

[00:03:09]I'm going for stability here.

[00:03:12]That doesn't need altering.

[00:03:16]And there's a bit unison out a bit there.

[00:03:22]Well the client wasn't actually complaining about the tuning being bad at all.

[00:03:27]This is a my tuning card actually. I've missed out a lot of dates here. I'm I'm not very good at that but it says 21 and then I started again in 2026 but it's useful. I often write on the keys on the piano and it's great when you can see a record of tuning. But that was pitch raised and that's when I used the opportunity to do the unequal temperament which he was really happy with so we're keeping the unequal temperament and that that that's that's today. So we're just really he wasn't complaining about tuning.

[00:03:55]There's one slightly sticky note on the new action.

[00:04:01]And there's the first note that's got a unison enough out to to make me try and tune it. So that's right hand string.

[00:04:11]Using the app you can see which one's sharp if you want to. So I think I'm using my ear obviously mostly. The app does help to to sort of confirm things for you sometimes.

[00:04:25]So that's going to be tuned.

[00:04:37]This gives me the opportunity to see how how pure I can get the note and then that's obviously going to be mirrored on all the other notes.

[00:04:45]And I think that's as good as we're going to get this.

[00:04:50]So now I'm going to tune all of the notes and so that interval beats faster than it would normally on equal temperament. We need to lower that in order to get this um more pure more pure thirds on the home keys.

[00:05:07]So I can see the G here is considerably higher than the B.

[00:05:15]And that now sounds beautifully pure.

[00:05:23]Like a string orchestra. A string orchestra doesn't do any tempering. It just plays absolutely pure.

[00:05:30]It's such a beautiful sound.

[00:05:39]This is where you can use the app to know which of the strings is out of tune. So that's the left hand string.

[00:05:48]That's the right hand string. So the right hand string is clearly lower.

[00:05:53]You can hear that one of them's out. So the middle string is roughly right so the right hand string is definitely lower.

[00:06:02]So we can tune that right hand. With the app you can tell which of the strings more in more easily is lower or higher.

[00:06:09]Though you don't have to use the app if you can your ear is well trained after many years then obviously you don't need the app but it's nice and comforting.

[00:06:26]Now I think that's as pure as we can get that note.

[00:06:29]And the octave is fine.

[00:06:32]Slightly stretched at this point. We slightly stretch the octaves.

[00:06:39]So I just like to check after having tuned check all the fifths and octaves.

[00:06:45]That one there needs a little bit of tuning.

[00:06:48]Especially the top end.

[00:06:50]You can hear them more clearly when you get the fifths and octaves.

[00:07:09]So that one there.

[00:07:21]So that's a Bluthner grand piano round about 1920. I think it's actually more like 1924.

[00:07:26]Um and regular tuning. So it's just been doing unisons and thinking about the piano trying to improve it. The client's recording on the piano all the time um so wants it obviously to be top condition.

[00:07:39]So thank you very much for listening. If you're interested in the temperament different temperaments then um well that's really what I'd like to get you interested in on this video. Given the opportunity the client is really happy with the temperament that allows the home keys to be purer.

[00:07:57]So the third basically is narrower and not so much not so much beating hardly any beating um like a string orchestra which sounds so beautiful and pure.

[00:08:08]That's what we're trying to get here.

[00:08:10]But it does mean that the distant keys sound much less pure on the thirds.

[00:08:19]But he's very happy with that. And I'm really pleased he's happy with that cuz I love tuning like this. Thank you very much for listening.

[00:08:27]If you're interested in any of this aspect please do write to [email protected] or place a comment on underneath this video.