Aural Tuning Q&A

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:00]The camera is not working. [gasps] The camera is working. I'm so excited.

[00:00:06]Okay. Okay. So, what I do? Hello. For anyone who's not here yet, uh, actually, no one's here yet, so no one's going to see what I'm about to say. I am at the Appalachian South Folk Life Center and we're running a tuning camp. And there are people behind me. Say hi.

[00:00:22]>> Hi.

[00:00:23]>> Hi.

[00:00:24]>> Yes. And uh, so I have a live studio audience. Yay.

[00:00:30]>> [laughter] >> Oh, someone's here. I have a person. I have a person. So, we're live from the Appalachian South Folk Life Center. And my camera's actually working. I don't know how I did it. Who's here? Zoo flute. Woohoo. I'm packing for that camp now. YES. [screaming] >> YES, we're having fun. Are we having fun?

[00:00:48]>> Yes, we're having fun% >> and I'm making their bread. Oh, Kristen.

[00:00:52]Hi, Kristen. I forgot you were Zu Flute.

[00:00:54]I should have known that. Hello, Zofflute. So, you're going to meet some of these people next week. You already know John. You've met John. And then uh you you you have not met Christian.

[00:01:05]Melissa and Claire, you have not met, but you will meet them. Yay.

[00:01:10]Thanks for for chiming in. Where where's Melissa? There's Melissa. There. I can do this. Okay. So, um Oh, there's two people here. Someone else is here. Say hi. Is it chilly? It is chilly. It is chilly right now. Yeah, I I'm wearing long sleeves. I might take it off, but if I'm wearing long sleeves, it's chilly. So, yeah. Um, it was warm a little bit.

[00:01:35]>> Yeah.

[00:01:35]>> Then we got a rainstorm.

[00:01:39]Hi, [screaming] Carly. C. Walker 3776.

[00:01:42]Hi, Car. Wait, what's a what's a terri?

[00:01:51]Oh. Oh, a Okay. Hi. Say hi from Arizona.

[00:01:56]Uh zoo flute. I got a new sleeping bag for the occasion. Oh, good deal. Yeah, cuz it's chilly. We um Morgan is here.

[00:02:02]Morgan is camping and some other people are camping so you won't be alone. Um but the dorms are available. There's more people here. Say hello.

[00:02:14]Yay. Zu says yay. So anyway, a auto correct. Hi. [laughter] Thank you. Very exciting. Very exciting.

[00:02:24]Okay. So, u does anyone online have any questions for me? Otherwise, I'm going to take questions from my studio audience, but I don't think they knew I was going to ask that. So, they might not have any questions. I don't know.

[00:02:35][laughter] Don't you love how I do this?

[00:02:39]It's a shoot fly from the hip kind of thing. Hey, we got a light. Chaos sometimes is fun. So, come back here computer. There we are. I dropped my computer. I got a crazy setup. Um, and it's not going to be as um, friendly as my usual setup, but all I have to do is grab the camera and spin it.

[00:03:00]And I have a keyboard. Look at that.

[00:03:02]>> Sweet.

[00:03:04]>> So, it's going to be it's going to be small on the screen. And it was more wiggly than it is. I had the camera hooked to the piano and every time I played the piano, it it wiggled a lot.

[00:03:14]So, I I hooked it to a chair and I have my microphone on the chair. And so so we can do this. So anyone have a question?

[00:03:24]There's seven people here and only Rehea. Oh, hi Rehea. Hia Rehea is here.

[00:03:30]So only three people have said hello.

[00:03:33]That means seven pe seven uh four people are stalking me.

[00:03:39]So four people are stalking and uh and three people have made themselves public. Do you have a you have a question? Anyone have a question? Rya, do you have a question?

[00:03:52]Carly, do you have a question? Anyone here have a question to ask publicly?

[00:03:59]>> Say, "How do you smooth out the break between them?"

[00:04:01]>> Yeah, >> we're gonna I I'm gonna maybe have one of them record it. So, those four might be driving. Oh. [laughter] Oh, I never thought of that. People are chiming in while they're driving, so they can't comment. Jonathan just stumbled on this while making a drive to Dollar General to get cookie d.

[00:04:21][laughter] Okay, so you stumbled on this. Are you a piano tuner or is this just a random stumble? Don't text while you're driving. Never mind.

[00:04:32]Okay. Um, tomorrow I might have some of them record me. I've talked about um going across the break before. Uh, Jonathan, tell Claire I'm jealous and I hope she learns so much and has so much fun. So, this is someone who knows who knows Claire. Whoops. I keep going backwards here. I'm on backwards on my camera. [laughter] That's awesome.

[00:04:53]Okay. Well, thanks for for saying something, Jonathan. Awesome. So, tomorrow I'm going to have someone film me tuning a really crappy piano and smoothing it across the brake. So, I'm not going to tune it. I'm going to tune the piano with an ETD.

[00:05:08]And the break will come out rough.

[00:05:09]Believe me, on this piano, it will. And then I'm going to Arley. Yes, I'm a piano technician. Yay. I'm gonna orally smooth it out and show people how I do that. In fact, I might even do it with two pianos that are different. That might be fun. And then I'll actually have a video of it. So, that might be nice. But this piano that I'm on tonight, I I tuned it with a section of it with an ETD and it came out too good.

[00:05:29]I can't fix it. So, uh, Reparian Reparian Reparian Bean New Pick here. Hi. Oh, Lisa Weller, the PTG sent me your way. Thanks for all the great content. Oh, wonderful. Tell Lisa I said hi. That's awesome. I have another one of her um mentees as a student. That's cool. Do you have a question? If Lisa sent you without a question, then you should tell Lisa that Maggie said she should prepare you more with questions.

[00:06:04][laughter] So, no qu I'm not getting questions.

[00:06:09]This is not good. Somebody asked me a question.

[00:06:13]What can I ask? Let's see. What can I think of talk about? I was going to talk about crossing the break.

[00:06:20]So, I I'm a baby tech, so I'm just here to sponge up knowledge. Well, right now you're you're not getting any knowledge.

[00:06:26]You're just getting silliness. But that's okay because sometimes piano tuners are too serious. So, it's all right. All right. Let me think. What can I talk about? You know what? Until someone has a question, let's just analyze the ETD [laughter] tuning, shall we?

[00:06:44]Morgan's here and burn. If you don't want to be in the TV, go there. Okay. Okay, you're good with it. Okay. So, uh, no questions yet.

[00:06:55]So, let's see. I'm FF is normally my go-to, but this is an ETD tuning, so I don't know what it's going to be like, but let's um actually let's just listen to [sighs] major thirds.

[00:07:13][music] Hold on.

[00:07:23]Okay.

[00:07:28][music] [music] [music] I'm going go back up.

[00:07:45][music] >> [music] >> Okay. So, the first thing I noticed G to B might be a little fast. [music] E to G sharp. Let's see.

[00:08:08]Little slow maybe. [music] Yeah. So, it's still good though. This might be a little fast. This might be a little slow. So, let instead of just listening to all the other fast beating intervals, let's look at those.

[00:08:31]But let's let's listen to the six sixth that include those notes. So, I'm going to listen to D, F#, G, and B. I'm going to listen to sixth around those. [music] >> [music] >> So potentially this six is a is a nat fart slow and this major third is a is a hair slow. These are really precise measurements here. And um so um that tells me D might be a little sharp, but let me check F#. [music] That's slow too. Nope.

[00:09:18]Well, that tells me F# might be a little sharp as well. So, I don't know yet. So, let me go look at G. I think D is more offensive than F#, though. Let's look at G. [music] [music] And this six is fast compared to this one, but I thought that one was slow.

[00:09:39]So, let's look at a whole step.

[00:09:45]Maybe. So G actually might be flat. Um, let me look at a six. No, I don't want to go down that far low. Let me look at B. Oh, that was not a sixth. [music] [music] [music] I go up here.

[00:10:12]>> [music] >> I'm not as offended by B. So now I'm thinking D, F sharp, and G. If I want to narrow down, let's say I'm trying to find my worst my worst note. So let me listen to a fifth and fourth above D.

[00:10:25][music] My fourth sounds a little cleaner than my fifth. [music] So let's measure this.

[00:10:38]H.

[00:10:39][music] That's a nice fifth [music] actually. So that's not noisy.

[00:10:48]Let's listen to the fourth. [music] That's pretty wide.

[00:10:57]But what did I say about [singing and music] my D to F#? I thought it was slow. Oh, and this is too wide. Yeah. So this is saying all these are saying D is flat. [music] But let me go to F#.

[00:11:12]>> [music] >> fifth.

[00:11:17][music] That's pretty narrow. [music] I thought F# was a little sharp, but [music] that's more on the flat side. So F# is still inconclusive. D I think is flat. Uh G.

[00:11:37]G.

[00:11:39][music] That's kind of pure. What did I think G was? I thought it was flat, though. Oh, and the fifth is a little wide. [music] Uh that's not flat.

[00:11:55]That fourth is booking.

[00:11:58]Let me go up here. [music] That's booking but not as much fifth.

[00:12:07][music] That's very narrow.

[00:12:14]So I've got two um fifths telling me that G is sharp, but I've got a major third that's a little fast telling me it's flat.

[00:12:27]>> [music] >> So now because of that, I'm going to draw my attention back to B because B um might also be sharp. Let me check it again.

[00:12:41][music] Oh, there you go. Really pure fifth. In fact, [music] it's just a very nice [singing] close to pure fifth. So fourth [music] Yeah, B could they the both [singing] G and B could both be uh like G could be a little sharp and B could be a lot more sharp. Um but the other says G is flat. This is still inconclusive.

[00:13:10]So let's see.

[00:13:15][music] That's definitely narrow. So B could definitely come down for sure. So since G is inconclusive, I could lower B. Fix that major third. It would be fine. And D is definitely [music] something I forgot. Sharp, I think.

[00:13:35]No, it's flat. [music] Yeah. So, [singing] D is flat. B is a little sharp. I hope some of that MADE SENSE. DOLLY. [screaming] HI, DOLLY. HELLO, DOLLY. HELLO, DOLLY.

[00:13:49]HELLO, DOLLY. It's so nice to have you back where you belong. You're not here yet, so I can't sing that. I'll sing that when you get here. This is Dolly.

[00:13:59]Hello, Dolly. Oh, there's 10 people here. So, what I did is I just analyzed an ETD tuning and I I found some notes I could move, but I didn't move them. Um, did anyone Oh my gosh, that is adorable.

[00:14:13]I'll sing it to you when you get here.

[00:14:15]We have other people watching who will be here next week, which is very exciting. Dolly's going to be here for the tech camp. Um, yay.

[00:14:25]Uh, so, uh, did anyone have any questions about what I just did? If you know your checks, it'll kind of make sense. If you don't, it was probably, um, a big mushy mess and clear as mud.

[00:14:40]This is an excellent warm-up. Oh, good.

[00:14:42][laughter] Excellent warm up. Okay, so [snorts] >> I have a question. Oh, goody.

[00:14:49]>> It's not related to what you just did with related to >> doesn't matter.

[00:14:52]>> Does wearing ear protection affect your ability to hear beats?

[00:14:56]>> That's a really good question. So, the question is, does wearing hearing protection affect your ability to hear beats? I know tuners who say it doesn't.

[00:15:06]To me personally, it does big time. Um, and I blame that zoo flute. Not necessarily. Exactly. Not necessarily. So for some it just it's very individual. Some people can wear earplugs and hear beats just fine. Some people have to have musicians earplugs that aren't as protective to hear the beats. And then there are people like me who have to wear earplugs that are almost useless in order to hear the beats. Um I do have a problem with earringing and when I put earplugs in all I hear is the earringing and that really messes with me when I'm trying to tune. Um, I can tune with earplugs in, but I my unison's are not always as good as I want them to be. Now, I could tune and then go back and fix my unison, but I'm not going to tune with earplugs in.

[00:15:56]It's I'll be too frustrated. So, I can't do it. Um, I know most people can. Um, I often think that if I didn't have the earringing that I could. I really think I could if I didn't have the the constant going and the [music] that going all the time. Um because when I put earplugs in, it basically turns it up. But it's an individual thing you got to try. And and the the newer you are at tuning, the harder that will be.

[00:16:26][snorts] >> John, you wear earplugs. How do they work for you?

[00:16:29]>> Well, mine were recommended by Nate Rayurn. Uh they're surefire. You can get them on They're about 30 bucks, I think.

[00:16:36]Good.

[00:16:36]>> Um, and they also have a tiny little filter you can pull the plug >> out and you're reducing maybe by 15 dB and with the plug in it's you're reducing it around 25. But I don't use it with the plug in because >> 15 is almost too much for me.

[00:16:53]>> But it it really helps me. I mean sometimes I have to pull them out to to hear the beats and put them and sometime they work fine. They work great in a setting where >> um you there's background noise. Mhm.

[00:17:06]>> Cuz you can tune that out and totally hone in to what you need to hear.

[00:17:10]>> Yeah.

[00:17:11]>> So, >> yeah. So, what brand was that?

[00:17:13]>> Surfire.

[00:17:14]>> Surefire. Surfire brand recommended by Nate Rurn. Um I know um something you said made me think of something.

[00:17:24]Now I don't remember what it was.

[00:17:26][laughter] So, thank you. Because Don wears earplugs when he tunes. So, um it's it's very individual. I just bought some earplugs that May Tipple recommended online. She doesn't even know I bought them. And [snorts] um I they are 15 dB reduction and they're they're they're the best I've had yet, but I still don't love them. Right now my favorite is a just a cheapy bulk clear earplug and I cut the widest ring off of it and it's perfect and it's the best yet, but I still don't like it. But the ones I got that May recommended, I can't think of what they are. They have a very specific filter that can be popped out. And somehow I accidentally got two. So instead of returning the second set, I'm going to pop out the filter and see what I I'm going to play with it. So anywh who um Oh, I know what I was going to say. So what I do when I tune is now I got a partial bell.

[00:18:28]Um, you're not going to be able to see my lever technique today, but I basically because I don't want to damage my hair. And I basically practiced and practiced and practiced um um Dan Levitan's kind of style of lever technique um to where I can tune quietly and I will use test blows, but not very often. So, I tune very quietly and I'm getting better and better at it. When I first started doing it, I did have some trouble with stability, but I'm I'm I caught on pretty quick because I, you know, I need to make money. And so, um, I'm doing pretty good with it, but it took a little practice because it's different. I can't use Teslas. So, well, I mean, I can, but I'm trying to avoid Teslas.

[00:19:13]So, yeah. Any other questions? That was a good question.

[00:19:18]It's just I'm not the experienced one to answer it. Usually, I get more questions online.

[00:19:24]Somebody asked me a question.

[00:19:27]I know why I'm not getting a question.

[00:19:28]It's because I told everybody they weren't allowed to ask about lever technique anymore. That's why.

[00:19:33][laughter] Because everybody asked me about lever technique and I have too many videos on it. [snorts] So I can talk about crossing the break.

[00:19:47]No questions.

[00:19:49]Dolly gave me a funny face. [laughter] I could move the notes. I could either move the notes that I questioned or I can talk about crossing the break or both. Yes, that move the notes. I'll move the notes.

[00:20:07]I'm assuming that's what Dolly meant.

[00:20:09]Okay. So, the light's not ideal, but the setup is what it is. So, let's see. D was my worst offender.

[00:20:18]And I'm gonna have to get kind of [music] in front of the camera. How am I going to do this? Let's see.

[00:20:23]No lever technique topic is funny.

[00:20:26][laughter] So, let's see. There you can see the note. I'm doing this right-handed. I can tune it a little bit right-handed now, but I just can't do a [music] whole piano. So, what did I say? I said it was flat.

[00:20:40]Or did I? Sharp. [music] Sharp. Let me see.

[00:20:47]Yeah, I said it was sharp. My bad.

[00:20:49][music] Whoops. Now it's flat. [music] [music] I don't know what it was, but I'm going to fix it.

[00:21:05][music] [music] [music] >> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> That was done.

[00:21:47]So now it might be a little flat.

[00:21:50][music] No, it's not.

[00:21:57][music] [music] That's kind of okay.

[00:22:12][music] >> [music] >> Now, my fourth is kind of wide now. So, if anything, it's on the flat side.

[00:22:23][music] But I like that third a lot better. Now, this one sounds fast to me. [music] Let's see. What did I say? G and B.

[00:22:38][music] Oh, I'm comparing it to that. Ha.

[00:22:45]>> [music] [music] [music] >> I can't move G really much more than I already have, which was uh Dolly. Dolly Dolly knows this terminology. I moved it to Nat's fart.

[00:23:15][music] That's all I can do.

[00:23:20]>> [music] >> I'm going to move B. I'm lower B just a wee bit.

[00:23:28][music] [music] I think I moved it too far.

[00:23:45]No, [music] it's better.

[00:23:49]I don't love this, but it's okay.

[00:23:53][music] [music] Oh, that's right. So, my notes in question that I was looking at with thirds are involved fourths and fifths I'm using to measure them. So, um on if I do any more, I'll chase my tail. I've made an improvement, but I can't fix D without fixing those two notes.

[00:24:23]So, I think I'm going to leave it.

[00:24:25][music] [music] [laughter] Oh, Jonathan, you may have said this earlier, but what ETD and if relevant, what settings do you tune the piano to?

[00:24:42]Oh, well, [music] okay. So, let me show you what I just did because So, here I'm coming down.

[00:24:52][music] Now, I don't hear it.

[00:24:56]I felt like that was a little too fast.

[00:24:58]So, I checked my fifth [music] and I measured it.

[00:25:04]That's pretty pure.

[00:25:06]So, if I go down here, oh, [music] that's that's almost wide. And this was a little fast. So, I'm going to raise [music] C sharp here if I can get my lever on it.

[00:25:25][music] [music] I'm making sure I'm on the right pin.

[00:25:41][music] Am I on the right pin? [music] No, I'm not.

[00:25:53]I'm on the wrong pin. No, I'm on the right pin. That's going to jump in a minute. [music] Sorry.

[00:26:03]>> [music] >> Like it's hinting at narrow now.

[00:26:08]Now I need to bring it up some more.

[00:26:10][music] [music] That is not moving. [music] I'm on the right pin. Well, let's just bring it up a whole bunch.

[00:26:31]>> [music] >> There we go.

[00:26:37]There. Now it's pure. [music] [music] [music] She's fast.

[00:26:57][music] Okay, so that's better. Let's see what the third sounds like. [music] So, I might lower it a little more.

[00:27:12][music] [music] So, that's a little better, I think.

[00:27:24][music] So, it's better. It's better. I made an improvement. Uh, the question was, okay. Well, let me get two questions.

[00:27:37]Let's see. You miss what ETD and if relevant, what settings do you tune the piano to? Okay. Well, yes, I use an ETD. Um, but I don't really set anything to the piano. I just tune the piano. Um, if I'm doing a hybrid tuning, I use piano meter because I think it's the most tuner friendly. I can just let it listen to me while I tune. I don't have to overly measure the piano to start out with. I can just start tuning. Then if I have a question or get stuck, it gives me clues as to what I'm I'm, you know, might have missed. And I really enjoy doing that because it gives me a little security and um which Rick Butler uh rolls his eyes at and [laughter] and [snorts] um I like to just tune the piano early with it going and if I have a question I can ask it.

[00:28:35]If I'm tuning a piano with an ETD it's because I'm just trying to get her done.

[00:28:39]I'm in a hurry or I'm exhausted or something like that. Um, and I have several ETDs at my disposal, but I'm not the differences between them are not huge. [snorts] So, that goes into the next question. Would you tune after using the CT just to refine the sound? Um, I rarely do that. Oh, it's Ben. Hi, Ben.

[00:29:07][laughter] I rarely do that. Um, but that's the most common thing people do. Um, if I do that, it's really just going to be to check across the break, which I'm going to talk about if there aren't a lot more questions. So, if I tune a piano with an ETD, I'm going to check it across the break. And I'm pretty much not going to check anything else because they're really, really good. You know, it's you just have to have some kind of setting that's reasonable for the piano you're tuning.

[00:29:34]And if it's not exact, it's still going to be really good. I meant specifically this one for this demonstration for oh um I have several uh tuners to my disposal. Um I don't like to say which one I use for which demonstration.

[00:29:52]Um I did use piano meter for this one but I didn't try too hard. So you know I was hoping something would be a little off because I didn't exactly try to set the pins or nail anything. Um, it was not as off as much as I had hoped. I was hoping it would be off enough that I could smooth it across the brake. So, I could d-tune it and smooth it across the brake. Um, so yeah, I actually did use Panameter for this one, but I mean, you know, there's one in particular that I think is worse across the break, and I've never told anyone what it is online anyway. Uh, using 17. Oh, I can do that.

[00:30:29]Dolly asked me a question. Yay. Love for you to go over using 17s, etc. for outside the temperament. Dolly, do you want me to go up or down first?

[00:30:42]Because this piano is not in tune very far outside the temperament so I could tune it.

[00:30:49]I'm waiting for her to type. If she doesn't type, I'll go down.

[00:30:54]Down. Okay, down. Here we go. Oh, everybody's gonna get dizzy. And I'm having trouble with the camera, so I may have to Oh, I know what I can do. I'll get it. Okay. So, let's see. This is Okay.

[00:31:12][music] [music] [music] Oh boy.

[00:31:27]Yeah, I can use that.

[00:31:30]>> [music] >> That's That's kind of a jump.

[00:31:40]A little bit of a jump.

[00:31:42]Another one.

[00:31:51]But they're all kind of still progressing. [music] Jonathan signing out now. I'm home with cookie dough in hand. I'll be watching later. I got a lot of your talk on channel later. Oh, wonderful. I'm glad to hear that. I've been putting it to good use. Yay. I'm so glad. Bye. Thanks for coming. Okay, let's see.

[00:32:10][music] [music] There's a jump. [music] That's a big jump. [music] That E needs attention.

[00:32:46]Whoa, big jump.

[00:32:50][music] I'm glad I brought my weight. Let me get my weight. Hold on. Where'd I put it? I put it in my pocket.

[00:32:58]Let me get my weight.

[00:33:04]I have a new weight. We all made key weights. This is my new weight. It has flowers on it. I'm very excited.

[00:33:10]So, I have to make one for Daddy because he's my fan. Okay, so here we go. Let's see. I'm going to tune left-handed. So, sorry, guys. So, um so I can keep this in the in the camera. Oh, it's going to be shadowed. Well, it is what it is.

[00:33:24][snorts] Okay.

[00:33:27]I wonder if I can tune right-handed. No, it's not going to work. So, let's see.

[00:33:31]Where was I?

[00:33:33]Oh, thanks.

[00:33:35]I'm up here. [music] [music] >> I thought there was a jump there.

[00:33:50]>> Does that help?

[00:33:51]>> Oh, I don't need it. It's just for them.

[00:33:54][music] But thank you.

[00:34:02][music] [music] Where am I? Let me get on the right string. Hold on. Okay. So, what I'm going to do here, sorry it's dark. We're out in the country. It's just the way it's going to be.

[00:34:33]This is weird, right? Left-handed [music] actually. That's okay. Hold on.

[00:34:49]>> I don't think that's as slow as I thought it was the first time.

[00:34:55]So, I'm lowering it just a smidge.

[00:34:58]Yeah.

[00:35:03][music] I might go back and lower it some more.

[00:35:10]That's That might need to come up.

[00:35:15][music] That one. I'm just going to hit that one right off the bat here.

[00:35:23]I didn't tune this part of the piano.

[00:35:26][music] And I hope you heard that went too flat.

[00:35:30]Bait like crazy. [music] [music] Might be a little flat. [music] All these are sharp.

[00:35:50]Uh oh, I have a bridge problem.

[00:35:53][music] Whoa, I can't even hear that. Hold on.

[00:36:00][music] [music] [music] Yeah, now I can hear it. Okay.

[00:36:22]>> [music] >> Why can I not hear it?

[00:36:30]I can hear it when I'm standing in front of the piano and as soon as I go to my lever. Nope.

[00:36:38][music] These are not perfect, but they're better.

[00:36:45]Get over. Okay, this is not going to work. It's too slippery. Good to know.

[00:36:49][music] [music] [music] >> [music] [music] >> Oh, that's getting pretty slow.

[00:37:32]Okay. So, I'm going to switch because I'm not sure about what I'm hearing here. [music] [music] >> Uh, octave minor 7th.

[00:38:01]I'm losing it.

[00:38:03]And now octave in a trionee.

[00:38:06]Oh, that's bad. [music] There it is.

[00:38:15]Those were flat. I moved them too down too far. [music] Those are all over the place. I'm going to do um an octave and a sixth. [music] That's a little slow. [music] these. Yeah, I think they need to come down.

[00:38:47][music] So, let me just do that actually.

[00:39:02]>> [music] >> Where am I?

[00:39:25][music] Oh my >> [laughter] >> That sounds very bad. [music] Okay. So, I am having a hard time here.

[00:39:43]So, what I'm going to do is look at 12ths.

[00:39:49][music] I don't like that one. [music] Don't like that one.

[00:40:05]Don't like that one. That C is messed up. [music] Uh I hear it. [music] I hear it. Oh jeez.

[00:40:45][music] So I think a lot of these are just sharp.

[00:41:06]Um [music] yeah, so a lot of these bass ones are sharp. Uh oh, question. At which point do you switch from tense to Oh, sorry if you already started. Oh, no problem.

[00:41:22]Yeah. So, um, if if I were tuning this piano, I would be using 12ths and I'd be looking at my fast beating intervals and I'd be looking at double and triple octaves at this point because this this is going to be hard. So, um, I basically I take them as far down as I can and then I overlap.

[00:41:44]So, if I'm doing 17s, [music] I I normally don't take them as far down as I did on this piano, but I could hear them.

[00:41:53][music] But I should really go up. [music] So, I try to overlap them and make sure they agree because if I make a mistake going down in the first one and then I switch, I'll catch the mistake. [music] That's too fast. [music] [music] So, I think I brought these down a little too far.

[00:42:28]Jeez. [music] And I'm going to have to start ghosting. So, I take them as far down as I can. Then I back up a little bit. And then I use the next one. I go down as far as I can. Then I get the next one. Go down as far as I can. And I use the the further I get down, the weirder and weirder they get. And at some point I'm just gonna Let me use this. Let's see. This may not work.

[00:42:47][music] No, it's working. But [music] major's better. Sometimes on the weirdest pianos when nothing works, minor 6th work. And I don't know why because it's they shouldn't work that well, but they do on the crappy pianos, so whatever. Um, so I didn't really tune it tune it. I moved a few notes. Um, any question?

[00:43:19]>> Yes.

[00:43:19]>> How, um, so in a lot of those, especially in like the bottom octave, we could hear two distinct beats.

[00:43:26]>> Yeah. How do you kind of figure out?

[00:43:29]>> I go back and forth between two partials because I'm hearing them.

[00:43:33]>> Yeah.

[00:43:33]>> And [snorts] I'm like, dang it.

[00:43:34][clears throat] >> Yeah, I know.

[00:43:35]>> Can you use either >> if you can hear like the higher one?

[00:43:38]>> Yeah. Okay. So, if you know there it's the same one as the one before. Yes.

[00:43:42]>> Okay.

[00:43:42]>> As long as it follows, it doesn't matter.

[00:43:45]>> As long as you're on the same numbered partial on the way down, it doesn't matter.

[00:43:49]>> Okay.

[00:43:49]>> But so what actually this is important.

[00:43:52]So, what'll happen a lot of times sometime, especially with uh um 10th.

[00:43:57][music] Let me see if it does it.

[00:44:02]I don't think it did it though.

[00:44:05][music] That's sped up. Did you hear it?

[00:44:10]That's too fast.

[00:44:16][music] >> So, they're getting slower and slower and slower. Now, at some point, another partial is going to kick in that's faster.

[00:44:22]>> I think you notice on the 12.

[00:44:24]>> What >> said you notice on the 12th? [music] >> Okay, hold on.

[00:44:35]>> So, here I'm hearing the slow beat, but a faster one's coming in. [music] >> Yes, >> I hear both. Yeah, >> exactly. This is the one.

[00:44:43]>> So, if I grab the fast one. [music] >> Oh, never mind. It's out.

[00:44:47]>> This is kind of when maybe you're like you're [music] where you perceive the higher partial versus lower.

[00:44:54]>> So is this what you're talking about?

[00:44:56][music] >> It's a 12. So let me let me hold put a weight on my C.

[00:45:02][music] >> I know.

[00:45:09]>> Yeah, I hear that.

[00:45:10]>> I hear both. They're both >> I'm listening to the slow one mostly.

[00:45:12]I'm kind of ignoring the fast one. But let's see what happens when I move it.

[00:45:18]>> [music] >> got slower. So I was too narrow. Yeah.

[00:45:22]>> Interesting. [music] >> The rule with 12ths is you don't want them to be wide.

[00:45:34]>> Yeah.

[00:45:34]>> If they get wide, you've gone too far.

[00:45:36]So you can tune down with 12. In fact, I was telling Ben this. Ben, if you're still there, you can do that. Um, where am I? Here. [music] And then go back with your fast beating intervals and check them. And if they speed up, you know you went too far.

[00:45:55][music] I'm going make it wide.

[00:46:02][music] Now I'm narrow again. [music] Whoops.

[00:46:17]>> [music] >> That's better.

[00:46:23]Ah, get over there.

[00:46:26][music] Whoops.

[00:46:32][music] I don't like this one.

[00:46:35]Cover it with >> I'm going to cover them with the I'm going to cover them with the tape that you put on baseball bats.

[00:46:42]>> Yeah, [music] [music] I'm listening to the slow one. Yeah.

[00:46:54]Now, when you're up higher, you can hear the measurement. [music] [music] See? See?

[00:47:08]Ah, [music] you're real close. See, so that's that's a very nice 12th.

[00:47:16]>> Very nice 12th there. So, you know, you try to keep that going down and then you check, but the 12th gives you your your bottom limit. Actually, the the fast speeding intervals do too, but the 12ths are easier here. So, all that gives you a bottom limit. [snorts] Um, I'm trying to think what gives you the top limit.

[00:47:37]H, I forgot. Narrow intervals. [snorts] Up here, the narrow intervals give you a top limit, but down low, I don't I don't use the tiny ones. So, like here.

[00:47:50][music] Okay. So, let me check this D with minor thirds.

[00:47:57]Sorry.

[00:48:00]>> [music] >> Because I want those to slow down, too.

[00:48:05]See, and I want I lower D. These are pretty much equal. Yeah. So, I can't lower D anymore.

[00:48:12]There's no way. Let me check. Let's see.

[00:48:17][music] So, this one slows down a bit. Let me check the minor thirds. [music] Okay, that doesn't really speed up, so I'm okay there. Um, [music] let me check the minor thirds there.

[00:48:34][music] They don't speed up. If they don't speed up, then I'm okay. I'm in the ballpark.

[00:48:43]If if both the major and minor thirds both slow down as you go down, you're definitely doing something right. So, let's see.

[00:48:52]Uh, any questions online?

[00:48:55]I might go up right-handed.

[00:48:57]because I know the higher part of this piano is not in tune. Although, oh, there's another block in here. Hey, we're done.

[00:49:06]I have the rubber the rubber key weight.

[00:49:08]I'm going to use it.

[00:49:12]Okay, everybody. I'm going to tune upward on the piano. If you have a question, interrupt me. Does anyone here have a question?

[00:49:19]>> This bass is a [laughter] mess.

[00:49:22]Okay, so I'm going to assume my F to F is okay.

[00:49:27]Actually, I'm going to assume I tuned up to C because I pretty much still I'm using fifths and fourths and six and 10ths to get up to C. Let me let me play my 10th real quick. [music] [music] I'm getting bleed through.

[00:49:56]Okay. So, let me go to So, now I'm at F.

[00:50:00]So, I'm going to come down actually.

[00:50:02]Wait a minute.

[00:50:04]Okay. I'm I'm going to start the Oh, I don't have a mute. Let me get a mute. I have some over here.

[00:50:09]>> I have I have some Oh. Oh, and I want to show my people about these little skinny mutes. Remind me to show you the skinny mutes.

[00:50:16]>> I gave my campers >> these skinny mutes. Yeah, I gave them the skinny mutes. These are the bomb for working in the treble with the upper dampers.

[00:50:25]>> Mhm.

[00:50:27]>> And I have a video uh you're not going to be able to see them, but these are the bomb. Okay. They just are. You have to just know that.

[00:50:34]Okay.

[00:50:36]Um they're wonderful for up there.

[00:50:39]So here and here. I'm going to stick a bunch of mutes up here. This is going to be messy.

[00:50:48]Let me go a little bit. Okay. Um, so if I'm going up, um, where am I here?

[00:50:58]That was nasty. So, let's see.

[00:51:06]So, that's sharp. So, I'm going to lower it.

[00:51:11]That's too much. Did you hear it slow down?

[00:51:12]>> Mhm.

[00:51:19]>> [music] >> Well, I don't know if it's too much.

[00:51:29][music] This one's too much. So, let me lower let me lower my F a little. Uh, see here.

[00:51:44]Oh. Oh dear. This is not good. Let's see.

[00:51:48][music] I have a little room.

[00:51:56]My fist is inverted.

[00:51:59]Maybe there we go.

[00:52:10]Okay, let's see where I am here.

[00:52:13]>> [music] >> It's a little fast according to the fast speeding intervals, but I can't really lower it much more.

[00:52:24][music] [music] That one's slow. So, let me go a whole step. [music] So, I need to raise my E.

[00:52:50]>> [music] >> I think I need to raise it some more.

[00:52:58][music] Just Just a hair. Just a hair. Let's see.

[00:53:11]I don't know.

[00:53:18][music] Now I can fix F#.

[00:53:28]Let's see. Where am I? Here.

[00:53:34]Actually, that's not too bad. [music] >> [music] >> I still think that's too fast, [music] but not by much.

[00:53:55]Oh, now it might be too slow. Let's see.

[00:53:58]No, I'm not. [laughter] That's booking.

[00:54:07]>> [music] >> That's too slow now.

[00:54:12]Hear it. Oh, it might be right, actually. Wait a minute.

[00:54:17]It's pretty close.

[00:54:21][music] Oh, depends on if my low notes are accurate.

[00:54:30]What I usually do is not not try to go below F3 when I go up here because it gets wonky. So, oh wait, where am I?

[00:54:37]Here.

[00:54:41][music] So, I'm going to lower G sharp. [music] I've been using your envelope method, too. Oh, the envelope method. That's um Jason Castle's terminology, isn't it?

[00:55:03]It's basically the same thing.

[00:55:09]I'm go whole step. [music] So, I got it too slow.

[00:55:16]Whoops. [music] Okay, here we go.

[00:55:27]Well, I can't keep doing this because I don't have it strip muted.

[00:55:32]But now I'm at F.

[00:55:37][music] Let's see.

[00:55:46]Maybe maybe kind of sort of No.

[00:55:54]>> [music] >> I'm out of my temperament strip.

[00:56:06]Oh, let me check that one.

[00:56:09]Which one was that? That one.

[00:56:12]Third one.

[00:56:14]Uh, so that one seems fast to me. So, I could [music] lower that one if I wanted to, but I'm out of my temperament strip area. I I should have stripped the whole thing. I didn't think of that whole step. Yes, whole step. So, what I'm doing is if I have one that I'm questioning. So, um what did I do? Let's see. Let me just take this out. This is going to sound bad. Um here. I think it was here.

[00:56:44]>> [music] >> So, let's say I think this one's too slow, but I'm focused on [music] my B right now. But I think A sharp is too slow, but I trust A. I'll do the whole step [music] and compare those and leave out the half step until I come back to it.

[00:57:04][music] That's obviously too fast. B needs to come down. Even without the temperament strip, I can tell B is too sharp. So sometimes I will skip a note and do a whole step because I still get the relative speeding up knowing that I have to come back and fix the note in between. So if I say whole step, that's what I meant. I should have explained that. Um, did that make sense? Did that make sense? I didn't get as many questions as usual today.

[00:57:31]I usually get a lot more questions. It's because I didn't let people ask me about lever technique. That's why it's my fault.

[00:57:39]So we So random tunings.

[00:57:45]Can you quiz me on some notes, please?

[00:57:46][laughter] On on notes. Intervals. You mean intervals? Ka. Kaya Stern Robinson. Hi Ka. Is that your name? Kaya. Uh Dolly.

[00:58:01]Dolly Materzy. Dolly Matery. Helpful notes. You've got to quiz yourself on notes. You've got to quiz yourself on notes. I have um No, I don't have a quiz on notes.

[00:58:15]There's a lot online though. Really? Let me let me just give you a nutshell here.

[00:58:19]Let's see. So, came [clears throat] late. Pips on high treble unison. Hi, Danny. Yeah, I can do that. Uh [clears throat] so, real quick.

[00:58:28]Um, C is the note you start on if you want to play a major scale on all white keys.

[00:58:37]There are three black keys and two black keys in groups. Three, two, [singing and music] three, two, three, two. To the left of every two [music] is a C.

[00:58:50]So memorize C's. Two black keys to the left C. Two black keys to the left C.

[00:58:54]Two black keys to the left C. Two black keys to the left C. Memorize your C's.

[00:58:59]Then you have a major scale. [music] Okay, that's what you do first. C D E [singing] F G H I J. No, I'm kidding.

[00:59:09][laughter] >> Like, what?

[00:59:13]>> We're awake.

[00:59:14]>> I wanted to see if they were paying attention. C D E F G. You only go to G.

[00:59:18]Then you start over again. A B C ABC C D E [music] F G [singing] A B C. Actually, C D E F G A H >> A Hager.

[00:59:29]>> Well, that's true. But now we're getting into history. So, this is H because this is B. So, you could go C D E F G A B C, but it's B flat today. This is this is now we call it B, but it used to be H. So, it actually did used to be H, but don't do that. My husband's making a history joke. This is B. We don't need to get confused about that.

[00:59:52][laughter] Uh, any last minute ideas of things we might like to pack besides a few moots?

[01:00:01]Oh, that's a good question for my for my my campers. Oh, actually, yes, I do. The ticks are already bad this year. Um, I was I was going to send out a an email um saying I'll do I'll do treble before I I sign out, so don't worry. Um, I'm going to send out an email saying that the ticks are bad. Bring either DE or peromethine for your clothes or the other one or two that are good to keep ticks from biting you. What's your tip?

[01:00:29]>> I don't have a tip.

[01:00:30]>> I thought you had a tip.

[01:00:31]>> No, I said I got two.

[01:00:31]>> Two ticks. Yes, we have had several people with ticks. Um, but they did go on hikes, so it's their fault. No. So, [laughter] does anyone else have any tips?

[01:00:43]>> Oh, for camp?

[01:00:44]>> Yes.

[01:00:47]>> Don't bring food into your cabin. Don't bring food into the dorms. That is actually a rule.

[01:00:53]I'm on the tick thing. Good. Had one picked out of my hair at a faculty meeting already. Oh my god.

[01:01:01]Uh, yes. B flat is the note after a.

[01:01:04]Correct. Correct. Correct. Correct. Um, no. Yeah. No. What did you say?

[01:01:11]Bring raincoats. Bring a raincoat. Uh, umbrellas are also good, but the wind was really bad one day. rain coats were better. Okay, so real before we finish real quick, let's talk about unison and the treble. I'm really not going to be able to really help you a whole lot, but let's see what happens. So, um hopefully you can hear this. You're not going to be able to see my hammer.

[01:01:33]Um this won't come through on the YouTube recorded thing. Um let's see.

[01:01:43]Okay, how many people can hear that?

[01:01:51]So, I'm going to go sharp. Well, I'm gonna go flat first. Yeah, it was loose.

[01:02:01]There we are. That's it.

[01:02:04]So, let me do the other one and I'll talk more.

[01:02:10]Oh, this one's not going to sound as good. I can already tell there's a hammer mating problem. Are you here? You are playing a middle C. I am playing a C uh six. Middle C is down here.

[01:02:22]But it is a C7.

[01:02:28]C7. I am playing a C7. I I stand corrected. Thank you. Thank you. You get another mute.

[01:02:37][laughter] Anyone who corrects an error gets a prize.

[01:02:49]So, there's a little bead in that. I may or may not try to take it out.

[01:03:03]I'm banging it pretty hard now.

[01:03:11]This is a good time to open your mouth and let your soft pallet.

[01:03:15]>> Yeah, I'm going to tell everybody about in a second.

[01:03:26]That's probably as good as I'm going to get it right there.

[01:03:29]So, I didn't talk about it because I was too busy listening. This one's easy. I'm going to do an easy one to talk about.

[01:03:34]I'm going above the pitch.

[01:03:36]That was a bit much. And then I'm kind of relaxing the hammer down and I'm going to see how far I'm going to see how far the hammer Where am I? Um, so I pulled it up. I'm going to just kind of just gently push Whoops.

[01:03:55][laughter] I'm going to gently push on it and just see how much it relaxes. And it did a little. That was significant. And I hardly did anything. I just want to see how far it'll go. mostly on its own. So now I'm going to [clears throat] it's almost a thought. I'm going to lower the hammer, but I'm going to think about it more than I'm going to actually do it. I'm going to think really hard.

[01:04:19]I'm going to push hard on the hammer in my brain, but not with my hand. And then I'm going to lean outward with it as well. So I'm kind of going at a 45 degree angle, leaning while I'm lowering it.

[01:04:30]I went too far.

[01:04:32]I'm going go sharp again. That's sharp.

[01:04:35]Okay, I'm relaxing. Oh my god, I relaxed it and it went into pitch. Let me go sharper. Sharper. Relaxing.

[01:04:46]Really close.

[01:04:49]Whoops.

[01:04:58]It's almost there. I did better last time. [laughter] >> Should have kept it.

[01:05:12]So you just it's just practice. I don't know what else to tell you. Practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice.

[01:05:19]>> How does one go about coming to this awesome piano camp next year?

[01:05:24]>> Next year? Oh yeah. If anyone wants to come to the camp, you just get on the mailing list. Um, email me at maggiepotchmaggie.com and I will put you on the mailing list for the camp. Uh, oh, Danny. So, it sounds like as far as how you're listening, it's quite smaller, if not the exact same as you do with notes at lower register, I guess. So, do you listen differently to the trouble than the bass?

[01:05:52]>> Um, I open my mouth.

[01:05:55]>> Oh, yeah. I knew there was something.

[01:05:57]Yeah.

[01:05:57]>> Would you mind telling them that?

[01:05:59]>> Yeah.

[01:05:59]>> Okay.

[01:06:00]>> So, to have a direct your ears are obviously a direct line to your ears.

[01:06:05]Another way to get there is through your mouth, through your soft pallet to your bones in your jaw. So, if you're having trouble with your sinuses or you're clogged or you have things going on, um or if it's just hard to hear, you can open your mouth. And then if it's still hard to hear, you can take your tongue uh along the roof of your mouth back towards your the back of your throat, >> right? And you're very back >> and feel you what you'll feel is you'll feel the soft pallet of your mouth lift.

[01:06:34]>> Yeah.

[01:06:35]>> And then that will make more room and turn your whole head into a resonator.

[01:06:39]>> There you go. And then it for me it's so much easier to hear beating in the high treble and like slow things and kind of interpret tone up there.

[01:06:48]>> I think that's a really good suggestion cuz I I never suggested that. I don't even do it. I don't even think to. She told me and I still forget. Oops.

[01:06:55]>> Can I give another way to do it my voice teacher taught me >> is to yawn.

[01:07:00]>> Yeah. Yawn. Same thing. If you Oh, if you >> do it, >> you make that soft palette go up. And you can do it by pushing your tongue like Morgan said in the back.

[01:07:11]>> Dolly says, "Morgan's so cool."

[01:07:13]>> Hi, Dolly. [laughter] >> Fact. Fact. Interesting. I'll definitely give this a try. Yeah, I'm sorry I didn't think to tell you that, Danny, but honestly, I don't use it. It's a really great idea. I'm thanking Morgan very much for telling everybody about it. Uh, so it sounds like I heard a few people say they don't even really listen to beating. Oh, I listen to beating up there. I listen to beating at the top.

[01:07:37]Definitely I do.

[01:07:39]Um the Od Dolly says hi back. She says Heidi. Heidi. Hide. Hide. Hide. Ho.

[01:07:47]Okay. Yeah. Thanks, Maggie. You're welcome. All right. I am signing off everybody. Thank you so much for coming.

[01:07:52]We had 12 people. I think mornings are more popular, but I I want to make it, you know, every other month. PM. So, the [snorts] next one is D May 28th at 8 a.m.

[01:08:11]>> Oh my gosh.

[01:08:12]>> What?

[01:08:12]>> That's seven for me. That's early.

[01:08:14]>> Oh, that's seven for you. Yeah. The 8 the 8:00 PM are for those who are in certain time zones and the 8 a.m. are for people who are in the opposite time zones.

[01:08:23]>> So every other month every other month I alternate amm. That way I got somebody.

[01:08:26]So thank you all for coming. I will see you next time. Take care. Bye. Oh, yay.

[01:08:31]Thank you so much. Oh. Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait. I forgot I was going to do this. Wait, there we are. Mirror. Mirror. Mirror.

[01:08:44]Say Vern. Vern. [laughter] Vern. Vern is a good boy. He's a good boy. This is Vern. He is our mascot for our camp right now. Bye, Vern.

[01:08:58][laughter]