With all that technology can do for us today, you would have thought that we could tune our pianos with something electronic or digital before now. But ask any piano tuner about how “stretching” the intervals between the octaves in order to establish equal temperament can be quite complex. The in-tune or out-of-tune sense is contributed to by many of the harmonics of the instrument and the different types of stretching can differ between instruments.
When humans listen to two notes an octave apart, say A2 and A3, they compare not just the fundamental frequencies but also the harmonics. In theory, the second, third and fourth harmonics of A2 should correspond exactly with the first, second and third harmonics of A3 (and so on). The notes are in tune when the harmonics lock exactly.
However, the problems outlined above ensure that the higher harmonics do not match exactly and the slight mismatch produces a beat frequency that a professional tuner tries to minimise.
But now, Haye Hinrichsen at the University of Wurzburg in Germany has developed an algorithm that can appropriately stretch and help tune a piano. Does this mean the piano tuners days are numbered? Some think so, and since I haven’t heard the end result of this new algorithmic tuning, I couldn’t begin to comment. But, it’s worth noting for sure! Read more here.
Interesting read– I’ve recently been experimenting with making some small adjustments to the tuning of my own piano. Last year, I had to have my piano tuner come to our house 7 (maybe 8) times!! Most of them were just for small adjustments that drove me crazy. I finally realized that maybe it would be cheaper just to buy some tuning equipment and try making these small adjustments myself and save a little (a lot) of money. It’s been fun & interesting getting to know my piano in this way. (We’ll still have the tuner over 2 or 3 times this year, but not 8).
I’m quite certain that, despite the new technology, piano tuners’ jobs are pretty safe. Even with tuning technology, piano tuners are also repair technicians and are capable of doing much more than tuning a piano. Interesting read, nonetheless. Thanks for sharing!