Re: (OT) non-octave scales (was Re: various infotaining natlang tidbits)
| From: | Padraic Brown <pbrown@...> |
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| Date: | Thursday, June 15, 2000, 16:22 |
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On Thu, 15 Jun 2000, Jonathan Chang wrote:
>>Huh, I never even heard a toy piano that was in tune. I guess the only way
>>to tune one is to file the metal bars, but what if you want to *lower* the
>>pitch?
>
> Lowerin' pitches is fairly trial'n'error work: putting small blobs of
>either rubber cement or plumber's putty at bases of toy piano's metal tines &
>allowin' material to dry & then refinin' by usin' an x-acto blade (also
>jammin' wedge-like pieces of metal, wood, bamboo, plastic, rubber,foam, etc.
>at base of tines changes both pitch & timbral colour... also addin' small
>coil springs adds much to the overall sound colour & perceived volume)
Also essentially how music boxes and harmonium reeds are initially
tuned: adding bits of metal (or any material) slows the vibrations
which lowers the pitch; shaving bits off does the opposite.
Either way, it's a pain in the dairy air to tune a toy piano. I'm
only glad I had one bar noticeably out of tune.
Padraic.
> zHANg