Brian Capleton

Amarilli Books

Amarilli Books

Books - Non Fiction

Theory and Practice of Piano Tuning

Approximately 6" X 9" / 15cm X 23cm - 680 pages

This is a comprehensive manual on the art and science of piano tuning. It is a repository of teaching substance and research from former lecturing at the Royal National College. It is suitable for anyone wishing to undertake a serious study of the subject, either vocationally or academically.

The current latest editions are
ISBN 9780992814106
and
ISBN 9780957362277.

Each edition is manufactured by a different printer and therefore there may be slight physical differences between them but the editions are otherwise the same.

Over 300 illustrations and tables.

Includes:
  • Why we need skilled piano tuners
  • Intonation and tone
  • The distance between theory and the art
  • Theory of sound Temperament theory
  • Elementary “traditional” tuning and beat rate theory
  • What contemporary acoustics reveals
  • What attenuation is, and why it is so important
  • Beyond the 19th century model – How “beating” and “beat rates” really work
  • Beyond the 19th century model – How tempered intervals really behave in fine tuning
  • False beat phenomenon and its influence
  • The effects of bridge coupling
  • How real tone- envelopes behave in fine tuning
  • Inharmonicity and small piano syndrome
  • What octave stretching is, why, and how it works
  • Setting the pin – the theory behind it and how to practice it
  • Scale plasticity, logic, and tuning technique
  • Psychoacoustics and how to listen

Contents:
Acknowledgments
Piano tuning and this book

Part 1 –
  • Background Theory The invisible art and science
  • The essential ideas
  • Sound
  • Temperament Theory
  • “Traditional” piano tuning theory and elementary practice
  • The soundscape, spectrum and tone
  • Partial decay patterns

Part 2 –
  • Fine Tuning Practice
  • Unison Tuning Tuning the Scale
  • Octave tuning
  • Setting the Pin
  • Setting the pitch
  • Small piano syndrome
  • Hearing
  • The Kirk Experiment

Part 3 –
  • Advanced Theory
  • The single piano string in one plane
  • The Weinreich Model
  • Two strings, two planes
  • The Trichord
  • Further comments on false partials
  • Inharmonicity

Glossary of key concepts
Select bibliography

This website may use cookies to improve your experience