Dear Stephan and all, > Erm, is there anyone on this list who tunes by ear? :-)
Here is one! :-) Well, I use a tuning fork, though. But I don't like the tuning machines. And the audience, fellow musicians and I are anyhow listening the music with our ears, not with the tuning machines.... ;) And when I tune for example to the harpsichord or to the organ, I always ask for a chord, not single notes, because our temperaments will anyhow be different. For example to tune my theorbo in a, I first ask a D-major chord, make my d-a fifth a nice and narrow, then I ask a A-major and tune my A-e-a. The A-e will be beautifully narrow, the e-a as beautifully wide. Then I might ask a G-major chord and tune my G-g-b. Now I will get from the well tempered (?) harpsichord's too good third g-b. I ask a e-minor chord, and tune a decent fifth e-b (2nd string-3rd string), propably a little worse than the harpsichord. So there is a compromise in the 3rd g-b and in the 5th e-b. Not as bad as the equal temperament has, though...:) At the end I ask again the D-major to check my D-major chord that has the high d in the "problematic" 3rd string... This was a little simplified explanation - of course I check also other chords - especially to check and fine tune the fret positions. But I guess you can get the idea of "my way" in tuning... :-) Best wishes Arto
