Re: Amplitude and pitch of sound waves

[John Denker <jsd@MONMOUTH.COM>]

At 10:09 AM 11/29/99 -0500, Michael Edmiston wrote:
> (2) The lower octaves are not shrunk, they are also stretched.  In the
> wording I was using earlier, you have to tune the lower octaves more
> and more flat as you go down the piano.

Right.

> By the way, John Denker is correct... it's usually called "stretching"
>
> When I responded to Denker and said I could call it sharp if I wanted
> to, I was just being mischievous.

I figured as much.  Thank you for saying so.

While were on the subject, I was dead wrong when I said musicians don't
define octaves as a factor of two.  The opening words of Piston's _Harmony_
define an octave to be "exactly" a factor of two.  Sheesh.

Michael wrote (Mon, 29 Nov 1999 01:41:47 -0500)

> They use all definitions.  Many of them think they are the same thing...

which evidently is, for better or worse, about the size of it.

> I don't use a specific formula and I don't recommend a
> formula.  I let the piano "tell me" how it "wants to be tuned."

Right.  A rough statement of such a formula might have pedagogic value for
about 10 seconds, to give the newbie a clue of how big the phenomenon is.