Imperfect Pitch? Not a Problem…

by Charles G. Prescott

www.cohortor.org/gstrings


Let your mind go blank for a second here….. ok now think “gStrings.” Now get your mind out of the gutter, we are talking about a “chromatic tuner application” not ladies underwear (That’s my other blog… shhhh don’t tell my wife…come to think of it, don’t tell her about this one either). This app will let you tune any musical instrument, such as the violin, guitar, piano, or wind instruments. (How the @#$%& do you tune a wind instrument??) Best of all it’s free and available for download through the android market.


So I know that my cheap Everett piano is out of tune because I happen to have perfect pitch and can hear it. An example of this is the “a” note located above middle “c.” The picture to the left shows that the needle should point to 440Hz which is the natural frequency of this note’s primary harmonic (it’s definitely flat) So, to test the app, I went with my daughter to piano lessons where the teacher has a well tuned Steinway baby grand piano. Long story short, the needle pointed on tune on every key. This means I need to get my piano tuned. Not that I didn’t know this, but now I have a way of checking it to make sure the guy did it correctly… and so do you.