Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Will buying a tuning fork help me better learn piano?

I am a beginner and if I get a tuning fork will it help improve my hearing? I was thinking of buying a 440 hz tuning fork. Is this a good idea?

No, but it will help you determine how badly your piano is out of tune. You might be able to find a 440 signal on the internet, so if you have a device that can play that you could compare it with your piano.

Having a well-tuned piano will help your hearing.

You already have a digital that never goes out of tune, and its A = 440Hz, like all A's in digitals. There is no point getting a tuning fork - just play that A whenever you want to know what it sounds like.

This is not necessarily true in acoustics, depending on how they have been tuned, or whether they are actually in tune.

A pitch fork will give better results!

There is no guarantee that a digital is ever in tune, let alone that it will never go out of tune. Some manufacturers have a lot more tolerance in their tunings than I do.

But A-440 is likely to be in tune, because that is the reference point most people use. But there can be problems with that, too.

I have an electronic tuner that gives me any pitch I want, and I sometimes check up on my Roland V-Piano to make sure it hasn't inadvertently gone out of tune. Unless I've dialled in an unequal temperament, it usually comes up to scratch.

No, make that always.

Unlike my voice......

Nobody asked you, HOW are you thinking it could help....

Some people are sort of assuming. But I don't think we have any idea.

If you want to improve your musical ears, listen to the a recording and then transcribe that information to paper.

I have the suspicion though you might have troll genes in your DNA.

I wonder if this is a legitimate question. A little common sense should answer it without having to post the question.

How do you suppose that buying a tuning fork will help you "better learn piano"? A tuning fork will give you one pitch. How will that help you learn ... anything, except what that particular pitch sounds like?

Regards,

Haha

landorrano,

You are killing me again!


Assuming for a second that the question was asked "in good faith", then I am with Mark here. Let us not overlook the fact that relative (perfect) pitch can be developed, and that a tuning fork is an excellent tool for this because it is portable AND accurate.

Now, it would be nice to see some clarifying response from adak.
Ed

BTW, by most definitions, "perfect" and "relative" pitch are very different. Also I don't think a tuning fork would particularly help develop either one, but who knows, I've never seen it tried.

So would I need a differently pitched tuning fork for every 88 key on the piano? Would that not get too expensive?

FOR WHAT?

You're still not saying exactly what you think it would be good for, but I think we're getting pretty close to being able to say.....

No, this wouldn't do anything for you, and whatever it might do would be accomplished better in other ways.

I don't think they make tuning forks for every pitch on a piano! If someone did manufacture something like that I'm sure they would go out of business.

Its only a tool to determine if a pitch is in tune (with the tuning fork pitch). That is all. People use them to tune their instruments or voice. In particular for piano you could use it to determine if your A440 is in tune with A440. If its not then what?

Do you have aspirations to become a piano tuner?

If you are interested in the subject, I suggest that you read up on intonation and tuning.

There are sets of tuning forks that will give you all the chromatic notes of the octave, usually between middle C and the C above it. Those sets are called tonometers.

There are some neat things you can do with a tuning fork. For instance, you can hold one to your ear and rotate it to learn about how phase difference works. You can hold one to your open mouth and open it wider or narrower to learn about resonance. You can get another one at a nearby pitch (like one at 440 and another at 435) to learn about beats.

But none of this is necessary to play a piano. It might help you with singing, though.

If, what you want is, to be able to determine the key of a piece that you listen to, and later on play that piece by ear, then it can be somewhat helpful.

But for that case, I would buy something electronic, that can produce a continuous pitch sound. And those devices produce any pitch that you adjust them. So you can match the key of the piece you are listening to more easily.

OTOH, the sound of a classical metal tuning fork is very low, single pitch, and it does not sustain for long.

Also there are lots of software tools on the internet for training the ear.

A tuning fork is a useful tool to have, but I don't see how it would help one's piano playing...

I used one when I was going around getting doodads to maybe build a "Hardart," to see what pitch each thing put out.

(Would have posted a recording but, would y'all believe, there doesn't seem to be any posting of Concerto for Horn and Hardart on youtube.)

I can throw a baseball really well. Do I have perfect-pitch?