Mean tricks to play on your mother-in-law #27

Tune her piano to Kirnberger III ( ** )

Of course, this being the 2nd time in my life that I've attempted to tune a piano, I imagine getting it to sound even remotely correct will be something of a triumph. (Last time around, people were saying "Gee, you ought to get that tuned" after I was done). On the other hand, last time around was 20 years ago and back then I didn't have clue #1 about temperament issues ( * )

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Suffice it to say, having a sense of absolute pitch --- and yes, I know people call it "perfect" pitch, but it just isn't, okay? --- is almost completely useless for this sort of job, just in case you were wondering.

On the other hand, given the state that her piano is in now (hasn't been tuned for maybe 20 years), almost anything will be an improvement, and since she's mostly tone-deaf anyway, I could probably tune it completely randomly and she wouldn't notice a thing (though emmacrew and I almost certainly would...).

Also, I have this theory that Kirnberger III, with all of its perfect fifths, will be a lot easier to do than Equal Temperament. We'll see.

( more math/music wanking . . . )