The old girl has ghosts...

This will be just a short post; but two evenings ago I learned about Zelda's ghosts.

It's a good thing. I'm all jazzed up about it.

I've always wondered how tuners could hear how to tune the growly, rumbling bass strings. You can definitely hear when they are out of tune; but there's so much going on and so many overtones that -- at least for me -- it's hard to hear what exactly it is that you're tuning. That's where ghost tones come in.

Turns out that each bass string has a number of ghost tones -- more correctly, partials. When you strike a bass note you're hearing not only the fundamental note; but a series of partials embedded in the same string -- up to ten (ghost tones) partials to be exact; but primarily the next two octaves up (2nd & 4th partials) and a twelfth (3rd partial).

By holding the bass note down silently and striking the 2nd, 3rd & 4th partials independently, they will sound in the the unstruck bass string -- and, by isolating the partials you can hear whether or not the bass note is in tune. In essence, tune the partials correctly and you've tuned the fundamental sound.

I suppose that's old hat to those who've been tuning for a long time; but I was so excited about learning this that I went on a bass tuning rampage with Zelda. It's amazing. There are now crystal clear tones throughout the bass. Octaves sound perfectly together and the piano has a new depth. The rumble is gone.

That's the good news. The bad news is once the indeterminate growling vanished, it became clear there are a few notes that are of poor quality and out of character with the rest of piano. Most of the bass is rich and sonorous now. But some pop out as having a different "buzzing" quality without the depth. I suppose, in some ways, that's good news as well since I can now differentiate which notes need further attention.

On to the next step -- more reading and learning to discover possible causes -- and then make the necessary adjustments as I'm able.

But for now, I'm just happy to know about Zelda's ghosts.

Life Intervenes

The last post was shortly before I left Key West for a week away to visit my sister in Tennessee, view some fall color for the first time in years and come back to get settled into the cottage with Zelda (the piano) and Ranger(the cat).

Despite being attacked by bedbugs (40 plus bites) and having to leave the Days Inn on Interstate 75 in Atlanta at 4:30 AM with no sleep after being on the road 16 hours straight, I did make it to Eastern Tennessee Wednesday morning, Oct. 21. Lots of itching for the next three days (thank goodness I had a supply of Zyrtec on hand) but it didn't take away from a wonderful visit with my sis and her partner.

The autumn leaves were at their prime in the Smokies. We took two hikes plus a drive through Cades Cove with thousands of other leaf gawkers. Despite the traffic (when did that become part of getting out to enjoy nature?), we spotted wild turkey, bucks with their antlers full grown, and -- of course -- more of God's color spectacle than I could have hoped for. My absolute favorite was a golden grove of maples. Any direction you looked -- forest carpet, forest canopy or through the forest -- gold was everwhere. Simply breathtaking.

My sister also gave me the opportunity to hob nob with the Tennessee Volunteers athletic elite. As a donor to their athletic program, she was invited to a reception at Tennessee's Neyland stadium. The ostensible purpose was to say 'thanks' to donors and show off the new lounge for corporate big wigs; but, of course, the real purpose was to pluck a few more feathers from the assembled turkeys for the continued renovation of the stadium -- only one more phase to go before completion! When the words $225,000,000 and Mother Theresa glibly rolled off the development director's tongue in the same sentence, both my sister and I couldn't help but roll our eyes.

Still, they made a great picture of us at the stadium -- you'll probably never see me in that context again. The scale of the place is a bit overwhelming -- especially when you realize you could put the entire population of the Florida Keys there and still have empty seats everywhere.

The drive back was quiet and Zen like. I stopped in Orlando to see my friend Tom Dyer, publisher of the journal Watermark, for whom I was one the initial investors and writers fifteen years ago. It's still a great paper and he continues to keep it going through both tough times and good. More importantly, it was just great to renew our friendship.

Got back to Key West finally around 1 AM Tuesday, Nov 3rd. Spent the next two days re-connecting with Ranger and making the move to the cottage --- in time for my first house guests Joey & Aiden from Boston. Unfortunately, for me (and probably for them) I'd managed to come down with some version of the flu and spent most of the weekend they were here in bed breaking a fever. They were troopers and managed to navigate pretty well on their own. And, hopefully, I'll be able to renew the friendship under better circumstances at some point the future.

Despite the continued crud from the bout with flu, I'm slowly getting back into my regular schedule -- work, chorale, volunteering for MCC and, importantly, the piano studies. I'm hopeful I'll be able to send in my second exam by the weekend after Thanksgiving. Still some additional practice tunings to go before I send in the tape -- but my unisons are beginning to sound pretty good -- let's hope the instructor agrees. (BTW I did get 100% on my first exam.)

So, I'm not exactly as far along as I'd like to be with the piano studies but life has intervened with a few sidetracks. As a friend once told me, life is all about learning how to manage Plan B.