First day back at work, with an annoying thumb!

I admit that I was worried that I wouldn’t survive today, but I did. I have been so freaking drowsy for a week, and today sleep did not matter to me, because I was having fun going over partials again. Why the course teaches partials so early on in the first year of tuning baffles me. It certainly confused the new guy and it was a challenge to explain to Johan – Johan is partially sighted, but is doing very well in tuning so far. I appreciated the recap of partials, and discovered that the “cheat” that I got from somewhere was a bad idea, because it confused me.

Testing the intervals with the “cheat” had me getting confused and forgetting that the fifth uses a 3:2 partial and the fourth uses a 4:3 partial. I’m rather slow at playing the partial etude. Oh bugger, my thumb hurts!
I have an etude to practice every day. Partials are harmonics, but they are called partials – pianos are not harmonic.

I got to pitch-raise a piano again. I managed to pitch an octave, but then figured out that to play with octaves was not going to work. My thumb is too sensitive, especially the tip. So I used the opportunity to train my ears in listening skills by playing an octave one note at a time with one finger, and then testing with both hands. I had to correct as I went along, where needed with my tuning app. Many of the keys had under-motion and it was easier to play after correcting this.

My first day back at worked proved to be fun, apart from the random jabs my nerves were giving me in my thumb!