Tuning

I have been pretty busy lately, busiest time of the year at work and just general goings on. I have not started any building yet, but have done some more reading. The book was about the tuning of percussion instruments and went in to a lot of the history and physics of the tuning process. I had to return the item to the library, and now can not remember the exact title, but it was mostly over my head anyway.What I did learn though may help me get a good crisp sound out of the xylophone.

Prior to the 1920s most percussion instruments were only tuned to their fundamental pitch. As the instruments began to be used more and more by professionals, there was a demand for a crisper sound and instrument makers began to tune the secondary pitch as well. There was a lot of math involved in determining the best shapes to use to get the best sound, but it can be applied fairly easily. After cutting the main arch into the blank, I will sand the middle area of the arch to bring the key to within 1/2 a step of being tuned. In other words, if I am trying to tune the key to C4, I will stop sanding the middle of the arch at C4#. The remainder of the tuning will be done at the "corners" of the arch. This will remove the uniformity of the arch, but is supposed to make a much cleaner note.

I will certainly put in some pictures of how this goes. I will be on vacation after Christmas and am hoping to get started on my first blank during that time. Hang in there and I will get a xylophone built.