h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A9913638

I have made the following changes to this entry:

Moved the REFERENCE and CREDITS sections to after the /BODY tag. This was causing the footnotes to appear at the start of the entry rather than at the end, and Jeremy's name to appear in Yellow at the bottom of the entry.

"At current concert pitch the A above middle C (the one the open 5th string is tuned to) is 440Hz2 (and the middle C is about 261.6Hz.) ou don't need to know these frequencies but it explains why some electronic tuners have '440Hz' written on them."

This is misleading - the 440 Hz A is two octaves above the one the open 5th string is tuned to. I've reworded this as:

"At current concert pitch, the A above middle C is 440Hz2. You don't need to know this frequency but it explains why some electronic tuners have 440 written on them. This note is two octaves above the note produced by your open 5th string, but will sound like the same note. You should tune this string to A based on a concert pitch A, and then tune the rest of the strings to be in tune with this one."

G

Well done Gnomon; I was about to post something about that.

Would it be too much to request a link to A1339076 "Sol-Fa - The Key to Temperament" at the point where temperament is mentioned? There is a link from a footnote to the Brass Instruments entry, but who knows, someone might like to follow up the maths in this one . . .

I've found out that Zarlino and Descartes quietly massaged the figures for the "natural scale" and I might propose a new footnote to A1339076 about that (some time).

Actually the third paragraph under the header "Some Temperaments" in A1339076 is specifically about tuning guitars.

Where exactly would you suggest I put the link to your entry?

Oh, yes, he doesn't mention temperament at all. That would need a "further information" par at the end with something like "more about tuning and the question of 'temperament' can be found in A0000000" and maybe that's more information than the author wants.

However, I would like to suggest an addition to the par under the subheader "tuning forks". He says they are quiet and impractical, but it ain't necessarily so. How about adding "The note can be heard clearly if, after striking the fork smartly on your knee (or your head), you grip its handle firmly between your teeth."

Tuning forks have other interesting applications such as tickling children's noses.

By the way there is no good reason why this is headed CF. Purest typo, which I only now noticed.

There is a very good reason why this conversation is entitled CF. It is the curator's page, where curators report on what they have done. This is purely for the record - nobody has to read them once they have CF in the title. If this were in the Editorial Feedback forum, curators would be leaping to perform the changes. (I invented the EF prefix, by the way. I may have invented the CF as well, I'm not sure).

Remind of this when it is not 00:20.

Apologies, I thought I had started this thread but I only replied to it; so CF means Curators' Forum (or Feedback)?

And EF: of course you started that usage Gnomon, I remember it.

I've added your comment about a tuning fork held in the teeth.