# What can make the closest to a single frequency tone? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 31, 2012, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-make-the-closest-to-a-single-frequency-tone/633258 "2012-08-31T14:13:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-make-the-closest-to-a-single-frequency-tone/633258/41 "2012-09-03T16:53:50Z")
you can tune a piano ---
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-make-the-closest-to-a-single-frequency-tone/633258/42 "2012-09-03T16:59:20Z")
In Russia piano tunes you. OH more seriously I’ve been listening to Andras Schiff on the French Suites for a couple hours – whoever teched his piano really knew what he or she was doing. The unisons are off but I’m assuming that’s after one suite and got bent out. The action he favors (again, I’m assuming he has the piano set up the way he likes it) is interesting. [- YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeBz6BMQVOo&feature=related) ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-make-the-closest-to-a-single-frequency-tone/633258/43 "2012-09-03T18:34:19Z")
> [@Voluble](#): > > Human voices are very messy things and can’t come close to producing a clean sign wave… let alone a perfect one. Obviously, if she could produce a pure sign wave it would sound nothing like a human voice at all. That’s a **[sine](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sine_wave)** wave, not a sign wave. A sign wave would be like, “Hey, look over there – a big-ass billboard!” ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-make-the-closest-to-a-single-frequency-tone/633258/44 "2012-09-03T19:02:24Z")
> [@Jaledin](#): > > …whoever teched his piano really knew what he or she was doing. The unisons are off but I’m assuming that’s after one suite and got bent out. … One of these two statements must be false. ---
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-make-the-closest-to-a-single-frequency-tone/633258/45 "2012-09-03T20:02:29Z")
No, I’m thinking that’s what happened – are you serious that a good talented tech can prevent some flexion of the pins/tuning over the course of a few hours of marathon Bach playing? Willing to admit you might be right – just never heard that techs could compensate in advance for that kind of thing. But I’m not a piano tuner, and not a technician – in fact all I know about piano is you hit the keys hard wearing a helmet! Shed some light, man! Oh, that is a good run Schiff did on the French suites. I forgot about him for twenty years – good stuff. His corrante on that one is not too brilliant the way I think about a corrante but he makes up for it in spades with the voice leading and some intelligent phrasing and probably some historical work on the ornamentation. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-make-the-closest-to-a-single-frequency-tone/633258/46 "2012-09-04T14:40:39Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > you can tune a piano but you can’t tuna fish nobody took the bait. i recalled that catchy title, though not who or what. looked it up. REO Speedwagon album. cover art has a tuning fork in the mouth of a fish. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-make-the-closest-to-a-single-frequency-tone/633258/47 "2012-09-04T15:05:58Z")
> [@Jaledin](#): > > No, I’m thinking that’s what happened – are you serious that a good talented tech can prevent some flexion of the pins/tuning over the course of a few hours of marathon Bach playing? > > Willing to admit you might be right – just never heard that techs could compensate in advance for that kind of thing. But I’m not a piano tuner, and not a technician – in fact all I know about piano is you hit the keys hard wearing a helmet! Shed some light, man! > > Oh, that is a good run Schiff did on the French suites. I forgot about him for twenty years – good stuff. His corrante on that one is not too brilliant the way I think about a corrante but he makes up for it in spades with the voice leading and some intelligent phrasing and probably some historical work on the ornamentation. I’ll take this off-thread, if you like. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-make-the-closest-to-a-single-frequency-tone/633258/48 "2012-09-04T19:06:53Z")
If whistling does indeed produce such a pure tone, is that why whistling a tune in unison with another person is so difficult, whereas singing a tune in unison with another person is comparitively easy? Do the overtones of the singing voice mask imperfections in the exact pitch being produced, such overtones not being present in whistling? ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-make-the-closest-to-a-single-frequency-tone/633258/49 "2012-09-04T19:36:06Z")
We’re better at larynx control than lip control. I wonder if French people whistle better than Americans do. I remember after good French vowel classes my lips feeling quite sensitive, almost tired in a way. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-make-the-closest-to-a-single-frequency-tone/633258.md?page=2)