I have the “CLEARTUNE” tuner App installed on my iPhone. I like it because it is both a tuner and a tone generator, it can be calibrated so that any frequency can be set as “A” instead of the normal 440 Hz, and it can be set for “Pythagorean Just” temperament (cycle of fifths) – so that it is not trying to average the wolf-interval across the notes of the scale as with “Equal Temperament” on most tuners. (It also used to play through headphones via Bluetooth – although unfortunately the current version does not support this essential capability – so I will need to find another tone generator which does).
As you recall, I had found three frequencies that seemed to be resonant “still points” of universal vibration: 5.4, 7.2 and 10.8 Hz.
So, I calibrated my tuner to 460.8 Hz (7.2 Hz x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 = 460.8 Hz, which is a B-flat), as my reference “A” frequency, and then set the Transpose function to “minus 1”. (This makes sense as A is one half-step below B-flat):
Amazingly, when I did this, the tuner’s reading for “A” came out to be 432 Hz – which is considered another of those magical frequencies having to do with the speed of light and the ratio of the Moon to the Sun, etc. That, by itself was further evidence that the frequencies I had found were confluent with other people’s research into fundamental frequencies – “research”, I might add, that goes back beyond Verdi and Zarlino in the 16th century.
(A = 440 Hz was a new standard master-minded by the English and the Germans, shortly before World War II, seemingly based arbitrarily on no naturally occurring vibration. Perhaps it is no surprise that since its introduction in the early 1900’s the World has experienced the most catastrophic and chaotic period of civilization in recorded history.)
Back to the good news. Now we have a tuner that is calibrated to use our discovered resonance of 7.2 Hz as its reference pitch, and can assess other vibrations it detects as harmonics, in relation to this frequency.
Suggested approaches:
- If you’re a guitar player, pick a single note as your reference pitch – e.g. B-flat = 460.8 Hz, or A=432 Hz – and play that note on every single string (e.g. 5th fret on the first string, 10th fret on the second string, etc.) and tune your instrument in that way. Assuming that your instrument’s intonation is set up correctly, all the other notes will be in tune (or at least as much as they can be on an equal temperament instrument like a fretted guitar! )
- Or, re-tune all instruments all over the world so that the note formally known as B-flat will now be called A. This is a not very practical solution, so option 1 may be your better bet
- Buy a programmable tuner such as the ST-300 from Sonic Research – which I own and recommend – as it allows you to enter the exact frequency you want for each note.