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A Piano Tuner Listens for the Wobble

8th grade nonfiction passage about piano tuning: 270 words, seven questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

8th grade nonfiction piano tuning 270 words

A Piano Tuner Listens for the Wobble

A piano tuner's most important tool is not a wrench or a gauge but a pair of well-trained ears. Inside a piano, most notes are sounded by two or three strings struck at the same time, and every string is stretched tight across a heavy frame. If those strings are even slightly different in pitch, the note sounds uneven. The tuner's job is to make them match.

The key is a sound called beating. When two strings are almost, but not quite, the same pitch, the sound waves drift in and out of step, and the listener hears a slow wobble in the volume, like a pulsing wah-wah. The farther apart the strings are, the faster the wobble. As the tuner turns a pin with a special lever, called a tuning hammer, the wobble slows down. When the pitches match exactly, the wobble disappears and the note sounds clear and steady.

To work on one string at a time, the tuner slides strips of felt between the strings to mute the others. The process usually begins with a single reference note, set with a tuning fork or an electronic device. After that, the tuner tunes by comparing notes against each other, adjusting each one a hair at a time until the whole keyboard fits together.

Pianos drift out of tune even when nobody plays them. The wooden soundboard swells in damp weather and shrinks in dry air, which slightly changes the tension of the strings. For this reason, tuners advise owners to have a piano serviced regularly and to keep it away from heating vents and open windows.

Questions

  1. What is a piano tuner's most important tool? in the text

  2. What is beating? in the text

  3. Why does the tuner slide strips of felt between the strings? in the text

  4. How does the tuner know when two strings match? in the text

  5. What makes a piano drift out of tune when nobody plays it? in the text

  6. Why do tuners say to keep a piano away from heating vents and open windows? think about it

  7. What does it tell the tuner when the wobble gets slower? think about it

Words to know

pitch
how high or low a sound is
beating
a pulsing wobble you hear when two pitches are very close
reference
a fixed point you compare other things against
soundboard
the big wooden panel inside a piano that makes the sound louder
tension
how tightly something is pulled
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One passage, three levels

The same topic and facts written three ways, so a mixed class can read and talk about one text. Each group’s sheet shows only a shape; the key says which is which.

● Easier · 225 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 3.6

A piano tuner's best tool is not a wrench. It is a pair of trained ears. In a piano, most notes are played by two or three strings that are struck together. Each string is pulled tight across a heavy frame. If the strings are a little different in pitch, the note sounds uneven. The tuner makes them match.

The key is a sound called beating. Two strings may be almost the same pitch, but not quite. Then you hear a slow wobble in the volume, like a pulsing wah-wah. The farther apart the strings are, the faster the wobble. The tuner turns a pin with a lever called a tuning hammer. The wobble gets slower. When the pitches match, the wobble goes away. The note sounds clear and steady.

The tuner works on one string at a time. Strips of felt go between the strings to mute the others. The tuner starts with one reference note from a tuning fork or an electronic device. Then the tuner compares notes and adjusts each one a little at a time.

A piano goes out of tune even if no one plays it. The wooden soundboard swells in damp weather and shrinks in dry air. This changes the tension of the strings. So tuners say to keep a piano away from heating vents and open windows.

▲ This passage · 270 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 7.6

A piano tuner's most important tool is not a wrench or a gauge but a pair of well-trained ears. Inside a piano, most notes are sounded by two or three strings struck at the same time, and every string is stretched tight across a heavy frame. If those strings are even slightly different in pitch, the note sounds uneven. The tuner's job is to make them match.

The key is a sound called beating. When two strings are almost, but not quite, the same pitch, the sound waves drift in and out of step, and the listener hears a slow wobble in the volume, like a pulsing wah-wah. The farther apart the strings are, the faster the wobble. As the tuner turns a pin with a special lever, called a tuning hammer, the wobble slows down. When the pitches match exactly, the wobble disappears and the note sounds clear and steady.

To work on one string at a time, the tuner slides strips of felt between the strings to mute the others. The process usually begins with a single reference note, set with a tuning fork or an electronic device. After that, the tuner tunes by comparing notes against each other, adjusting each one a hair at a time until the whole keyboard fits together.

Pianos drift out of tune even when nobody plays them. The wooden soundboard swells in damp weather and shrinks in dry air, which slightly changes the tension of the strings. For this reason, tuners advise owners to have a piano serviced regularly and to keep it away from heating vents and open windows.

■ Harder · 295 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 9.2

A piano tuner's most valuable tool is neither a wrench nor a gauge but a pair of carefully trained ears. Inside a piano, most notes are sounded by two or three strings that are struck at the very same instant, and every one of those strings is stretched tightly across a heavy metal frame. If the strings differ even slightly in pitch, the note sounds uneven and unpleasant. The tuner's task is to bring them into agreement.

The key to the process is a phenomenon called beating. When two strings are nearly, but not perfectly, the same pitch, their sound waves drift in and out of step with one another, and the listener hears a slow wobble in the volume, something like a pulsing wah-wah. The farther apart the strings are, the faster the wobble becomes. As the tuner turns a pin with a special lever known as a tuning hammer, the wobble gradually slows down. When the pitches finally match exactly, the wobble disappears altogether and the note sounds clear and steady.

To concentrate on a single string at a time, the tuner slides strips of felt between the strings in order to mute the others. The process usually begins with one reference note, which is set with a tuning fork or an electronic device. From there, the tuner works by comparing notes against one another, adjusting each by a hair's breadth until the entire keyboard fits together.

Pianos drift out of tune even when no one touches them. The wooden soundboard swells in damp weather and shrinks in dry air, which subtly changes the tension of the strings. For that reason, tuners advise owners to have a piano serviced regularly and to keep it well away from heating vents and open windows.

Download as one PDF

How to use it

  1. Press Read it big (or B) to put the text on the projector, or Full screen (F) to fill the whole screen.
  2. Ask the questions one at a time and use Show answer when the class has decided. A shows or hides every answer.
  3. Print student copy for the class, or Print with answers for yourself.

Ideas for class

  • Before reading, put pitch, beating, reference, soundboard and tension on the board with their meanings from the Words to know section and have students predict what the text will be about.
  • Read it aloud once while students follow along, then have them reread it alone or with a partner. At a calm 100 words a minute it takes about 3 minutes to read aloud.
  • Use the Read it big button (or B) to put the text on the projector, and Show answer on one question at a time so the class commits to an answer first.
  • Question 6 asks the reader to infer. Ask students to point to the words in the passage that led them to their answer.
  • Ask students to write one question the passage did not answer, then look for the answer in a book or on a classroom screen.
  • Print the student copy for independent work and keep the answer-key copy for yourself.

Related

Questions

What reading level is "A Piano Tuner Listens for the Wobble"?

It was written for 8th grade. It has 270 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 7.6. That is a formula's estimate from sentence length and syllables, and it is not a Lexile or a guided reading level, so check it against your students.

What do the questions ask?

There are seven. 5 ask for something the text says directly and 2 ask the reader to work something out from clues. Each has an answer in the key, and the answers are written as a teacher would accept them, not as the only possible wording.

How long does it take to read?

About 3 minutes read aloud at 100 words a minute. For a one-minute fluency check, paste it into the fluency timer and use the word count.

Can I print it?

Yes. Print student copy gives the passage, the questions with lines to write on, and the word meanings. Print with answers gives the same page with the answers filled in. Both are made in your browser.

Is this passage from a published book?

No. It was written for Peabody Teach, so there is no book to buy and no login to read it.

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