Complete Encyclopaedia of Music/B/Beats
Beats. The audible phenomenon attending the sounding of two notes at the same time, which approach within certain limits to the producing of a concord with each other, which the late Dr. Robert Smith, in his "Harmonics," has applied, with the happiest effect. to the practical tuning of instruments, according to any given system or arrangement of the intervals. The phenomenon of beats forms, also, the means by which practical tuners, unacquainted with theory, or the exact comparative magnitudes of intervals, adjust the notes of organs, piano-fortes, harps, &c., by the judgment of their ear, in the daily exercise of the tuning profession.