On Sep 17, 2009, at 1:00 AM, Paul Milesi wrote: > Can a string cover be left on the piano during recitals? The first > person to play with it on last week thought it was damping the > tone. I’m sure it is to some extent, but was thinking it’s tonal > effects are nominal, and are far outweighed by gains in tuning > stability and rust prevention. What are your thoughts on this? Is > the sensatin of damped tone anything more than psychological? I would say the difference is probably a good bit greater for the player than for the audience. However, that is a significant factor, as the performer is reacting in real time to what the instrument is putting out in his/her direction. Presence or absence of the music desk can be significant in what the performer hears, and it is a somewhat similar difference (though the string cover will have at least some impact on what the audience hears, while the music desk won't). It can sometimes be difficult for a performer, particularly a young green one, to compensate for and adapt to differences like this. IOW, yes, to a large extent it is psychological (though with a physical component), but that has its own reality and importance. Music is a head game, and if the head game doesn't work. the physical aspects will suffer as well. For some pianists, the change from the string cover's presence will be positive (it will "voice the instrument down a bit"), so it will be a mixed bag. Probably they'll all get used to it in fairly short order. It's just a change, like adding muting felt to a duplex, or voicing. BTW, I think bottom covers probably have more impact on tuning stability, though string covers are the thing for corrosion. With respect to filling tanks, I'd say you should accept all the help you can get, but not count on it. Letting tanks go dry means the pads instantly need to be changed (they get hard and stop absorbing efficiently). So I would definitely go through regularly and keep an eye on them. Regards, Fred Sturm University of New Mexico fssturm at unm.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20090917/aff236d3/attachment.htm>
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