What you are is what you hear

[Susan Kline]

Dear Andr=E9,
This is a fascinating question.  Thank you so much for your post!  We can
all benefit from your "ordeal" in Hamamatsu.
 =20
I imagine you considered the problem of stability after your discovery.  Do
you think that the warm rich tone could be achieved by gentle tuning, and
then tested by heavy blows?  Will the warm tone remain after heavy blows?
(If not, some pianists will destroy it in 10 seconds.) Did you find that
stability was worse with gentle tuning?=20
Is it possible to refine hammer technique enough to compensate for lack of
heavy blows?

Do you feel that the "hearingprint" is something people are born with, or do
they develop it?  (i.e. -- could they improve it?)  It seems like different
tonal character in different pianos.  The makers of different countries and
eras had different tonal ideals in their minds, and they moved heaven and
earth to achieve them.

Thanks again for your message from tomorrow morning!   Susan


>After having finished one such a tuning test, my teacher made a gentle
compliment about the outcome. He then mentioned, that I should not strike
the keys so hard in the process of tuning. In other words; don't bang too=
 much!=20
>I answered that I pounded the keys, out of fear that a pianist would
otherwise kick my foundation to ruins in only 5 minutes!
>
>The teacher then asked me to first listen to a couple of tones and imprint
the sound in my ears.
>Next, he ordered me to re-tune the left and right strings of each unison
(of said keys) but this time >not< to strike too hard.
>I did as he said, and to my utter amazement these same notes sounded
>completely< different, they were richer, warmer and more saturated.
>We both became enthusiastic and he asked me to give all other unisons the
same treatment, which I gladly did. After I had finished this task, there
was a completely different and truly beautiful concert grand.....
>
>The explaination for this is that when we strike hard, we hear a different
series of overtones more prominently than when we strike less hard.
>
>The next day I applied this new procedure on a fresh tuning test and I was
full of inspiration.=20
>I flew over the strings like a jet, I gave all I had... and the chart
proved this ; a beautiful straight line with hardly any major errors.
>A high (daily) score on the door of my box and that day (only) the other
(japanese) students walked by my door like blazing cats! PAH!
>
>This time, the teacher made a remark about "my tone" being very nice. I did
not understand him right away because, and this I told him, "the instrument
has a nice tone...not me...how can this be"? (but I was secretly mollified
of course...)
>He asked me to follow him and we went out of the "box" to get the other
students, and we assembled around one of the other concert grands.
>Here he asked each of us to tune three tones, two fifths together..like
a-e-b, a#-f-c, etc. resulting in five sets of double fifths.
>Again, the outcome was significant...because each set had a distinct
different nature!
>
>The teacher even had us each tune the same tone over and over, and with
each student the tone had a different color!
>
>The explaination comes to this;=20
>As each of us has a different fingerprint, so does each individual have a
different "hearingprint" resulting in a different tone.
>
>All these phenomena are related to how we "listen to" and "judge" our "own"
piano sounds and those of numerous others...=20
>And that makes it even more complicated to come to a "perfect" result.
>
>
>
>
>Friendly Greetings from:
>
>CONCERT PIANO SERVICE
>Andr=E9 Oorebeek
>Amsterdam, the Netherlands
>email address: oorebeek@euronet.nl
>
>=89 Where Music is no harm can be =89
>
>
>

Susan Kline, R.P.T.
skline@proaxis.com
P.O. Box 1651,
Philomath, OR 97370
(541) 929-3971