brightness of Steinways

[Wilsons]

I would suggest not jumping off the deep end without some training,
coaching, or someone to act as a mentor.  Great starting points are PTG
conventions or conferences where Wally Brooks is teaching, or one of
Steinway & Sons reps, or Rick Baldassin for Renner.  There are others who
teach excellent classes on basic voicing techniques.  It takes a while to
learn.  

Wally Wilson, RPT
Ravenswood, WV
Columbus, OH chapter

At 03:54 PM 2/14/01 -0500, you wrote:
>Voicing is a matter of taste, just like food is.
>
>A couple of issues, the brighter a piano the narrower the dynamic
>range.
>
>At the other extreme the softer the tone the narrower the dynamic
>range.
>
>Hammers need two elements, resilience and elasticity.  Resilience to
>be compressed when hitting the strings and elasticity to push off the
>string to raise the string higher and to move out of the way to allow
>the string to vibrate.  The lover the hammer is on the string the less
>intense the higher harmonics and visa versa.
>
>Power and projection are best attained in the middle range between
>dull and bright.
>
>Hammers change after voicing for several days or even weeks.  Some
>hardeners take months to stabilize.  What you have today will NOT be
>what you have next week.  So wait a while.
>
>Voicing is the final operation after regulation and it is not just
>hardening or softening hammers, those are the end stages of voicing. 
>First and foremost the hammers must mute each string in a unison when
>it is lifted to contact the strings and the strings are plucked with
>the dampers off the string.  If this is not the case then no amount of
>"voicing" will get you a good sound.
>
>Personally I find the typical Asian piano sound obnoxious and very non
>music.
>
>Voicing must be done with the desires of the customer, the environment
>of the piano, the capabilities of that instrument in mind at all times
>and it is an involves extremely complex interactions of all those
>elements and soundboard response, sustain, decay and musicality as
>well as other factors, concrete, objective and subjective.
>
>Just my not so humble opinion.
>
>		Newton J. Hunt, RPT (1965)
>		Rutgers University Keyboard Specialist, retired
>		New Jersey
>