1st Concert Tuning Post-Mortem

[Farrell]

It's over. It's done. I had fun. Now that I've had a couple beers I can
comment on my experience (Molson's, Roger & Derek! - seeing all that beer
being consumed today made me thirsty - besides my nerves were kinda shot).
It turns out the concerts were tonight (not during the day). The noon tuning
was for an afternoon sound check where the band and Richard Marx does a few
tunes while checking out equipment. Then I tuned again right after K.D. Lang
finished her sound check (her show was scheduled for 6:30 PM, and Richard
Marx for 8:00 PM). Keep in mind this is all outside at a huge festival with
400,000 people!

The first tuning went well. Yamaha C3 (kinda rough shape - older, w/
apparent poor upkeep) was about 5 to 10 cents flat. Pitch raise, tune, tune
again. Felt good about it. (That was after fixing the damper rod that the
movers jammed in a funky position and fixing the lyre brace). Sat back,
listened to sound check. Piano sounded great. I kept listening for Marx to
say something nasty about the piano but he just dug in and pounded away on
it. Made comments about mic levels and such, but seemed to enjoy playing the
piano! So I guess no news was good news.

So I sat back for a few hours. Then after K.D. Lang (I talked with her a
couple minutes, she seems down-to-earth and sweet) finished her sound check,
I was told I would have from then (4:50 pm) until 6:30 to tune (when K.D.
Lang does her show). So I start pitch lowering because piano is 5 cents
sharp. Then the bagpipes start off one side of the stage. Then the accordion
starts doing polkas off the front of the stage. Then the Air Force Blue
Devils are roaring by. Then the "TEST, TEST, TEST, TESTING 1, 2, 3, TEST"
starts. I thought that was noisy. What I did not know was what was about to
start: Two local "talents" little 13 year-old girls singing and dancing
MTV-style to that %&$#ing disco-rap cr#$. ON MY STAGE. Oh! The nerve. But I
rolled with it and did the best I could. I think I actually got through it
OK. If you plaster your ear on top of the strings, it's surprising what you
can hear. Although in the hi treble, I was pounding so hard to hear (yes,
yes, I know what it likely did to my ear - I WILL be buying ear plugs SOON)
that I broke a string! Ooops! Tied off the one string, so that the one note
now has only two strings rather than three. I seriously doubt the dude will
hear it.

My observations: I think a concert tuning for a talented professional
classical pianist in a nice hall can be analogous to a brain surgeon doing a
delicate operation at the Mayo Clinic. My outing today (outdoor - oodles of
drunk people - elevator rock band) was analogous to doing triage on the
front line. Stop the bleeding. Stabilize. Move on. The sun was blasting the
piano for the first tuning. Then at the second one, the temperature was
dropping, dropping, dropping (you shoulda seen the girls in their little
halter tops!). I checked the last two sections I tuned, and saw that they
had both gone up 5 cents in pitch since I set them 15 minutes before! YIKES!
This is not tuning. I'm not really sure what it was. But tuning it was not.
Well.......it was fun!

I'd do it again. Next time I would charge more. For those that questioned
the double tuning fee figure: The nature of the crowded event and the tuning
schedule totally prevented me from going home (or anywhere else) between
tunings. Both tunings required pitch raises/lowerings. I left home at 9:30
AM and got home at 7 PM. That works out to $33 per hour. I usually make
between 50% and 75% more than that when I locally tune Mrs. Jones' Acrosonic
and Mrs. Smith's 4' 9" Fisher grand. The stage manager thanked me about 18
times and said he would call me next time they were in town. He seemed
genuinely happy that I put up with all the noise and uncertain schedule.
Hey, I figure I'm just here doing time & I'll make the best of it!

Now the professional classical pianist tuning gig: I am smart enough to say
NO to that at this point because I know my voicing skills are not up to
snuff. And I also wonder how I would do if someone started requesting real
custom tuning specs - I don't feel qualified for that either.

But where I was today, I think I done good - or at least as good as could be
done, under the circumstances. A good experience. A fun experience. K.D.
Lang seems nice and Richard Marx plays electric elevator music (Yuk -
boring - but I like the sound of his piano!).

Terry Farrell
Piano Tuning & Service
Tampa, Florida
mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com