concert vs. regular (was broken hammer springs)

[Dave Nereson]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <anrebe@zianet.com>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, December 22, 2003 9:34 AM
Subject: Broken Hammer Return Springs

(BTW, what is the difference between a "Concert Tuning" and a
> regular tuning?)

    Theoretically, there should be none.  Your "regular" tunings should be as "in tune" as the piano can be, but we all know that we spend more time and listen more critically when we're tuning that 7- or 9-footer on stage for a "concert artist"  than we do for the little spinet in the Sunday School of the church basement.
    IMO, for the average non-professional "piano player" (as opposed to "pianist", or concert artist), you could get by and satisfy most all of them most of the time tuning a piano using not much more than 4ths, 5ths, and octaves.  Only those who know what beats are and can hear them, or bother to listen for them,  will ever notice that the 3rds or 10ths, never mind 17ths don't necessarily increase in speed smoothly, ascending.  They're not going to sit down at their Wurlitzer spinet and play triple octaves, listening for the slightest waver.  They just want "Heart and Soul" (or whatever) to sound acceptably pretty.  
    And some people can probably tune a 9-footer using only 4ths, 5ths, and octaves, and the fast-beating intervals and double and triple octaves will automatically come out in a smooth progression just because they have a great ear and have been doing it for a long time.
    But usually, "concert tuning"  means you double- and triple-check everything to make sure the single, double, triple, and quadruple octaves are clean, the 4ths and 5ths aren't too fast, the 3rds, 10ths, & 17ths progressively increase in speed, ascending, and that the 12ths and all unisons are clean, that the tuning is tailored to the piano as well as possible, and if needed, some minor regulating and voicing might be included in the "tuning".  
    It has been argued that there's no such thing as a concert tuning, or that one shouldn't differentiate.  If there is, then all your other tunings are inferior, or if there isn't, then all your tunings are "concert tunings."  I dunno -- is there much point in spending two and a half hours doing a "concert tuning" on an old upright in a high school practice room, where the kids bang and carve on it and dump the remains of their lunch down the inside of it and it's not in the budget to even file the hammers and remove lost motion and replace the broken bass strings?  
    It's like anything else -- what's the difference between a "regular" car engine tune-up and a "professional race or sports car engine tune-up"?
    --David Nereson, RPT