Backchecking Height and an incredible help

[Stéphane Collin]

Hello David.

I loved this post.

Stéphane Collin.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Andersen" <bigda@gte.net>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2003 7:23 AM
Subject: Re: Backchecking Height and an incredible help



| 
| This is a truly fascinating phenomenon and thread.  It's so hard for the
| logical mind to surrender to the fact that there are things about a piano,
| and working on a piano, that seem to be beyond logic or figuring out.
| I guess that's what "craft" is about: the ability to produce or catalyze
| that extra added magic or mystery that makes the product or result of the
| craft more attractive than the next guy's efforts. This, IMO, is a result of
| 1) doing something thousands of times with attention, focus, and a student's
|    mind.
| 2) Trusting, and I mean really trusting, your body as a feedback loop,
| rather than your thoughts. The ear, and the heart, ARE the final arbiters.
| 
| I am extremely spatially and mechanically challenged.  I am in awe of many
| of y'all's understanding of how a piano works in a linear way.  And yet:
| people pay me top dollar in an extremely competitive market in one of the
| world's biggest cities because I can make a big, big difference in how their
| pianos sound and feel by making subtle, incredibly precise changes in
| tuning, voicing, and regulation that seem to work synergistically in a way
| that other technicians' efforts do not. And my gradual acquisition of these
| skills came not through my ability to understand and envision how a piano
| works, but to FEEL and HEAR what artists and serious players prefer.
| 
| One thing I can tell the people on this list with a decade or less in the
| craft:  trust yourself; don't place too much stock in what somebody else
| says until you try it and FEEL and HEAR that it's good.  I know I've learned
| a tremendous amount of extremely precious info and insight from certain
| people, and I'll always be grateful to them---Jack Cofer, Kenyon Brown, Bill
| Garlick, Virgil Smith, Bob Davis & Dale Erwin, Richard Davenport, and Tom
| Servinsky, and  to name just a few----but I've also bound myself, sent
| myself down dead-end roads for years, by buying somebody's advice or
| world-view about something to do with pianos that turned out to be not true
| for ME, or not the best way to do something for ME.
| 
| Trust yourself.  If you can't trust your ears, and your sensibilities, you
| should look for another way to make money.
| 
| End of rant.  Down off the soapbox.  My best to all.  Coming back to the
| List a little at a time after a nasty, shocking, and disappointing private
| exchange with another List member, then an especially vicious flare-up, the
| worst ever, of rheumatoid arthritis....I've let go of the first, and am
| getting healthier by the day. It's a frightening illness; send  me some good
| energy if you are so inclined.
| 
| with warm and respectful regards......
| 
| David Andersen
| Malibu, CA  
|  
| 
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|