audience throws off pitch

[Marcel Carey]

Often enough I have to work in difficult situations. I tune a Yamaha
C-5 for a hall (pop music though) and have to tune in the morning.
I've gotten there to find the piano cold. No wonder they sometimes
call me back for another tuning after sound check. What I have found
is that the pitch will drift quite a bit (octaves mostly). If I have
to tune the piano the next day for another performance and find the
piano still cold, I will just touch up unisons and leave octaves
beating a little so that when the piano warms up it "should" fall into
place. I would like to have more precise scientific way to predict
this moving, butt...

The other place I work at is a summer music festival. They rehearse
all day, I tune in at around 5 pm, and as soon as I'm done, they start
the air conditionning FULL BLAST. The hall is small 500 seats and it
gets very hot once the concert starts. I can sometimes feel unisons at
the beginning of the concert, but it usually gets better as the hall
warms up until it gets to hot and then unisons start making a little
bit of noise again.

So, I think it is almost impossible to do a perfect tuning in these
circomstances. The way I found out works the best for me is to do a
tuning in the morning and then touch it up after rehearsal. When I
attend concerts, I usually keep my fingers crossed.

Marcel Carey, RPT
Sherbrooke, Qc

> -----Original Message-----
> From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org]On
> Behalf Of Barbara Richmond
> Sent: 25 mars, 2004 17:13
> To: Pianotech
> Subject: Re: audience throws off pitch
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Wally Scherer" <afinetune@yahoo.com>
> To: "pt" <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2004 9:48 AM
> Subject: audience throws off pitch
>
>
> > Continuing with the theme of factors in the auditorium
> > that throw off the pitch, like stage lights, I had
> > this experience a few years ago.
>
> So, does anybody else have anything to say about stage
> lights and how long
> it takes to throw off a tuning???
>
> I DO remember walking into the auditorium the morning
> *after* a recital, to
> find the piano open and the spots had been left on all
> night.  Obviously,
> the stage crew had left early!   The lights had been on for
> 12 hours and the
> piano felt......warm.   My reaction was to walk into the
> nearby telephone
> booth and change from mild mannered piano technician into
> *Dragon Woman*.
> It never happened again (leaving the lights on, that is).
> Maybe it was dumb
> luck, or fear of a woman who could breathe fire.  :-)
>
>
> Barbara Richmond, RPT
>
>
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