Good book on voicing...?

[David Andersen]

>   You could go through the archives looking for the discussions, but they
> might be listed under any conceivable off-topic subject other than
> "voicing."
>   --David Nereson, RPT


Great post, Dave. Voicing is both the Holy Grail and the most confounding
and subjective part of our craft; voicing performance or recording
instruments is only for the truly fearless.

You must consciously start to develop a tonal memory, a mental/aural
"picture" of what your ideal is.

You must listen---REALLY listen---to a piano from all different positions:
do not be afraid to put your head right in the thing, like a microphone
"hears;" listen at 3 feet, then 6, then 12 feet away. Slide under the piano
and listen from there. If the room is big, listen from 20-40-60 feet away.

Note the impact of the sound on your body in the various positions. Note the
sometimes vast difference in the tone as heard from the player's position
and the listener's.

Eric Schandall, a MAJOR voicing wizard, prepared the Steinway D played by
Fred Hersh(sp?) at the Nashville convention.  That sucker, which was
"thrashed," according to Eric, prior to his 15 hours of work on the thing,
sounded absolutely gorgeous, limpid, and full-throated from every position
in that nasty hotel ballroom.  I heard it outside the closed door of the
ballroom, 160 feet away from the stage; from 75 feet away on the left side
of the room, and from 20 feet away, right off the tail of the piano.
Then, when the crowd had moved on to the next room to get their sugar and
alcohol rush <g> I went up on the stage and played the thing. It sounded
like s**t from the player's position, all glassy and brittle. How could it
have sounded so luminous in the hall? Another huge lesson for me about "low
compression" hammers and the use of hardeners to achieve your goal in a
performance. 


There is so much; voicing is like an ocean of knowledge; I feel like a baby,
just starting out, after 30 years in this craft. What a lucky man I am.

David Andersen