On stage tuning

[Martin Wisenbaker]

One Sunday afternoon back in 1978 I was relaxing after lunch with my wife
and my in-laws who were visiting us from Arkansas when  I got a call to
tune at the then Astroworld for Lief  Garrett, a teen age idol. All four
of us got in our car and went there. The stage hands were still setting
up everything. The piano, a Gulbransen electric, was not yet set up. I
had to wait for it to be set up. But the teen age audience was already in
place. As soon as the piano was set up and ready I began tuning it. I am
an aural tuner. The only way I could hear was to turn on the
amplification and turn the volume up some. I got about two thirds of the
way through the tuning with my wife and her parents sitting and watching
off to one side on stage. Then the teen age audience began chanting
loudly, "WE WANT LIEF, WE WANT LIEF, WE WANT LIEF". The man who had
called me was standing there. I looked at him and told him, "I can't hear
it". He said, "Just do the best you can". I turned the volume all the way
up and "finished". He paid me double and gave all four of us free tickets
to Astroworld. It really made a good show for my in-laws and my wife too.
They had never seen anything like that. And I hope I never do again
either. I was not nervous but it was a challenge for me. 

Regards,
Martin Wisenbaker, RPT
Houston, Texas