Concert Tuning for Jim Brickman

[Farrell]

Anyone ever heard of a pianist named Jim Brickman? My understanding is that he writes and performs "adult contemporary" music and has won an Emmy Award (maybe more than one?).

Anyway, I tuned a Yamaha C7 for him the other day. I haven't had the guts to ask how the piano sounded for the concert. The AC vents above the stage (very small stage in a 100-seat venue) was blowing right onto the piano - there really wasn't any way to move the piano away from them, nor was there any way to direct the air elsewhere.

The piano was 10 cents flat upon arrival. During the two-hour pitch raising and tuning process, the AC probably cycled six times or more, blowing for lengthy times. That way I could get maybe one section of the scale tuned, and then while tuning the next section the pitch of the previous section would wander three to five cents sharp or flat. Needless to say, when all was said and done, this piano had about the worst octaves I have ever walked away from.

And then of course, later on, the 4,000 stage lights at 10,000 watts each will go on and be directed at the piano.

I use and ETD for tuning from a calculated curve. I have two questions. First, would an aural tuning process be better suited for this situation - my thinking is that every string the aural tuner sets has its pitch based on previous strings (read: previous octaves) - and maybe as the sections/octaves wander up and down with the AC, the aural tuner would be keeping better pace/pitch with the moving piano pitch? Second, is there anything else one can do in this situation? Or is the answer to question #2 "Welcome to concert work!"

Thanks.

Terry Farrell
Farrell Piano

BTW: This was a nearly-new C7. The bass strings sounded like crap - many had some level of "tubbyness". Even though the long bridge did not have a hockey stick tenor end, the last few notes in the tenor still had the "rubber-band" sound - rather poor break for a piano of this size (how did Yamaha manage that on a good size piano like this?). And it had a noticeable developing killer octave. IMHO, pretty sad state for such a "nice" piano.

www.farrellpiano.com
terry at farrellpiano.com
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