performance piano - student psychopathology 101

[Ed Sutton]

Otto-

That's why I suggested subtle (but perceptible) non-destructive voicing.  You can
also try changing  the strikepoint, which will give a warmer or brighter treble
tone on some pianos, reversible with the turn of 2 or 3 screws.

My experience has been that communication about voicing is a very difficult area
of the professor/technician relationship.  In the academic system, it is not the
perogative of the technician to be more sensitive to piano tone than the
professor, or to teach the professor about his/her own subjectivity.  Many piano
majors have a similar view of technicians. That is why I suggest doing a
reversible voicing procedure and asking the prof. to try it for a few days.  Then
if the mood changes, it is easy to undo the voicing in the other direction.

Incidentally, I found that a shellac solution (1 gram shellac flakes to 1 oz.
alcohol) brought back a little life to hammers split by glovers needles as you
describe.

Ed Sutton


----- Original Message -----
From: "Otto Keyes" <okeyes@uidaho.edu>
To: "College and University Technicians" <caut@ptg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2003 5:59 PM
Subject: Re: performance piano - student psychopathology 101


> However, the problem is not the split hammers.  Hammers are no big deal,
> though it may take awhile to get through all of them.  My goal is to change
> the prevailing culture here, not just the hammers.  In the "sensitive
> artist", confronting psychosomatically induced piano ills calls into
> question all sorts of things, including such inconsequencial things as
> talent, hearing ability, artistic judgement, technique, etc., etc.  Such
> things can get one into an adversarial situation very quickly, if not
> approached with great tact.  Therefore, I call upon your vast, collective
> experience.
>
> Otto