[CAUT] FW: S&S Guidelines

[Fred Sturm]

On May 8, 2008, at 8:00 AM, A440A at aol.com wrote:

>   I do much the same, perhaps to a  bigger degree of slop or laziness,
> though.  I am tuning the hall pianos usually two or maybe three  
> times a week.

Hi Ed,
	I actually probably have much the same standard as you, and the way I  
stated it wasn't entirely accurate. I don't actually maintain pitch  
within one cent at all times (I'm not there often enough to do that).  
But I do, almost always, tune to 440 if pitch is outside one cent when  
I am there to tune. And I am in the hall once every week or two on  
average, though sometimes more than once a week.
	I schedule two hours in the hall for every faculty and guest recital,  
and then schedule additional times if there are gaps larger than two  
weeks between tunings. And I usually run through both pianos during  
that two hour slot. If they are within one cent, I run unisons and do  
whatever else I have time for. If they are more than one cent off, I  
pull to 440. I figure I will need to move almost all pins anyway  
(unisons are likely to be bad), so I might as well just do it. And due  
to the gap in time between tunings, I won't keep a good enough handle  
on things if I let them slide too far. Been there, done that, wasn't  
good.
	I am also very conscious that the two pianos may be played at the  
same time, so I want them to match pretty closely. Just a month ago I  
attended a student recital, and was surprised to find a Steve Reich  
piece for two pianos. Talk about need for the tunings to match!! Both  
pianos playing figurations of the same chord tones ad infinitum with  
small variants  of rhythm, accent and pattern. Any pitch difference  
between pianos would be pretty obvious and painful. And this kind of  
music is very popular these days.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico
fssturm at unm.edu