[CAUT] Too tall!!??

[David Ilvedson]

I tune each piano as best I can and don't worry about it.   In my opinion, any slight differences between notes will add to the quality of sound.   Imagine if a string section was absolutely playing the same pitches (not likely... '-])...IMHO.

David Ilvedson, RPT
Pacifica, CA  94044

----- Original message ----------------------------------------
From: "Susan Kline" <skline at peak.org>
To: caut at ptg.org
Received: 4/7/2010 6:32:49 PM
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Too tall!!??



>>Also, on another note; How do you all like to tune two pianos 
>>together?  One venue has a Baldwin D and Steinway D together, the 
>>other venue has a Steinway D and B to be tuned together on Friday 
>>(UGH!) I've done my usual for the 2 9'-ers but; Any tips on the 9' 
>>and 7' together would be great help.  I've never been happy with 
>>those two pianos together, but that's my only choice.

>What I like to do is to pick the better of the two pianos, call it 
>the "master" and then roll them so I can reach both keyboards at 
>once. Sometimes both facing each other with just room for me in 
>between, sometimes at an acute angle to each other. Part way through 
>I shift one so I can reach the upper or the lower register of both at 
>once, as may be.

>I put the tuning on the "master", and then I set the A and tune the 
>temperament on the lesser, then check it note by note against the 
>"master", then move outward, checking now and then. When the lesser 
>piano doesn't quite want the same pitch (tenor and bass, if the two 
>are different lengths), I just make it give in, and keep the unisons 
>between the two dead on with each other. When I'm finished, I check 
>note by note, the entire scale.

>I've been very pleased by the results from doing this. If I can't 
>move one of the pianos so I can play both at once, I set the A's as 
>carefully as possible, and tune them separately as best I can, but 
>the results are usually only acceptable, not pleasing to me.

>Newport's SD-10 and Steinway D are never happier than when nested 
>together, with the lid off the Baldwin. They suddenly are best buds, 
>in spite of being different, and both gather resonance from each 
>other, partly, I think, because the entire scale is exactly the same on both.

>You can really tell how you're doing when a two piano piece has both 
>instruments exactly doubling each other, as happens now and then. If 
>it sounds like the unisons are as good as if it were just one piano, 
>you've aced it. ("and we are unanimous in that!")

>Susan Kline
>Newport Arts Center, Oregon State University