1st Concert Tuning Post-Mortem

[James Radford]

Thanks for the post-mortem Terry.  It sounds like it was a wothwhile
experience.

Jim Radford
Templeton, CA
-----Original Message-----
From: Farrell <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com>
To: pianotech@ptg.org <pianotech@ptg.org>
Date: Saturday, January 27, 2001 6:24 PM
Subject: 1st Concert Tuning Post-Mortem


>It's over. It's done. I had fun. Now that I've had a couple beers I can
>comment on my experience (Molson's, Roger & Derek! - seeing all that beer
>being consumed today made me thirsty - besides my nerves were kinda shot).
>It turns out the concerts were tonight (not during the day). The noon
tuning
>was for an afternoon sound check where the band and Richard Marx does a few
>tunes while checking out equipment. Then I tuned again right after K.D.
Lang
>finished her sound check (her show was scheduled for 6:30 PM, and Richard
>Marx for 8:00 PM). Keep in mind this is all outside at a huge festival with
>400,000 people!
>
>The first tuning went well. Yamaha C3 (kinda rough shape - older, w/
>apparent poor upkeep) was about 5 to 10 cents flat. Pitch raise, tune, tune
>again. Felt good about it. (That was after fixing the damper rod that the
>movers jammed in a funky position and fixing the lyre brace). Sat back,
>listened to sound check. Piano sounded great. I kept listening for Marx to
>say something nasty about the piano but he just dug in and pounded away on
>it. Made comments about mic levels and such, but seemed to enjoy playing
the
>piano! So I guess no news was good news.
>
>So I sat back for a few hours. Then after K.D. Lang (I talked with her a
>couple minutes, she seems down-to-earth and sweet) finished her sound
check,
>I was told I would have from then (4:50 pm) until 6:30 to tune (when K.D.
>Lang does her show). So I start pitch lowering because piano is 5 cents
>sharp. Then the bagpipes start off one side of the stage. Then the
accordion
>starts doing polkas off the front of the stage. Then the Air Force Blue
>Devils are roaring by. Then the "TEST, TEST, TEST, TESTING 1, 2, 3, TEST"
>starts. I thought that was noisy. What I did not know was what was about to
>start: Two local "talents" little 13 year-old girls singing and dancing
>MTV-style to that %&$#ing disco-rap cr#$. ON MY STAGE. Oh! The nerve. But I
>rolled with it and did the best I could. I think I actually got through it
>OK. If you plaster your ear on top of the strings, it's surprising what you
>can hear. Although in the hi treble, I was pounding so hard to hear (yes,
>yes, I know what it likely did to my ear - I WILL be buying ear plugs SOON)
>that I broke a string! Ooops! Tied off the one string, so that the one note
>now has only two strings rather than three. I seriously doubt the dude will
>hear it.
>
>My observations: I think a concert tuning for a talented professional
>classical pianist in a nice hall can be analogous to a brain surgeon doing
a
>delicate operation at the Mayo Clinic. My outing today (outdoor - oodles of
>drunk people - elevator rock band) was analogous to doing triage on the
>front line. Stop the bleeding. Stabilize. Move on. The sun was blasting the
>piano for the first tuning. Then at the second one, the temperature was
>dropping, dropping, dropping (you shoulda seen the girls in their little
>halter tops!). I checked the last two sections I tuned, and saw that they
>had both gone up 5 cents in pitch since I set them 15 minutes before!
YIKES!
>This is not tuning. I'm not really sure what it was. But tuning it was not.
>Well.......it was fun!
>
>I'd do it again. Next time I would charge more. For those that questioned
>the double tuning fee figure: The nature of the crowded event and the
tuning
>schedule totally prevented me from going home (or anywhere else) between
>tunings. Both tunings required pitch raises/lowerings. I left home at 9:30
>AM and got home at 7 PM. That works out to $33 per hour. I usually make
>between 50% and 75% more than that when I locally tune Mrs. Jones'
Acrosonic
>and Mrs. Smith's 4' 9" Fisher grand. The stage manager thanked me about 18
>times and said he would call me next time they were in town. He seemed
>genuinely happy that I put up with all the noise and uncertain schedule.
>Hey, I figure I'm just here doing time & I'll make the best of it!
>
>Now the professional classical pianist tuning gig: I am smart enough to say
>NO to that at this point because I know my voicing skills are not up to
>snuff. And I also wonder how I would do if someone started requesting real
>custom tuning specs - I don't feel qualified for that either.
>
>But where I was today, I think I done good - or at least as good as could
be
>done, under the circumstances. A good experience. A fun experience. K.D.
>Lang seems nice and Richard Marx plays electric elevator music (Yuk -
>boring - but I like the sound of his piano!).
>
>Terry Farrell
>Piano Tuning & Service
>Tampa, Florida
>mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com
>