My mistake.....my lesson....a cautionary tale

[Richard Brekne]

Hi David

I have been reading the posts back and forth, and wonder greatly at some of the
conclusions made.

To begin with, I do not think any of us have enough personal knowledge of your
voicing skills to automatically condemn the artist or you. And I dont think any
of this is the point anyways.

I think you are very correct in thinking that voicing for a concert artist is
best done with the artist present. And I personally never write off a pianists
ideas of what is "right" or "wrong" piano sound. It is enough for me to know
that this varies from person to person and that these ideas represent only that
pianists likes and dislikes.

The trick here is to find out as quickly as possible what the pianist wants,
and try to provide it. Voicing skills are not just a matter of getting a sound
YOU are satisified with. If it was then the whole process would be much easier
then it is.

It is true that some pianists are very difficult. It is also true that some
pianists easily tend towards the abusive and that you dont have to accept that
behavior. And while these are so, it is also true that most of these people
have very good ears of their own. The fact that many, if not most, lack the
terminology to describe their preferences to a piano tech does not detract from
the quality of their ears.

For her, you probably DID kill the middle of the piano. Perhaps you made quite
a significant overall change in the character of the piano. Sometimes this is
approriate, sometimes it is not.. the trick is to know when... and I'll be the
first to hand to you that that trick can be a difficult one to get right 100 %
of the time.

But if there is a rule of thumbs, I would think that makeing more then very
minor changes just before a concert is not a good idea. If that is necessary,
then the instrument must have radically bad tone to begin with and in that case
you are in a no lose situation.

I wouldnt worry about it tho. Chalk it up to experience, and remember that a
good technician always does well in the end. You cant win em all, but you will
win more and more with each and every new improvement you make in your skills.
And that means both technical and people skills.

Cheers

RicB

--
Richard Brekne
RPT, N.P.T.F.
UiB, Bergen, Norway
mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no
http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html