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

[Erwinspiano@aol.com]

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In a message dated 1/13/2003 8:21:05 AM Pacific Standard Time, bigda@gte.net 
writes:

> Subj: My mistake.....my lesson....a cautionary tale 
>  Date: 1/13/2003 8:21:05 AM Pacific Standard Time
>  From: <A HREF="mailto:bigda@gte.net">bigda@gte.net</A>
>  Reply-to: <A HREF="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A>
>  To: <A HREF="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A>
>  Sent from the Internet 
> 
>           WOW,Big Dave
>            Is this pianist/ teachers name Shirley from Fresno. I had a 
> phscho client that was like this once. If it is a private e-mail might be 
> better. From personal experience I know the trauma of your post was 
> understated.

   Every thing was coming up Roses until something similar happened to me. 
All that venom followed me home some days later in the form of a nasty letter 
etc. My consolation was difficult but I found out later that Franz Mohr 
and,literally a half dozen other accomplished techs, had even looked/worked 
on her piano and she didn't like what he/ they  did either  
     I'll tell > you may not be able to win in her eyes but you did the right 
> thing as far as how you handled it and you learned a valuable lesson. 
> Tempermental Artist SHeesh!!
>        Regard and there ,there
>          Dale Erwin

             

> 
> Hello all-----I had a traumatic time on Friday; I'm still affected by it 
> today, Sunday, but I'm moving on.
> 
> Tuned and did a complete voicing ten days ago on a Steinway D, early 
> '80's, with 8-year-old
> Abel hammers, Renner shanks &whippens---hammers had been described as 
> "hard to control" by the owner (a wealthy lady, very nice and smart, who 
> has set up her house as a performance venue with the D and a Hamburg C 
> next to it) and are scheduled to be replaced in late spring---the owner 
> LOVED the tuning and voicing I had done, and had agreed that I would come 
> back to tune and tweak the piano before the performance last 
> night--Saturday-- by a rather famous performer and teacher.
> Friday was the only time we could both schedule the time.....***mistake 
> #1***.....performance pianos should be worked on as close to the 
> performance as possible.....So.  I got there on Friday, met the 
> artist---very kind, nice, self-effacing woman---heard her play; and we 
> both agreed that the treble was strident, and the rest of the piano was 
> pretty OK---perhaps a little on the bright side, but OK.  She left for 
> lunch, saying she would be back in 1.5 hours to help me with the voicing. 
> Meanwhile, the owner told me how many hours the piano had been played 
> since I tuned and voiced it last (about 15-20 relatively easy hours---not 
> at concert force) and further told me that the piano would be played at 
> least 4-6 hours before the performance, by the artist, AT concert force.
> 
> OK then.  I tuned the piano; the temperament was still almost perfect; 
> the notes at the low end of the treble bridge had come loose a little; 
> the whole capo section was slightly low; the bass unisons were subtly 
> phasing.  With the fresh tuning, the hammers sounded even more strident 
> than they had. The tuning, with coffee break, had taken about 1.3 hours. 
> I asked if the artist was back, was told not yet.
> ****Mistake #2****:  never stick a needle in a hammer without the artist 
> present, if at all possible.
> Let the artist play the freshly tuned piano---there may be a big enough 
> psycho-acoustic illusion happening that they say---"it sounds great---you 
> don't need to do anything else..."  or they may say go ahead with the 
> voicing.
> 
> So---due to a combination of subtle ego and sincere confidence that I 
> knew enough about this set of hammers, and Abels in general, to make a 
> nice positve change, I started voicing.
> ***Mistaker # 3: never assume your preference in piano tone, or the 
> owner's preference, in this case, is the artist's preference.  I had in 
> my mind the intent to serve the owner's tone perception.  Sincere, and 
> usually good, but wrong in that situation. I got the stridency out of the 
> treble, and then the rest of the piano sounded a bit out of balance with 
> the newly-voiced treble, so I went over the rest of the piano very 
> lightly in my usual conservative way---mark the notes that don't fit 
> their neighbors, make them fit their neighbors, and listen again.  When I 
> was done---maybe a half-hour later, the piano sounded, to me, very 
> beautiful:  golden and throaty at piano and mezzo, starting to snarl at 
> forte, and snarling &snapping at double forte.  I played it, and the 
> owner and I oohed and aahed over the sound.
> 
> In about 15 minutes (1.5 hours late) the artist returned, immediately sat 
> down at the piano, played, and said, "what did you do to this?"
> I said, "I took the stridency out of the top, as we agreed, and then 
> balanced the rest of the piano to the top."
> She said, "Well, you've killed the middle of the piano...."  and I saw 
> all the trust and good will leave her body, and leave the situation.  She 
> then made continual over-the-top, apocryphal statements about the piano 
> being dead, the hammers being "gone," the "quality" being "gone out of 
> the piano."
> 
> I was freaking.  Every statement she made about the piano was like a body 
> blow, and I took it personally. I realized, with a sinking heart, that 
> she would not be collaborative and work with me, through filing, 
> pounding, ironing, or subtle lacquering,  to get back the edge or snarl 
> at low volume that she had liked. I was, as far as she was concerned, 
> Typhoid Mary.  I did the right thing; I did not yell, scream, or debate 
> her; I took responsibility for my mistake, and offered to help in any way 
> possible to rectify the situation. I offered to come back the next 
> day---the day of the concert---hours before the concert on my dime and 
> work with the piano----and actually, I knew the hammers would come up and 
> be fine if she played them 4-6 hours.  But SHE had zero trust in that. In 
> her eyes, I was toast, and I knew her fear and panic would affect and 
> probably engulf the owner. I don't expect to hear from the owner again.
> 
> So, I felt bad for a day, then I moved on; I realized I did everything I 
> could do, I acted in an honorable professional manner, and I took the 
> hit.  That's show biz.
> 
> I will never stick a needle in a performance piano again without making 
> my best efforts to have the artist with me.  I will rededicate myself to 
> being a conservative voicer.  I will not allow an artist's fear, lack of 
> trust, and ignorance about how a piano works to affect me so deeply.
> 
> Hope this helps someone in some way........my best to all.....
> 
> David Andersen
> Malibu, CA
> 
> 
> 


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