The Good kind of Heavy

[Barbara Richmond]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Brekne" <Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2004 10:46 AM
Subject: Re: The Good kind of Heavy


> >
> > ......  And I have an almost a perfect record in figuring out what they
> > were referring to (lucky me!) or getting (if I was willing and it was
> > possible) the results they wanted.  There was just one case that stumped
> >me,
> > and I can't tell you about it here, because it qualifies as politically
> > incorrect.  :-)
> >
> Ah come on... I wont tell.

Yeah, you and the hundreds of other people on this list. :-)

>Besides... what's politically correct at any
> given time varies far more wildly then just about anything else on the
> planet... if you wait a couple days... it will be politically incorrect
> to not reveal your story.

OK, I can tell the technical aspect of the story (which I'm afraid will be
one of those every man's stories):  I was called in when a visiting artist
was complaining of some damper noise on one note (can't remember which one
now) on a SteinwayD.  I couldn't hear it if I played the note and I couldn't
hear it if I played the note while operating the damper pedal.  So I asked
him if it was a problem sometimes or all the time.  Very often, was the
answer.  I asked him to play a passage where the problem showed itself.  He
played it and looked at me.  I still couldn't hear it.  I was scared to
death that there was something wrong with my hearing--especially since I had
followed that nice gentleman technician who suffered from hearing loss.

Well, it was time for me to do the final concert prep, the artist and the
hosting faculty member went off for dinner and I did everything I could to
insure trouble free damping, cleaning the strings, adjusting/cleaning the
felt, making sure the regulation was what it should be, etc.  I listened for
buzzing, I even checked the voicing and regulation of the note to see if
there could be anything astray there that he might be hearing.

I attended the recital, worrying the whole time, but hearing nothing
unusual.  I asked another member of the piano faculty (who had a wealth of
knowledge about the workings of pianos) if he had heard anything wrong.  No.
At the reception, the hosting faculty member came up to me said rather
off-handedly, "You know, I could hear it, too."   My heart sank.  I went
home thinking it might be time for me to consider a new profession.
However, as time passed, I realized no one else ever complained, and I never
heard it, or anything about it again.

I guess the artist was sensitive to something, but I don't know what.

So what's politically incorrect?  Yes, I left out the comments I made to a
friend in expressing my frustration about it all--we all do that sometimes,
don't we?  Just insert any of your experiences of feeling frustrated and
what you may have or would have liked to say.  ;-)  (Sorry to disappoint you
and my apologies for inserting that teaser in the first place--I really
would not want to offend anybody.)



> > But, Riiiiiiiiiiiic, (I'm whining here), I AM a pianist (of sorts) and I
> > speak that language.  I guess that's why I'm really interested in what
> > makes them like it and keep hitting on the musical angle!
>
> Ahhh...then you must know that when 12 pianists sit down at one piano
> and after playing for a bit all say "ahhh... now THIS is a good
> piano"... that they are talking about 12 different <<Goods>>.

But I thought the question would be specific about what could be
accomplished with the heavy but good action.  I realize there still could be
12 different answers, but it *would* be interesting if there were any that
were the same.....


> And when
> those same 12 sit down to 12 different pianos... there is no way on
> heaven or earth they are going to agree just what those <<Goods>> are.
> Don't get me wrong... I love the dialect myself.... but its a difficult
> one to be sure of unless you do the dance yourself.

Well, dang, if you are going to investigate the scene of a crime,
you have to get all the eye-witness accounts!  (Yes, I've read every book
Agatha Christie ever wrote.)  All right, I'll give
up......sniff.....sniff......



> Well... they don't like it as a performance instrument... perhaps I didn't
> make that clear. This is a practice instrument, never used for
> performance at all.


Umm, I wasn't talking about a performance instrument, either.  But as a
music major, I would try to get into my "favorite" practice rooms--because I
practiced "music" all the time.  OK, I could understand the preference if
it's just for scales or arpeggios.


Thanks, again.  I'll be quiet now.  :-)


Barbara Richmond, RPT
Illinois--which is next to Iowa