Modern Tone

[Erwinspiano@aol.com]

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
 
Barbara
  Well isn't it good to know the tonal pendulum is  swinging & that quite a 
few of us are feeling it's breeze &on the same  page here.: 
    The tone issue is what pushed me out of  being a full time tuner & 
farther and farther into rebuilding/ building  & finding  my own tonal brand of 
piano restoration. I had to get away  from all the clangers & bangers coming from 
the pacific rim to preserve my  hearing/sanity.
    It started with the revelation that I  really didn't enjoy the sound of 
most pianos I heard. This meant I had to learn  to voice. Norman Neblett gave 
me my very first hands on voicing lesson in 1979  on a Yamaha CF. After that  I 
was then armed & dangerous. Promptly went  out & applied Yamaha voivcing 
techniques to a set of old Steinway hammers.  Well that didnt' work. So after I 
replaced that set ... for free, I decided  I had to learn a few more things.  Oh 
well . It's been an awesome trip  & I'm liking a lot of what I hear these 
days.
 Thanks for the encouragement!
  Dale

Very  nice,  Barb,
You are one of the 'real' ones.

EAR


On  3-mrt-05, at 20:25, Barbara Richmond wrote:

> Alan,
>  
> Tone quality is always an interesting topic to me.   I've gotten rid 
> of a few recordings because I couldn't  stand the voicing of the 
> piano.  One was of the 500,000th  Steinway (I think), a lot of 
> different artists playing.  To me,  it was a really glassy sounding 
> instrument.   I  sold the CD to a faculty member.  
>  
>  I'm not sure how I learned to hear the subtleties and form my opinion 
>  of piano tone.  But I did practice voicing every chance I had, 
>  starting with evening up notes on the pianos I tuned.  Are you a 
>  pianist?  As a pianist, I am always looking for the  greatest spectrum 
> of tone color available.  When  I'm playing, I feel like the piano IS 
> the orchestra, and I  want to be able to produce as many different 
>  voices possible. 
>  
>  Recently I serviced the home piano (Steinway B) for a university  
> professor (of piano).  When I was at his house he said  something to 

> the effect that he didn't want "that generic  Steinway voicing."  Let 
> me explain that I've often felt  like I'm in minority because it seems 
> no matter where I go, so many  of the pianos (not just Steinways) are 
> way too bright--for my taste,  anyway.  I can produce that raucous kind 
> of voicing if I  have to, but I don't like it and I don't like to have 
> to tune  it.  If given artistic freedom, I go for a broad sound--not 
> too  bright (but capable of being bright) and not so mellow to rob 
>  power.  In fact, at one time I had doubted my voicing strategy (only  
> because it seemed to be different than so much of what I've heard out  
> there), until I got the e-mail from the professor asking  me to service 
> his piano.  I'll quote the line that  made me want to do cartwheels:
>  
> "I have greatest  admiration for your ability to bring out the highest 
> artistic  potential in pianos."
>  
> Well, I'm not sure I actually do,  but, golly, I'm going to save that 
> one!  A little  affirmation at the right time can work marvels for a 
> person.   OK, I'll stay the course, I'll stick to my ideals.
>  
> Go  for it, man!
>  
> Barbara Richmond
>  
>  
>  


 

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/ba/c5/fe/d0/attachment.htm

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--