Key Excursion

[David Love]

It often happens is that the thing that the pianist thinks is the problem
isn’t.  It’s simply a matter of their perception.  For example, a “heavy”
action can be anything from early damper lift, overleaded keys, high
friction, high balance weight, mushy hammers or something else.  Getting to
the heart of the matter is the challenge and the search often has to wander
away from the perceived issue.  I expect in the case of the excessively
sloping keys that’s what will happen, but I’m not sure
  I have periodically
been called to try and diagnose a problem that was dismissed by the previous
tech as “normal” because of how it was expressed by the client.  When we
finally got to the real issue it was something altogether different.  All it
took was a few more questions and a good bit of critical thinking.
Admittedly, it's not always easy to take the time for either.  

David Love
davidlovepianos at comcast.net 


-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of BobDavis88 at aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, April 18, 2006 10:04 AM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: Key Excursion

David Love writes:
Sometimes people are sensitive to strange things.  While those things have
often fallen into the range of "normal", I'm not averse to trying to find
the pea in the mattress...as long as the meter is running.     
-THE- single best educational opportunity in my career has been "crazy"
clients. Over and over I find that when a client tells me he feels or hears
something, he feels or hears something. It might not be something that
bothers me or others, it might not be something that is easy or cheap or
even possible to fix; but the search for an explanation (to both myself and
the client) ALWAYS leads to a better understanding of the subtleties of this
enormously complex instrument. It changes the desire for a crabby dismissal
into a cheerful detective story. If it's going to be costly, I don't "warn"
the client, I simply "let him know," which relieves it of any emotional
content for both of us, and creates a partnership.  
 
I applaud David's taking this person seriously. While David, being a
pianist, might be more inclined to take this person seriously, a technician
doesn't have to be a pianist to get immense satisfaction from the
challenge of playing Superdective. 
 
Bob Davis