Aaaargh was and partly still is Piano History question

[Michelle Smith]

Alan Barnard wrote:

Why, oh why are such a high percentage of piano teachers and church
musicians absolutely unable to tell if a piano is in tune, much less
distinguish any subtleties of tone or regulation? Or if they CAN tell, why
don't they care? I go nuts and grab the old Jahn if my own piano has even
one whiny unison. But I digress ...

Tuned the personal piano, today, of a very nice lady who is the player for a
Methodist church. I've been tuning for the church every six months for
years and years now, but she has not had her personal piano tuned in who
knows how long. It was 30 to 70 cents flat and icky.

*******

 

Stand back everyone!  I shall now represent the music teachers.  (A hush
falls over the room..)

 

#1 - I think the main reason teachers don't notice their piano being so flat
is because the change doesn't happen overnight.  They're just cruising
along, teaching their kids, worrying about hand position and suddenly they
realize their piano hasn't been tuned in an embarrassingly long amount of
time.  

 

#2 - Recently, I had an interesting conversation with my mom who has played
piano all of her life.  60 years old, grew up in an old farmhouse, took
piano lessons from the time she was five, etc.  We were talking about the
need for regular tunings when she frowned and said, "I don't remember us
ever having our piano tuned in the entire time I was a child."  (Wow!)  So,
my friends, if a child's brain is not trained to hear correct pitch, chances
are that later in life, it will not recognize when a piano needs to be
tuned!  Remember, connections which are not made in the brain by the age of
12ish, start to deteriorate at an alarming rate.  Nice thought, huh?

 

In the six months I have been studying piano tuning, I have gone from a
happily oblivious piano teacher, to someone who can't sit down and play a
piece without cringing at a slowly beating unison.  Darnit!  =)

 

Michelle Smith

Bastrop, Texas

 

 

 

 

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