Aaaargh was and partly still is Piano History question

[Vinny Samarco]

hi,
    I have to agree with you, Michelle, I tthink that many of us who are 
first musicians suffer from the sin of  gradualism.  We practice and teach 
day by day, and unisons, slowly go, then octaves, and many of us hardly 
notice a thing until one day, then we say "what is wrong with my piano?  How 
did it get to this point and we didn't notice it?
Now that my ears have been opened, I can't stand it  maybe even two days 
afterwards when I hear something beginning to happen with a third or unison. 
What is worse is when I have to play on someone elses piano in a church or 
school, and I have not  tuned it, nor has anyone  else, and I have to 
concentrate on getting into my playing.  Of course, I hear  everything now, 
and a neglected piano is a great  distraction.
Where I trained,  at the Emile Frise Piano Hospital, we were taught that the 
average musician first  will hear bad unisons, and eventually bad octaves, 
and not notice anything about the temperament maybe forever.  (smile)   If 
it is this hard for some musicians to notice their piano is out of tune, it 
is no wonder that we have such trouble selling frequent tunings to 
non-musicians.

Vinny

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michelle Smith" <michelle at cdaustin.com>
To: "'Pianotech List'" <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 05, 2006 10:26 PM
Subject: RE: Aaaargh was and partly still is Piano History question


> 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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