tuning two pianos together

[Don]

Hi John,

I feel your pain trying to tune two such dissimlar pianos together. Some
ETD's have an "averaging" feature that will "blend" to tuning charts
together. I find that approach doesn't work too well in the "real world".

Tune both pianos as well as possible--with conservative stretch. Look for
that sweet pathetic sound that 2:1 octaves gives in the treble. Then play
all the notes one by one together. When you find a note that bothers you.

Take a wooden clothes pin and fasten on top of the dampher (while holding
down the key) on one piano. Then play the same note on both pianos at the
same time. Tune the note on the non clothes pinned piano to the other.
Repeat playing both notes together until your ear is happy.

I would charge a double fee for both pianos as this may be a very slow
process.

At 10:57 PM 5/4/2007 -0500, you wrote:
>Today was a first for me...tuning two pianos for a duo-piano "concert."
>
>Piano 1 is a Steinway D. Piano 2 is a Weber WG-60 (or something like
>that model # - the piano is about six feet long).
>
>Pretty easy to hear why it's recommended to have similar sized/scaled
>pianos to use together. :)
>
>How do you machine tuners tune two dissimilar pianos together? Tune
>each to the ideal settings of the machine and call it good? Do you
>play octaves and/or chromatically on both pianos together to see how
>well they match? How do you make changes, or do you?
>
>Today was not an ideal situation in other ways. The Weber was 5-9
>cents flat. Also, either the A/C wasn't working, or someone forgot to
>turn it down because it was 80F on stage. I shudder to think about
>what will happen when the A/C brings the temp down. I'll be back
>tomorrow night to retune, but don't look forward to another pitch
>correction on the D.
>
>Here's what I did, and you guys tell me what you would have done differently.
>
>Pitch raise the Weber, then tune with open unisons to get the most
>expanded tuning as will fit the piano. Tune the D with felt strips to
>get a more contracted tuning. I started out tuning the A4-A3 octave to
>match the Weber as best as possible. At various points up and down the
>scale, I would play the same notes on each piano together to see if I
>was getting off anywhere. Chromatically, fairly quickly. Then, adjust
>octave stretch to better match the Weber without making the D sound
>noticeably out of tune with itself. Generally, the D was slightly
>contracted compared to what I would have done for solo use. In the
>bass of the Weber, I had tuned the octaves a bit wide, hoping that
>they would match with the D. It worked out pretty well, although you
>wouldn't call it perfectly in tune. But it was pretty close, and seems
>to be the right thing to have done.
>
>What was strangely cool was figuring out whether the D was flat or
>sharp to the corresponding notes of the Weber. I mean, you're
>listening to the same note on each piano, and one is "off." Is it
>sharp or flat? Well, you can't play the note on the Weber and tune the
>one on the D unless you have three hands. So I got that figured out
>after a minute of thinking. It's merely doing our "regular" interval
>tests on the notes of different pianos...one with the left hand and
>one with the right - well, that's kinda fun. In a demented sort of way
>as it seemed to screw up the brain in all kinds of weird directions.
>But it certainly keeps one on his toes.
>
>Any input appreciated.
>
>JF
>
>
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>
Regards,
Don Rose, B.Mus., A.M.U.S., A.MUS., R.P.T.
Non calor sed umor est qui nobis incommodat

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