tuning two pianos together

[Andrew and Rebeca Anderson]

Earlier this year I tuned a D and a Baldwin SD together.  I tuned the 
D to its ideal tuning and then put the identical tuning on the 
Baldwin.  It wan't the ideal sound for the Baldwin but they blended 
very well.  I use a VT-100 for that and I have my own custom tuning 
parameters as the standard tuning is too FACish for my liking.

Andrew Anderson


At 10:57 PM 5/4/2007, 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