<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.3243" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2>A few years back I was doing the Transatlantic crossing on the QE2 for their "Piano" themed cruise which sailed from England to New York. I was in charge of doing all the daily concert tunings prior to each recital. Due to the tight scheduling I was given 28 mins prior to each show to do a tuning which was always to a full house. It became a running joke that after the tuning was completed I would go to stage center, take a bow,and the audience would give me a standing O. I would  then I  announce...</FONT><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2>" for my next number...."  </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2>  By the end of the cruise the audience treated me like the warm-up act for each of the concerts. Since I am a pianist, I usually would play something light and silly, sometimes in 2 different keys making light that the tunings weren't very good. Nothing better than an audience with a good sense of humor. Even the great Irish pianist,John O'Connor, who was one of the artists on the trip, was intrigued that I was able to get the job in front of a full house at a blazing speed and still have the composure to have fun with the audience.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2>As my wife always says...."When you're given lemons, make lemonade."</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2>Tom Servinsky</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2></FONT> </DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=wimblees@aol.com href="mailto:wimblees@aol.com">Willem Blees</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=pianotech@ptg.org href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, December 30, 2007 1:12 PM</DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: Being called out on stage</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV><WBR>In the late 70's I was the tuner for the Mississippi River Festival, an outdoor concert venue. One of the last concerts of the year was the Grateful Dead. You can imagine the audience. Not only did the the truck got there late, but the Dead also wanted to warm up and do a sound check before they would allow me to tune the piano. That left me with 30 minutes just before before show time. <BR><BR>It was a Yamaha CP-70, and fortunately they had earphones for me. What I didn't know is that the piano was also being amplified to the speakers, so everyone heard what I was doing. There must have been at least 20,000 people out there. When I got done, I got a big applause. I don't know if it was because I was finally done, or because they thought I did such a great job. It's probably the former, but it makes me feel better to pretend it was the latter.  <BR><BR> <DIV style="CLEAR: both">Willem (Wim) Blees, RPT<BR>Piano Tuner/Technician<BR>Honolulu, HI<BR>Author of <BR>The Business of Piano Tuning<BR>available from Potter Press<BR>www.pianotuning.com</DIV><BR><BR>-----Original Message-----<BR>From: Robin Stevens <pianobee@bigpond.com><BR>To: 'Pianotech List' <pianotech@ptg.org><BR>Sent: Sat, 29 Dec 2007 11:41 am<BR>Subject: Being called out on stage<BR><BR> <DIV id=AOLMsgPart_0_8b8a132f-821d-4334-924a-15a1126d422b style="FONT-SIZE: 12px; MARGIN: 0px; COLOR: #000; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, Sans-Serif; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #fff"><PRE style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt"><TT>Many years ago when Peter Nero came to my city (Adelaide, South Australia) I and two of my friends decided to see Peter who was very popular at that time. On arriving at the hall we sat in the back row of the packed hall and waited for the concert to start. A manager walked out onto the stage and asked...Is there a piano tuner in the house!! My two friends who, liked me, were well primed from the pre concert meal and drinks immediately jumped to their feet and pointed to me! Could I come up and see Peter, was the question? On going to the front of the hall, (to a arousing applause from the audience) I went back stage and met a very nervous Peter Nero who informed me the Steinway D's sustain pedal did not work! Could I have a look? My tools were miles away so I thought I would access the problem first and go from there. On going out onto the stage (to another arousing round of applause) I dropped to the floor on my back and noticed that the adjustment rod had half an inch travel before even engaging the dampers. When I tried to adjust the rod with my fingers I found the locking nut was beyond undoing with fingers! Going back stage again I asked the awaiting group if anyone had a adjustable spanner?...no such luck...my brain was going into a spin as to what to do next when I noticed some cardboard boxes in the corner. Tearing off a large piece I folded into what I thought was right for the space that had to be filled. Back on stage again (to another round of applause) the packing spacer was spot on ;-)) Peter came onto the stage and started playing as if nothing had every happened. In hindsight the town hall in those days used to hire a piano from the local Steinway dealer. None of their tuners were actually piano players and I assume whoever tuned it never sat and played a short piece after the tuning which would have indicated the pedal problem!! The question that might need to be asked...do non playing tuners have a check list they go through, rather than playing a small tune? Have a prosperous new year Robin Stevens ARPT South Australia </TT></PRE></DIV> <DIV class=AOLPromoFooter> <HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px"> More new features than ever. Check out the new <A href="http://o.aolcdn.com/cdn.webmail.aol.com/mailtour/aol/en-us/text.htm?ncid=aolcmp00050000000003" target=_blank>AOL Mail</A>!<BR></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>