<html><head> <META http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html"> <title>The Hudson Reporter - JERSEY CITY REPORTER - 01/27/2008 - <center><big> Black and white</big><br><br><I>Hudson County piano tuner is music to customers' ears</i></center></title><META HTTP-EQUIV="Expires" CONTENT="0"><META HTTP-EQUIV="Pragma" CONTENT="no-cache"><meta name='robots' content='nofollow'> <meta name="keywords" content=""/> <meta name="mssmarttagspreventparsing" content="true"/> <meta name="robots" content="noarchive"/> <meta name="description" Content=""/>  </head><body leftmargin="8" topmargin="2" Marginwidth="5" marginheight="0" bgcolor="FFFFFF"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td align="center" valign="bottom"><a href="http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?brd=1291&Nav_Sec=68508"><img border="0" src="/local/z/zwire1291/jersey_city.gif" width="355" height="65" alt=""></a></td></tr><tr><td> <script language="javascript">  </script> <a name="top"></a><table width="100%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" border="0"><tr><td style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 12px; font-family: serif;">01/27/2008</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 19px; font-family: serif;"> <center><big> Black and white</big><br><br><I>Hudson County piano tuner is music to customers' ears</i></center> </td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 12px; font-family: serif;"> Ricardo Kaulessar<br><small><i>Reporter staff writer</i></small> </td></tr></table><br><table width="100%" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" border="0"><tr><td valign="top" style="font-size: 13px; font-family: serif;"><div class="storyphoto"><table border="0" align="right" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="210"><tr><td align="center" valign="top" colspan="3"><img src="http://images.zwire.com/local/Z/ZWIRE1291/zwire/images/2008/01/story/01tuner27B_copy_story.jpg" height="150" width="200" border="0" vspace="2" hspace="0"></td></tr><tr><td width="5"><img src="http://images.zwire.com/images/spacer.gif" width="5"></td><td width="100%" align="center" valign="top"><font face="serif" size="-1" color="FF0000"> DEEPLY FELT WORK – Jersey City piano tuner Mike Keller places felt between strings inside a piano he is tuning at Barbara’s Music in Union City. </font></td><td width="5"><img src="http://images.zwire.com/images/spacer.gif" width="5"></td></tr></table></div><div style="font-weight: bold;"> <i>This is the first in a series of articles on Hudson County people with interesting or unusual professions, "Odd-cupations".<BR><BR> </b><small>It's an old-fashioned job, but someone's got to do it, and in Jersey City and Hoboken, the resident piano tuner is Aart (yes, that's the correct spelling) Markenstein. <BR><BR> Working out of his studio near the Jersey City border on Observer Highway in Hoboken, the 49-year-old Jersey City native is part mechanic, part musician, and part artist. And he loves operating his 4-year-old "Aart in America" piano tuning business so much that he won't be retiring anytime soon. <BR><BR> He also has a partner in the business: his wife, Eileen. <BR><BR> "I know a piano tuner who is about 90, who gave me all his tools as he is almost ready to retire," Markenstein said. "I can see myself doing this until I'm his age, because it doesn't even feel like work." <BR><BR> </div> <B>Getting the piano sounding just right</b><br><br><table cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" border="0" align="left"><tr><td><SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript1.1" SRC="http://bannerads.zwire.com/bannerads/bannerad.asp?ADLOCATION=4000&PAG=791&BRD=1291&LOCALPCT=50&AREA=490&VERT=6146&NAREA=403&AT=JS&barnd=6879"> </script> <script LANGUAGE="JavaScript">  </SCRIPT> <noscript> <A HREF="http://bannerads.zwire.com/bannerads/redirect.cfm?ADLOCATION=4000&PAG=791&BRD=1291" ><img border=0 alt="Click Here!" SRC="http://bannerads.zwire.com/bannerads/bannerad.asp?ADLOCATION=4000&PAG=791&BRD=1291&LOCALPCT=50&AREA=490&VERT=6146&NAREA=403&barnd=3988"></a> </noscript> </td></tr></table> <P> Any piano player wants to make sure his 88 keys sound like a smooth, cascading flow of harmony. <BR><BR> The job of a piano tuner is to make sure that the flow is not impeded in any way. And piano tuners like Markenstein do their job in pretty much the same manner. <BR><BR> The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard connected to felt hammers that produce sound by striking steel strings. Three strings correspond to each key.<BR><BR> The strings vibrate at a certain frequency. These vibrations are transmitted through a bridge to a soundboard that amplifies them. <BR><BR> A piano should be tuned to meet the internationally recognized standard concert pitch of "A at 440 hertz." The tuner looks to see if the strings have deteriorated, if the felt hammers have worn out, or if there's a problem caused by something a bit unusual. <BR><BR> "I have found little toy soldiers inside the piano," Markenstein said. "Paper [and] pencils are pretty common as people are writing music and [something] falls in and lays across the strings." <BR><BR> Keller pointed out that the piano is an organic instrument, as it is made of wood and a number of parts are created from skin and bone of animals, so parts are subject to the changing of the seasons and ravages of time. <BR><BR> "Much of my business occurs in the winter and summer, because in the summer, wood expands due to humidity, and then shrinks in the winter," Keller said. "[The parts] can shift around as the result of the shrinking and expanding." <P> <B>Making the rounds</b><br><br> <P> Piano experts recommended a new piano should be tuned three or four times in the first year and twice yearly thereafter. <BR><BR> Markenstein said that in his experience working at various concert halls and in recording studios, sometimes it is necessary to do a tuning twice a day on the same piano. <BR><BR> "What is being played live or being recorded has to sound its best," Markenstein said. <BR><BR> Another local tuner is Mike Keller of Keller Piano Services based out of Jersey City. Keller looks at piano tuning from this perspective: "It is very relaxing, very meditative whenever I do a job," Keller said. <BR><BR> Keller, who was interviewed while doing a job at Barbara's Music in Union City last week, had an advocate for his work in the store's namesake, Barbara Olszewska. <BR><BR> "If they hear wrong keys, they learn and perform in the wrong way," Olszewska said. <BR><BR> On an average, according to Markenstein and Keller, the work of a piano tuner can take a matter of minutes or sometimes as much as three hours, if not longer. But Markenstein sees it as a labor of love. <BR><BR> "It's a 150-year-old technology, and some of the pianos that I work on are 100 years old, and it is incredible to have your hands inside the piano," Markenstein said. <P> Comments on the story can be sent to rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com.<BR> <P><br clear="all"> </td></tr></table></td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="bottom"><SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript1.1" SRC="http://bannerads.zwire.com/bannerads/bannerad.asp?ADLOCATION=1&PAG=791&BRD=1291&LOCALPCT=50&AREA=490&VERT=6146&NAREA=403&RULE=0&AT=JS&barnd=6424"> </script> <script LANGUAGE="JavaScript">  </SCRIPT> <noscript> <A HREF="http://bannerads.zwire.com/bannerads/redirect.cfm?ADLOCATION=1&PAG=791&BRD=1291" ><img border=0 alt="Click Here!" SRC="http://bannerads.zwire.com/bannerads/bannerad.asp?ADLOCATION=1&PAG=791&BRD=1291&LOCALPCT=50&AREA=490&VERT=6146&NAREA=403&RULE=0&barnd=7728"></a> </noscript></td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="bottom"> <font face="verdana" color="navy" size="1"><i>©The Hudson Reporter 2008</i></font> </td></tr></table></body></html>