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<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<DIV><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> <FONT face=Arial><FONT
color=#000000 size=2>Will-</FONT></FONT></o:p></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
face=Arial><FONT color=#000000 size=2></FONT></FONT></o:p></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
face=Arial><FONT color=#000000 size=2>This is a person who paid you a good price
to make her piano better. She obviously loves music and wants to play and enjoy
her instrument.</FONT></FONT></o:p></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>It doesn't really matter what it sounds like to
you if you can make it sound good for her, given her hearing
difficulties.</FONT></o:p></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT></o:p></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>For example you could make a "moderator," a
thin practice mute that only goes over the high treble section. Start with a
thin piece of muslin. Mozart's piano had something like
this.</FONT></o:p></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT></o:p></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>You can leave a strip mute in between every
other space, effectively converting the instrument to bichord treble unisons, or
even mute fully to leave one string per note. You can lay felt on the bridge end
of the strings to muffle the sound.</FONT></o:p></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT></o:p></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>I recently had a customer in her nineties
conclude (after visit to an audiologist) that her hearing was too far gone to
play any more. It was not a happy moment. Losing capacities isn't fun. We tend
to deny as long as possible.</FONT></o:p></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT></o:p></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>Ed Sutton</FONT></o:p></SPAN></DIV>
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<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'">I
have a customer in her early 80’s whose Knabe grand action I rebuilt about 3
years ago. When I go to tune the piano (which I do every six months),
she is always asking me to voice down the treble. She says the middle
and the bass are just fine, but (and she’ll go over the piano, bang some
notes “Hear that, it’s way too bright, it’s awful”). Well, I’ve voiced
the dickens out of top 3 octaves of that piano, it’s like milquetoast to my
ears. The rest of the piano is much brighter, and I’ve voiced this
piano enough to feel like I’ve taken too much away; BUT it’s still too
bright to her. She’s a really sweet lady, and her hearing is not
perfect but certainly not at the 120 db TV level yet.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'">We’ve
been doing this for a while. She still likes me and I like her.
But I am thinking to myself, what’s going on here? So I approached
Laura, who is an audiologist and a good friend (we have been teaching skiing
at the same mountain in New Hampshire for a number of years) and asked her
what might be going on with my customer’s hearing. She explained to me
that there is a condition that some older people can develop where they
develop a hypersensitivity to higher frequencies that actually can cause
them discomfort when hearing those higher frequencies. She told
me the name of the condition but I have forgotten it since it was last
winter when I asked her (sorry).<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'">The
person isn’t really aware that they have this condition – they are aware of
the symptoms, which cause them discomfort. Which, of course, makes it
hard for them to understand why you are having such a blasé reaction to all
this, when (to their mind) it’s so obvious that any fool can hear it.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'">Basically,
it’s a situation you cannot win. She doesn’t want to hear “It’s you,
Lady!” <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'">So,
yeh Terry, you got it right. </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Smile, wiggle a few tuning pins,
and say: "Oh, yeah, that should sound better now...?"</SPAN><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'">Will<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><A
href="http://www.farrellpiano.com">www.farrellpiano.com</A><BR><A
href="mailto:terry@farrellpiano.com">terry@farrellpiano.com</A></SPAN><o:p></o:p></P></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>