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<DIV>This thread may be over and maybe this story is a bit too long,
but....</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> I was attending an outdoor music festival years=
ago, (I was going to accompany a folk singer), and the promoters had a piano=
due
to be delivered by the time the headliner was going to play (Andre Crouch.) =
Mr.
Crouch and his entourage arrived and still no piano. A member of the audienc=
e
drove his pickup home and brought the spinet from his living room. They aske=
d me
to tune it up quickly as start time for the performance had come and go=
ne.
</DIV>
<DIV> I checked the pitch and it was almost a whole s=
tep
flat. While I was on stage starting to tune in front of a baseball field ful=
l of
people, the promoters put on a husband/wife gospel duet to perform for the c=
rowd
while I tuned 8 feet away. I had my head stuck inside the piano within inche=
s of
the strings concentrating hard to hear what I was doing, and a guy sat down =
on
the bench and said he had tuned a piano once and if it would help he would t=
une
the the top half of the piano while I tuned the bottom half. I told him that=
I
was afraid that that wouldn't help. He decided to stay and chat while =
I
tuned, though.</DIV>
<DIV> I wrestled it up to 1/2 step flat and went to
consult with Mr. Crouch in his traveling bus (the biggest and coolest I had =
seen
at that time). I told him that it was kind of in tune with itself at a 1/2 s=
tep
below concert pitch and that I could maybe bring it up and make it presentab=
le
in another hour. He consulted with his band, and they thought they could ret=
une
or transpose to accommodate the key change, so they would go ahead with it t=
he
way it was. ( The trumpet player had a little brass loop that he put
between the mouthpiece and the horn to lower pitch exactly 1/2 step. Never s=
aw
that before.)</DIV>
<DIV> They went on and performed for almost 2 hours a=
nd
although I felt pretty awful the piano sounded only somewhat out of tune wit=
h
some shaky unisons and octaves. The crowd enjoyed the performance and =
I
was completely knocked out by the musicianship of the group, being able to
perform their repertoire by transposing on the fly or playing detuned
instruments.</DIV>
<DIV> I went up afterward to apologize for not being =
able
to get the piano sounding better, and he was very gracious and appreciative =
of
the effort I had made. What a classy guy.</DIV>
<DIV> Hope nothing like that ever happens again,</DIV=
>
<DIV> John Stroup</DIV>
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