Hearing Problems

Horace Greeley hgreeley@leland.Stanford.EDU
Tue Mar 31 11:12 MST 1998


Ed,

Hmmm - why am I not surprised by a faculty reaction?
(An entirely rhetorical question...you knew that.)

However, I sure do like your plan.  I wonder if stage
placement of the piano might change perception as well.
Another thing I though of (_after_ posting, of course) was
that, sometimes, just moving the darn thing downstage
will create the perceptual latitude to do some needling.

I know, I keep coming back to that.  My experience is that,
carefully done, _most_ performers don't notice a specific
change, but certainly do like the results.  Explanations,
therefore, are most often couched in terms of "I see
blue over here, and green over there....etc" kinds of
language.

Clearly, these get to be _very_ touchy areas with many
faculty.  The simple fact is that, all generalities being
bad, most pianists do not know their instrument very well.
This problem is complicated by inconsistency (often
coupled with a certain, ah, lack of colleagiality) within
our own profession.  Thus, otherwise well-intentioned
folks wind up with lots of disagreement over what are,
essentially, questions of form rather than ones of
content.

One of the tremendous benefits of institutional work
is that one often can really take advantage of a reasonably
controlled set of circumstances to really experiment to 
find out what works and what doesn't.  Being able to
"play" with the acoustical environment is a real gift.
Burn lotsa incense to the piano gods.

I'll be really interested to see how this develops, as you have
time to let us know.  Thanks for the update.

Best.

Horace



At 12:32 PM 3/31/1998 EST, you wrote:
>Horace writes:
><<is it possible that some judicious shoulder
>needling  <possible path to the inferno snipped>>
>
>    Yes, I considered that,and mistakenly suggested it.  Was told by  big
>faculty member that  he "liked it where it was".  so.......  
>    I think I will begin my own program on the hammers, sort of like you
>suggested, but since I have just completely changed the hall acoustics, will
>wait for the next faculty meeting, and see if the changes have not only
>"brightened" up the hall, a lot,  but perhaps have caused the pianos to seem
>harsh?(I tipped the big acrylic, acoustic disks that hang over the stage; VA
>VA Varooom!! we got hall sound and a little 'ring' for the first time in 18
>years!) 
>    If I can get them to this point, and all the voice and woodwind faculty
>like the new setting, perhaps there is a face-saving way for me to get the
go-
>ahead and bring the pianos down.  
>   I'll see what happens. 
>Regards, 
>Ed
>
>
>
Horace Greeley, CNA, MCP, RPT

Systems Analyst/Engineer
Controller's Office
Stanford University

email: hgreeley@leland.stanford.edu
voice mail: 650.725.9062
fax: 650.725.8014


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