String breakage

[David M. Porritt]

My take on some of this is that the pianist is working to play to
please the audience, and the reviewers.  I think they feel that
getting good reviews is their job, my job is to fix the piano.  I
can't blame them.  Good gigs and good reviews are hard enough to get.
 The pianist I was referring to before, gets wonderful reviews and
keeps a very busy concert and recital schedule.  I'm certainly not
the one who is going to tell him how to improve his playing!

dave

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 2/20/2003 at 3:18 PM Jeff Tanner wrote:

>Dave Porritt wrote:
> "He says that your piano means nothing if  your forte is not forte.
 As a
>result, both he and his students do break a  lot of strings."
>
>Hi Dave,
>I can take my stereo speakers rated at 40 watts each and hook them
up to a
>250 watt per channel amplifier and get forte I couldn't get from my
40 watt
>amp.  I can throw them away afterward, but I got forte.
>
>There is a difference between forte and using the piano as a
punching bag.
>When they're breaking strings at an abnormal pace, that's abuse.  It
is not
>at all musical.
>
>Dynamic levels are relative.  If the pp is being played more like mp
or mf,
>then, yeah, the player is going to have to beat the hell out of the
keys to
>get that ffff.
>
>And I see pp playing being played at mp/mf here too, and I see a lot
of
>ffff playing when it only says ff.  And just why is it they won't
practice
>with the lid up and learn how to play a real pianissimo.  Then they
won't
>have to beat the keys so hard to hear that the piano is trying to
play
>fortissimo, but they've got the mute button on?
>
>We now live in a world where we can turn our car radio up to ear
piercing,
>attend concerts where sound reinforcement systems are designed to
blow the
>top off the venue, and put on a set of headphones and turn the music
up so
>loud that people across the room can hear every note.  The piano was
never
>intended to compete with this, but I think a good many don't seem to
>realize that.
>
>I also think a lot of performers don't realize that the piano is
much
>louder out in front, than at the keyboard.
>
>mythinking
>jeff
>
>
>_______________________________________________
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_____________________________
David M. Porritt
dporritt@mail.smu.edu
Meadows School of the Arts
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, TX 75275
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