String breakage

[Delwin D Fandrich]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeff Tanner" <jtanner@mozart.sc.edu>
To: "College and University Technicians" <caut@ptg.org>
Sent: February 24, 2003 7:53 AM
Subject: Re: String breakage


> I had this very situation come up this weekend.  A local church had a new
> S&S B donated and were doing the dedication concert Sunday.  Granted, we
> all know that a new Steinway will not have the brightest of hammers and
she
> was expecting this.  On Friday, the pianist was having trouble getting
> "power" from the piano, and was on the verge of injuring herself trying to
> play so hard.  I reassured her the piano was quite powerful out in the
> sanctuary (a wonderful place to play music!) and had her go out and listen
> while I played a few scales at pp, mf, and ff (neither am I a trained
> player).  By Sunday, she had learned to trust the piano and wasn't beating
> so hard, and the sound was absolutely lovely.

Reminds me of a church I used to tune for. They had a quite nice Baldwin
L--sweet pianos, but not a whole lot of 'power' and the pianist was beating
the poor thing to death. It was not an overly large church and the piano was
more than adequate, we just couldn't tone the pianist down. We ended up with
a mike and amplifier all sent to a monitor speaker aimed just at the
pianist. The more we cranked up the amp the softer--and better--he played.

Del