[CAUT] tuning frequency

[michelle stranges]

JEFF TANNER FOR PREZ!

:)

(uhhh- please curb the Bush comments or we'll get ourselves in trouble!!)
hehehehhe!!!

:B
Her

--On Monday, February 28, 2005 4:23 PM -0500 Jeff Tanner 
<jtanner@mozart.sc.edu> wrote:

> This is an interesting thread with some great responses.
>
> Yes, Julliard can get weekly (I thought it was daily according to an
> article I have) tunings on teaching instruments because they have 5 full
> time technicians and 4 part timers for, what is it, 247 pianos?
>
> Some of your other responses about unisons barely moving in a teaching
> studio with only 3 tunings a year.  Well, those guys just don't know what
> south of the Fall Line weather patterns combined with modern (low budget)
> HVAC systems with zero humidity control will do to piano tunings during
> the normal school year, do they Wim?  I actually think the old steam heat
> for winter, and open windows for air conditioning was a more stable
> system.
>
> I got my daily recital tuning time moved to afternoons after my first
> year here because of the 10 to 12 percent humidity changes that were
> happening between 9 am and recital time making the tunings unstable.  My
> predecessor had had trouble with the vaccuming staff in the room.  I
> fixed that with the time change.  And my concert tunings are MUCH more
> stable now.  No, I don't tune the recital pianos every day, but I do have
> time in the hall every day in case I need it.  It is much more difficult
> to schedule a tuning time AFTER the recital schedule has changed than it
> is to be the daily stronghold they have to schedule around.  But, that
> said, the tuning will move around from day to day.  The one thing I DO
> try to give our students and faculty here is the best professional
> performance situation I can give them.
>
> So, what do I do?  Well, I try to encourage my piano faculty to keep
> their pianos watered.  Some pianos are on their third tunings this
> semester, WITH Dampp-Chaser systems.  Others haven't been tuned since
> last semester (hey, I'm not saying they're in tune - I'm saying the profs
> ain't fussing. One professor came back after the Christmas break and
> said, "what did you do to my pianos? they're sounding great after the
> break!"  I smiled broadly and just thought to myself, "Nothing. That's
> just how bad your ears are.")
>
> Otherwise, it depends.  I set out to keep everything here on a timely
> schedule.  But after 3 years of these roller coaster fall/winters, I
> pretty much gave in to realize that trying to keep everything on a strict
> schedule make no sense because Mother Nature chooses her own schedule.
> You can create so much work by working hard.  You can literally work
> yourself to death and in a week's time the pianos can STILL sound like
> you don't even exist.  So, I'm going by the "squeaky wheel" method for
> now.
>
> Oh, and yeah, I was an aural tuner when I came here.  An ARTISTE!
>
> No longer.  Mother nature will put an ARTISTE who's trying to keep pianos
> in tune at this school in that Charter place over on the island just
> outside Charleston.  I bought an SAT III to preserve my sanity.
>
> As long as you're checking intervals behind you as you go and tuning
> unisons aurally, you're still listening to the piano, and likely getting
> a more stable tuning at the same time.  It's amazing how your stability
> increases when you can watch for those little lights to start drifting
> ever so slightly with your test blows.  The machine isn't a crutch unless
> you allow it to become one.  I've found it to be quite the opposite, and
> an indispensable teaching aid.
>
> Your professors should understand that different buildings have different
> climate control capability, and not to mention, different climates will
> have varying levels of change.  If they don't understand this, make them
> all a copy of Walter Deptula's article from the January 2000 Journal on
> "Deep Cycling of Humidity".  That article alone can answer LOTS of
> questions and support your position.  Add in a copy of that Steinway
> article on climate control, get you a couple of those Dampp-Chaser
> digital hygro units and record and reset the high/low every week inside a
> couple of their pianos and you should have some pretty convincing
> support.  Everything you give them, give a copy to your supervising
> administrator.
>
> Your professor who claimed that tunings that lasted 8 weeks at another
> institution might not have been realizing that she just didn't notice the
> piano drifting ever so slowly.  I can guarantee her that tunings in THIS
> building won't last 8 weeks.
>
>  I tune for a church in another town.  Regardless of what I've tried to
>  tell them, they wait for the organist to tell them the piano is out of
>  tune.  After all, he is on the music faculty at (another college), and
>  he has "perfect pitch".
>
> Yep.  Always requires a significant pitch correction.
>
> Jeff
>
>
> On Saturday, February 26, 2005, at 05:07 PM, Wimblees@aol.com wrote:
>
> There is minor argument between the piano faculty and myself as to how
> often their pianos should be tuned. They want to know why their pianos
> need tuning once a week. (and they do need it, especially during the
> winter). One of the professors claims that at another university she
> worked at, her piano lasted 8 weeks.  
> How often are you guys tuning the piano faculty pianos, presuming they
> get played heavily about 30 hours a week?  
> Wim
> Willem Blees, RPT
> Piano Technician
> School of Music
> University of Alabama