[CAUT] why does it feel better?

[Willem Blees]

Thanks for all the responses. The question brought out some 
interesting philosophical answers, (the Papmers comparison not 
withstanding).

In answer to the Ric's question, no, neither professors knew about the 
different tuning. That is why their reactions were so interesting. I 
did do some minor action regulation, but not enough to notice.  

It should also be noted that our new violin professor actually picked 
the new D. He said it sounded brighter to him. Which is also 
interesting, because to me, the old one sounds brighter than the new 
one. 

I also asked some other professors who were in the audience if they 
heard anything unusual, and none of them did. 

Emanual Ax is coming here in March. I will make both pianos 
available to him.  

Wim 

Quoting Ric Brekne <ricbrek at broadpark.no>:

> Hi Wim
> 
> I'm curious as to what the pianists knew ahead of time about the
> tuning. 
> Did you tell him that you'd done anything <<special>> ?
> 
> That said... I wouldnt discount where Wim may be going with this.  I
> 
> have a professor who has an older Young Chang he uses primarilly for
> 
> practice of  prepared piano pieces.  I put a mild well on it a couple
> 
> years back with his full knowledge. Now this is a guy who knows a bit
> 
> about tuning and was pretty well prepared ahead of time for what he
> was 
> going to hear. His response was that the instrument finnally gained a
> 
> character that was enjoyable to listen to and play. 
> 
> I dont want to get into a HT vs ET thing either, but I do believe we
> 
> (all in the piano music buisness) take ET way to much for granted. 
> I've 
> said it several times before... that so many pianists with such 
> seemingly deliberatness close themselves off to all the variant
> colours 
> of different degrees of temperament.... for the sake of simplicity
> (as 
> thats the only real explanation I get from them) is just .... well
> its 
> astounding really.
> 
> Cheers
> RicB
> 
> ----------
> 
> Many times over the years, I have had customers tell me the piano
> felt
> better after I tuned it. One of those times was last week.
> 
> We have 2 D's in our Concert Hall, one about 25 years old, and the
> other just 4 years old. The new one is not being played much. On the
> advice of Ed Foote, I put a Coleman II on the piano. We had convo on
> Friday, and I brought out both pianos for the piano professor to try
> out. He didn't say anything about the tuning, but he did say the new
> one "felt" better. Another professor also mentioned that the piano
> played better than ever before.
> 
> So why does tuning the piano, not just a regular ET tuning, but also
> a
> historical tuning, make the piano feel different?
> 
> Wim
> Willem Blees, RPT
> Piano Tuner/Technician
> School of Music
> University of Alabama
> Tuscaloosa, AL USA
> 


Willem Blees, RPT
Piano Tuner/Technician
School of Music
University of Alabama
Tuscaloosa, AL USA