Jim,
The old standby of using cars for comparison can help here.
- The best concert pianos are like race cars - they are (or should be)
the best piano the piano maker can build, with the highest performance
potential in terms of action speed, power, and sensitivity. They also
have the biggest potential for volume of tone as well as controlled
tone, in order to give the concert pianist the maximum tonal pallet.
Because of this, like a racing automobile, the maintenance demands
are very high. Even with only regular concert concert use and the 1
practice session allowed, the pianos already require plenty of
maintenance beyond just tuning for the concerts. Regulation must be
checked and touched up, voicing must be constantly maintained, and the
technician is under pressure to make sure the pianos are in optimum
condition for the pianist.
What kind of success would the racing team have if they drove the
cars from one city to the next between races? They would not perform
well, although the drivers might have a lot of fun! To me this is
really a great analogy - of course the pianists would enjoy being able
to practice on the concert instruments, but I think it's pretty easy to
see that this would not be in the best interest of the music school as a
whole.
Lastly, if the quality of the concert instruments for performance is
important to the music director, then his budget (both time and money)
would go up tremendously. A full day of service each month would be
reasonably just to keep the action in regulation, and especially keep
the hammers shaped and voiced. This would be in addition to the usual
concert preparation detail work that is done for each concert.
- The music schools which I have visited where the concert instruments
are used for practicing tend to complain the most about the piano. They
start out swooning about this new wonderful piano, it's just the best
thing they've ever played, it's a dream, etc. After 5 years of daily
practice, well, it's just kind of an OK piano, not bad, but no one loves
it any more. After 10 years it's thrashed, and you hear people say
things like "why did we ever buy this piano, anyway?"
To maintain the quality of performance for a top level hall, I would
suggest (others certainly will chime in with their experiences) that a
concert piano that is practiced on for many hours each day should have
new hammers in 5 years - maximum. It should possibly also have new
strings at the same time. The director of music needs to understand
that this is not a trivial matter - our laboratory takes more than a
month to settle the strings and bring the tone out of a new set of
hammers! This isn't a month of full time labor, but a month of working
with the hammers and waiting for the felt to settle, then working with
the hammers again and waiting for the felt, then refining the voicing
over and over until it's as good as possible. Doing this on a piano
while it is in use for concerts means spending time every week on the
new strings and hammers until the tone gets to be what it should be
after a few months of use and tweaking. This is asking a lot of the
technicians, besides the costs involved.
As for the soundboard, I don't see much benefit or drawback of playing
on it. Playing doesn't help it at all, but I don't think it hurts it
either. I wouldn't stress this point - string tension and environment
will take their toll no matter what. While really great concert pianos
may be built to very fine tolerances of crown and string bearing, the
wood will do what it's going to do over time whether it is being played
or not, in my opinion. I don't know if it's true that a concert
instrument's soundboard is only good for 12 years, either. I think this
is quite variable and depends on the individual piano. I think it COULD
start to fade in 10 or 12 years, but some pianos just seem to keep on
going.
I'm sure you will politely remind the music director that pianos are
about as unlike a violin as can be (as the old saying goes, about the
only thing in common is that they both will burn!). Concert pianos are
generally built so that the optimum tone comes immediately, not 50 years
from now, so there is no purpose in "breaking them in" through practice.
And also unlike the violin, the action of a piano is intricate and
sensitive to wear, and the acceptable tolerances for keeping it in peak
performing condition are very small indeed.
I hope this helps.
Don Mannino
Kawai America
_____
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of
Jim Busby
Sent: Thursday, December 03, 2009 12:29 PM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: [CAUT] Practicing on concert instruments...again...
All,
I know we've gone over this time and again, but...
The new School of Music director wants students to have access to the
concert instruments for practicing. Current policy is that they have
access ONE TIME (one rehearsal) before their recital. We will meet with
him next week to discuss this. I'm trying to find the "right" catch
phrases to convey my ideas.
Would you agree or disagree with the following statements; (Or re-word,
etc.)
1. Unlike a violin (his main instrument) pianos do not get
"better" the more they are played, but due to string fatigue and
soundboard movement, etc., a concert hall instrument is limited in
years it will remain in optimal condition. (I didn't mention that
hammers/strings may be replaced, etc. I'm talking about mainly about
soundboard deterioration)
2. The more such an instrument is played the quicker this "optimal
condition" will deteriorate.
3. Most concert hall pianos are good for about 12 years.
Rubish??? Please tear apart these 3 ideas, before he does.
Any help will be greatly appreciated. I will past use statements from
some of you, but the basic premise of my argument against his proposed
("let's give students more access to concert hall pianos for practice")
is that the more "pounding' the piano gets, the sooner its demise.
Thanks!
Jim Busby BYU
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