[CAUT] Too tall!!??

[Susan Kline]

>Also, on another note; How do you all like to tune two pianos 
>together?  One venue has a Baldwin D and Steinway D together, the 
>other venue has a Steinway D and B to be tuned together on Friday 
>(UGH!) I've done my usual for the 2 9'-ers but; Any tips on the 9' 
>and 7' together would be great help.  I've never been happy with 
>those two pianos together, but that's my only choice.

What I like to do is to pick the better of the two pianos, call it 
the "master" and then roll them so I can reach both keyboards at 
once. Sometimes both facing each other with just room for me in 
between, sometimes at an acute angle to each other. Part way through 
I shift one so I can reach the upper or the lower register of both at 
once, as may be.

I put the tuning on the "master", and then I set the A and tune the 
temperament on the lesser, then check it note by note against the 
"master", then move outward, checking now and then. When the lesser 
piano doesn't quite want the same pitch (tenor and bass, if the two 
are different lengths), I just make it give in, and keep the unisons 
between the two dead on with each other. When I'm finished, I check 
note by note, the entire scale.

I've been very pleased by the results from doing this. If I can't 
move one of the pianos so I can play both at once, I set the A's as 
carefully as possible, and tune them separately as best I can, but 
the results are usually only acceptable, not pleasing to me.

Newport's SD-10 and Steinway D are never happier than when nested 
together, with the lid off the Baldwin. They suddenly are best buds, 
in spite of being different, and both gather resonance from each 
other, partly, I think, because the entire scale is exactly the same on both.

You can really tell how you're doing when a two piano piece has both 
instruments exactly doubling each other, as happens now and then. If 
it sounds like the unisons are as good as if it were just one piano, 
you've aced it. ("and we are unanimous in that!")

Susan Kline
Newport Arts Center, Oregon State University
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