An education in stability

[David Renaud]

Doing a pit show for "Chorus Line" as a musician, and was asked to
tune the piano. The crew brought their own piano into the pit, an
apartment sized Yamaha.

I have never experienced such instability. By the end of every show
it is way off, unisons are bad, octaves bad, top flat. Tuned it 4 times
so far for 4 shows.By the second half it sounds horrible.

The pit is low and cold, and there is constant air flow one can feel.
They fill the place up with 700-1000 people and things change.

Also as the orchestra plays, the platform shakes and shimys
around a bit, constantly.

I tune for another concert hall, choirs, many musicians, and
have been happy with my stability at large. But this is quite
frankly embarrassing with my fellow musicians.
I've never done a cold pit like this before,
with an instrument not use to the enviroment.Perhaps
it is the shaking of the platform.

Any words of wisdom from those that do tune for pit orchestra
from time to time?

I should pop the action out and check the treble bridge for cracks.
Something is going on that in quite out of the ordinary in my
experience.


                                             Cheers
                                             Dave Renaud
                                             RPT