Pitch Raise Speed/etc., was: Steinway vs. The Tuner

[David Andersen]

Hi List-----

So.  I guess I'm a geezer; I've been doing pitch raises for 27 years(!) 
and have pretty much always done them the same way: a rough, quick 
version of the way I tune: do the temperament (F3-F4),
then down to the bottom of the piano, then up to the top. If the piano is 
10 cents or less off, I set my A 2 or 3 cents above pitch;  I don't pull 
the strips, and let my body jerk the pin on the outside unison notes 
once; you'd be amazed at what your body knows how to do if you don't let 
your mind interfere. It takes somewhere between 20-30 minutes; I always 
charge for a pitch raise, usually a little less than half my normal 
tuning charge. I've always gotten good results and great stability after 
the fine tuning. 

for 10-100 cents below pitch, I set the A about 1/4 the distance above 
pitch(bit less in the bass and high treble) what the piano is sitting 
below; tune the center string, pull the strips, and bring the unisons 
close.  I have found that if I take a little more time to get fairly 
close to the ballpark during the pitch raise, the piano is much more 
stable and even on the fine tuning, and almost always settles in a couple 
cents below pitch, which for me is the ideal place to tune from.  Again, 
all roads lead to Rome, and this has worked out for me with thousands of 
pianos; everybody has a method they're comfortable with and fits their 
nature and inclination. 
I follow them up in 6-8 weeks' time----which I ALWAYS get the client to 
agree to before I start the pitchraise---with another tuning; hardly ever 
need to do a rough pass before I fine tune.

I think a LOT of the success of this has to do with extremely 
well-developed pin-setting technique.
I don't use hard settling blows until I fine tune----although I'm hitting 
the notes harder than "normal"
as I run through the pitch raise, and if the piano is real low, before I 
fine tune I'll start at A1 and smack the bejesus out of every note real 
quick.

Hard blows, or "test" blows: short, sharp, focussed, arm & shoulder 
completely relaxed---I take a page from martial arts and let my first two 
fingers drop on the key with my energy concentrated on the point of 
contact, and sort of "imagine" that my fingers are very springy----that 
way I don't linger at the bottom of the keystroke(the bottom of the key 
hitting the felt punching on the front rail pin) where all the 
potentially abusive resistance is---and I've never had an arm or shoulder 
problem. Knock on wood.

Pin setting technique is all feel---you get to a point where (again, if 
you let your body stay relaxed)
you can make incredibly small movements in pitch with almost no effort.  
But you can't think about it; let your body do it....you do it over and 
over again until you achieve mastery.  It's such an incredibly complex 
craft---each set of tuning pins, each set of strings has a different 
torque requirement, and if you think about it seems like a totally 
daunting, insurmountable task.  But your body is an amazing, amazing 
machine, and can automatically compensate and navigate through the 
infinite number of variables that exist in the pins and strings of the 
pianos we work on.  This IMO, is a miracle, if you need miracles in your 
life.

I apply the same "body wisdom" principle to voicing and regulation----for 
me it's all feel, and I have hard-won, documented evidence that the less 
I listen to the often negative or "helping" dialogue in my head as I do 
this work, and focus my attention on how the piano feels and sounds as 
I'm proceeding, the better job I do. Piano work can be extremely 
meditative if you can place your awareness on the sound and feeling 
rather than the limiting self-talk....hope this doesn't sound too New 
Agey or something to you left-brain guys---it's just simple common sense 
to me.

There's always so much more to learn; every single time I do anything on 
a piano, I'm refining my craft--that's what keeps me excited and into 
it---the attitude of a student. I have a LOT of self-confidence---I'm 
damn good at the little teeny corner of the huge craft of piano 
technology that I've chosen to focus on---and I'm also incredibly humble, 
because every day I realize how much I don't know, how much there is to 
learn, that there's always going to be someone better than me.

I love this work, and I love this list.  Thank you for the space to 
ramble.  I want to talk more about my "feel" approach to voicing and 
regulating, but it's late, and I have an early meeting tomorrow.

All the best---
David Andersen