audience throws off pitch OT

[Barbara Richmond]

Not to make you jealous or anything, Guy, but my problem got solved the
first year.  ;-)    Musta been my charming smile and long eye-lashes.  :-)

Barbara


----- Original Message -----
From: "Nichols" <nicho@zianet.com>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2004 9:04 PM
Subject: Re: audience throws off pitch OT


> At 08:32 PM 3/25/2004 -0600, you wrote:
> >Sorry, Guy, I wasn't curious enough to check.  Now I would be!  The truth
> >is, after I turned off the lights I didn't bother to service the piano
that
> >morning.  I thought (right or wrong) it wasn't worth my time.  I had 89
> >other instruments to look after--and there was always someone
waiting......
> >
> >The conditions in that hall were good--after the thermostat was fixed.
I
> >heard from the faculty that it had been bad for years.  I started sweetly
> >squeaking at the physical plant staff the moment I got hired.  ;-)  After
it
> >was corrected, there was never a problem with the tuning wandering during
a
> >performance.
> >
> >Barbara Richmond
> >
> >PS Someday maybe I'll tell you about my adventures in educating the
educated
> >at a university.  :-)
>
>
> Educating the (over) educated is sooo much fun. I'll relate a story from
NMSU:
>     There's a relatively new building across the parking lot upwind from
> the main recital hall. After it was completed, I noticed a really annoying
> loud continuous hum from somewhere in the area of this new building.
> Dissonant, like a flatted ninth, sorta, with just a touch of variance in
> one or both of the fundamentals. The partials were.... cosmic. Sounds like
> ventilation-type equipment, set to cause nervous breakdown. Big steel
stage
> doors face this noise, and the noise is barely detectable in the hall.
Only
> when, for example .... tuning. And.... the recording engineer picked it up
> once when the wind was just right and he had nine mics on stage.
>    So.... haul educated types of varying caste levels out the back and
> say.... "Listen!"  "Oh yeah", they say. I'll call someone. Months go by. I
> call a few, also. Physical plant types. Customers in high places.
Honestly,
> if a prison facility had this backround noise, human rights groups would
> complain.
>    Out of the blue, just last week, I'm tuning for the visiting artist.
> Fellow in blue walks in and starts looking around. On stage. When I asked
> him wazzup he informs me he's the new "temp"
> architect/construction/engineer-type guy, hoping his job is made
permanent.
> Took him out back and he seemed to know exactly what was causing the
> problem and how to fix it. We shall see.
>    Moral of the story could have something to do with blue collar types,
> but I'm really more reminded of the hound dog on the porch, whimpering.
> When the visitor asked the bubba why his dog was whining, he was informed
> that the nail stickin' up outta the porch was annoyin' the hound. Just...
> not enough. Coulda been a real smart dog, y'know.....
>
> Later,
> Guy
>
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