Voicing

[David M. Porritt]

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Barbara:

I guess the funniest(?) voicing time I had was at a home where=
 they had a new Knabe grand in a living room with hard floors and=
 little stuffed furniture.  It was loud.  The wife was out=
 shopping, and the husband was the host.  After I tuned the=
 piano, Bob (husband) asked me about the volume.  I gently voiced=
 one note and asked him if that's more like what he wanted.  I=
 got enthusiastic cheers!  I went ahead and voiced the piano to=
 what Bob and I thought was really nice.  Happy customer.  Very=
 happy customer.

Bob is an airline pilot.  He leaves the house and heads for Los=
 Angles.  Wife comes home and sits down at the piano.  I get the=
 call "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY PIANO!!!!!!"  I told her that Bob=
 liked it a lot!  She was really mad.  I told her that she and=
 Bob should decide how they want it and call me back and I'd=
 voice it however they want it.  I've never heard from them=
 again.  

That was with approval!

dave

__________________________________________
David M. Porritt, RPT
Meadows School of the Arts
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, TX 75275
dporritt@mail.smu.edu


----- Original message ---------------------------------------->
From: Barbara Richmond <piano57@flash.net>
To: <dporritt@mail.smu.edu>, Pianotech <pianotech@ptg.org>
Received: Sun, 31 Oct 2004 14:58:48 -0600
Subject: Re: Voicing

Hi Dave,
 
Definitely with permission.  But I don't wait for the customer to=
 say something--I'll bring up the subject.  (Voicing is my=
 "thing"--perhaps because I'm a pianist.  I'm no Andre, but deal=
 well with day to day stuff & did well on staff at a university.)=
  Depending on the situation, I may say:
 
"Do you find it difficult to play softly on this piano?'
 
or
 
"Have you heard those old uprights that sound like tin?"  (Your=
 piano can sound like that, too!)
 
or
 
"Can you hear how much brighter this section is compared to=
 others?" 
 
Of course, there's voicing up, too.  But very often on the pianos=
 I see that is a power or regulation issue.
 
A major voicing issue to me is, would I have trouble tuning the=
 piano with the way it sounds now.  Perhaps I have delicate ears.=
  If there isn't a major voicing issue or just an overall=
 adjustment to be made, I will go ahead (without permission) and=
 even up some notes when I'm done tuning or do some string/hammer=
 mating while tuning.  Of course, I'm not changing the character=
 of the tone-just smoothing things out.  That has never come back=
 to "bite" me.
 
I'll explain in whatever terms necessary to get the message=
 through--there are a multitude of angles.  Either I'm fairly=
 good at communicating with folks or I'm really lucky, because=
 I've always been allowed to do the voicing I felt was necessary.=
  Maybe it's the way I get business (no ads, only referrals, I=
 just work part-time these days).  Currently, I find myself doing=
 mostly institutional stuff and I've usually been told to do what=
 I think is best (my usual service call time on these pianos has=
 been 4-5 hours including a bunch of different stuff).  Of course=
 it's true, sometimes just removing the action and tightening the=
 screws improves the sound by leaps and bounds--but that's not=
 the voicing I'm referring to. 
 
Well, it's time for me to go out and shred some leaves.
 
Barbara Richmond
 
 
----- Original Message ----- 
From: David M. Porritt 
To: pianotech@ptg.org 
Sent: Sunday, October 31, 2004 6:37 AM
Subject: Re: Voicing


Barbara:
 
Do you voice the piano with or without the owner's ideas?  When I=
 was still doing in-home tuning, I never voiced a piano unless=
 the owner said something about the sound.  On extreme pianos I'd=
 ask them if they like the sound and let the conversation go from=
 there, but just voicing without their saying anything usually=
 bit me in an inappropriate place!
 
dave

__________________________________________
David M. Porritt, RPT
Meadows School of the Arts
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, TX 75275
dporritt@mail.smu.edu
 

 


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