Modern Tone

[Porritt, David]

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Joe:

=20

Your "tin can" comment below is close, but no cigar.  We have 10
practice rooms reserved for piano majors with 10 Steinways (5 Ms, 4Ls
and a B)  The rooms are tin cans.  If you can imagine a room with a B
that can hold the B, a bench and a small to medium sized student.  How
do you get a sound that isn't too loud?  I have encouraged students to
invest in some kind of hearing protection.  Generally they do leave the
short lid closed with the music desk sitting on top of the piano.  In
spite of the fact that this makes the music awkwardly high, it's better
than going deaf before lunch.  I have steamed the hammers (doesn't last)
I've fabric softened the hammers (doesn't last and causes the hammers to
loose their shape) needled the hammers (really nothing lasts).  These
pianos are played very hard and in a room about 5% of the size room
these pianos were made to fill.  In our case at least it's not the
pianos, but the rooms. =20

=20

All our rooms do have walnut paneling and in the next year there is to
be some acoustic modifications made to them.  The goal is to reduce
volume in the rooms and cut down sound transfer between the rooms.
(Right now we have a lot of Mozart/Liszt collaborations that you don't
want to hear!) =20

=20

When you think practice rooms, remember that these are often really nice
pianos in extremely small rooms!

=20

dp

=20

David M. Porritt

dporritt@smu.edu

________________________________

From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On
Behalf Of Joe Garrett
Sent: Saturday, March 05, 2005 1:02 AM
To: pianotech
Subject: Re: Modern Tone

=20

Kudos to y'all. When I made that comment, I didn't think it would get
the positive response that it has.<G> So far, I see that most of y'all
are trying to get the tone that was so common in the 40's & 50's! Yahoo!
I now know I'm not alone in this endeavor. My feeling is that most
people, associated with music, get used to what they are subjected to,
on a regular basis. And, this seems to "set" their perception of tone in
the piano. I sad thing, IMO, is that most academic environs, have
horrible "tin can" type pianos in their practice rooms, etc. and are
really trashing our young musicians tonal perception.

Granted, for most modern music, of the "pop" venue, somewhat brighter is
called for, IMO. However, the real problem lies in the perception that
Bright translates into "projection", which just ain't true. (Kinda like
an electric guitar player cranking up the volume to be heard and all
that accomplishes is distortion, IMO. Oh well, at least there are those
of us that strive for balance/tone/harmony.

Best Regards,

Joe Garrett, R.P.T.
Captain, Tool Police
Squares R I


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