Concert Tuning for Jim Brickman

[Michael Spreeman]

Terry,
 
To the second question, yes. You can shoot for an average or you can attempt to anticipate what the temperature is going to be for the actual performance. 
 
The really fun gigs are in the amphitheaters where you're asked to tune around 1:00 for a 7:00 performance. If you're especially lucky to have the said amphitheater located in a ski resort, the temp at the time of the tuning with no sun on the piano will be around 60 degrees. Somewhere around 5:00, the sun will cook the piano to around 80 degrees. By concert time, things are down to 55 degrees. If it's the luckiest day of your life, the piano will be brand new, out of the box, never prepped, 100 cents flat with the balance rail floating, malfunctioning dampers, with a buzz that's in the rear caster which will take you an hour to find. One approach is to get to know the venue in order to anticipate downbeat conditions. In the amphitheater example, there's really no win, only compromise, which IMO should never be a consideration in concert work, but is an unfortunate reality. 5 cents movement is a walk in the park, wait till you experience 25 to 35 cents of wandering. 
 
Another approach is to insist on tuning just before the house opens with the lights on and the conditions as close to downbeat as possible. I used to have managers at several venues hold the house doors until the very last possible moment. In the outdoor example, I would tune it at 1:00 about 3 cents flat. By the time it cycled and came back to 55 degrees, it would settle to a pretty even 440 and I could blast through and clean things up in about 15 to 20 minutes (providing, of course, I knew the piano). 
 
To your 3rd question, yes, welcome to concert work. The good news is that you'll be seeing many of the same make and model of pianos and will get to know how they respond to the changes. The bad news is, um, welcome to concert work.  
 
With this information in hand, to your 1st question, I prefer an ETD because it's much easier to detune the piano at 60 degrees with the knowledge that it is going to go through the 80 back to 55 swing before the concert and settle back to where you want it, or to incorporate a weird tuning with the first tenor note 15 cents sharp and an even curve to normal around C6 because you know it's cold and the tenor of that specific model of piano is going to drop 15 cents by downbeat and by C6 the drop is going to be close to zero.  
 
Some venues are simply impossible and once you know this, you can decide to either not service there, or make the necessary compromises.
 
                Michael Spreeman http://www.spreemanpianoinnovations.com


From: mfarrel2 at tampabay.rr.comTo: pianotech at ptg.orgSubject: Concert Tuning for Jim BrickmanDate: Fri, 19 Oct 2007 06:01:33 -0400



Anyone ever heard of a pianist named Jim Brickman? My understanding is that he writes and performs "adult contemporary" music and has won an Emmy Award (maybe more than one?).
 
Anyway, I tuned a Yamaha C7 for him the other day. I haven't had the guts to ask how the piano sounded for the concert. The AC vents above the stage (very small stage in a 100-seat venue) was blowing right onto the piano - there really wasn't any way to move the piano away from them, nor was there any way to direct the air elsewhere.
 
The piano was 10 cents flat upon arrival. During the two-hour pitch raising and tuning process, the AC probably cycled six times or more, blowing for lengthy times. That way I could get maybe one section of the scale tuned, and then while tuning the next section the pitch of the previous section would wander three to five cents sharp or flat. Needless to say, when all was said and done, this piano had about the worst octaves I have ever walked away from.
 
And then of course, later on, the 4,000 stage lights at 10,000 watts each will go on and be directed at the piano.
 
I use and ETD for tuning from a calculated curve. I have two questions. First, would an aural tuning process be better suited for this situation - my thinking is that every string the aural tuner sets has its pitch based on previous strings (read: previous octaves) - and maybe as the sections/octaves wander up and down with the AC, the aural tuner would be keeping better pace/pitch with the moving piano pitch? Second, is there anything else one can do in this situation? Or is the answer to question #2 "Welcome to concert work!"
 
Thanks.
 
Terry FarrellFarrell Piano
 
BTW: This was a nearly-new C7. The bass strings sounded like crap - many had some level of "tubbyness". Even though the long bridge did not have a hockey stick tenor end, the last few notes in the tenor still had the "rubber-band" sound - rather poor break for a piano of this size (how did Yamaha manage that on a good size piano like this?). And it had a noticeable developing killer octave. IMHO, pretty sad state for such a "nice" piano.
 
www.farrellpiano.comterry at farrellpiano.com
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