Pounding Too Hard

[pcpoulson at sbcglobal.net]

Another aspect of the "pounding too hard" issue came up in a class I attended at a PTG convention. The class was given by a RPT who also was trained in the Alexander Technique. The instructor had us each come up one at a time, talk about a physical complaint related to tuning that we had, and would analyze our tuning posture and technique for counterproductive habits. In my case, I was having sore left shoulder after a day of tuning. He pointed out that I was overpounding the key. His contention was that at a certain point, by pounding too hard we were not accelerating key any more or with any more force, as we had reached the limit of the action's ability to accelerate the hammer. All we were doing was driving the key harder onto the keybed, with the resultant shock transferring to the joints of the hand and arm. I lightened up my pounding, and the soreness did go away. The point is that there is a certain level of pounding in a string that is effective, and the goal is to find the point between too little and too much. The "golden mean" again.
Patrick C. Poulson
Registered Piano Technician
Piano Technicians Guild
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