[pianotech] Regulation Question

PAULREVENKOJONES at aol.com PAULREVENKOJONES at aol.com
Sat Feb 28 17:33:27 PST 2009



In a message dated 2/28/2009 6:35:49 P.M. Central Standard Time,  
pianocare2 at bigpond.com writes:

Hello  Matthew 
You are getting  pianism confused with being a technician. It is great for a 
pianist to be a  technician, however sometimes it just doesn’t  work.
Some of our finest  technicians are also extraordinary pianists, and 
vice-versa, and use their  pianistic sensibility to their advantage--e.g. Fred Sturm 
in NM. I would love to  hear him chime in on this.

Your technique of  playing the key whilst lifting your hand is a proven 
pianist technique. As you  wrote, it is good for producing the higher volumes and I 
have to add that it  is a good technique for producing a quality tone at 
these levels. Having said  that, this technique controls the speed of the hammer 
better than just using  finger speed. I haven’t explained this as properly as I 
have wanted, but it  will have to do. 
The technique used by  most technicians whilst tuning is not a technique used 
by pianists. All we  care about is using the key to use the action to perform 
our work. Pianism and  tuning do not meet here.The technician uses speed and 
weight to achieve tuning  stability…. And it produces an awful tone.
Aren't you confusing tuning touch  and technical touch? And don't we work for 
our pianists? If we can mimic a  pianistic touch which gives us information, 
even by contrast with the forte or  fortissimo blow which creates the 
mis-fire, then by that differentiation we can  find useful information. The key works 
with one touch, and not with another.  That, I think, was Matthew's 
observation. It made sense to me, since it helped  me to visualize the jack top 
contacting the knuckle in one way, and in the  obvious other way.

So your technicians  touch tells you there is a problem in the action. Think 
as a technician………..  find problem and fix problem. 
Use the pianists  touch for voicing and playing. Use your pianistic skills to 
your advantage  after applying the technical knowledge.
Well, no. Use the pianist's touch  to create information. And think as a 
technician and a pianist if you have both  skills. Why would you purposefully 
dismiss a domain of information which will  help you diagnose problems in the 
piano. The keyboard is a data base; it gives  us information if we know how to 
coax it out. 
 

Again, my bet was on the jack's being too far  forward and misfiring on the 
heavier blow, but working, just barely, on the  lighter "pianistic" touch. I 
may lose the bet, but my argument stands.  :-) 

Paul
**************A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy 
steps! 
(http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1218822736x1201267884/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Fwww.freecreditreport.com%2Fpm%2Fdefault.aspx%3Fsc%3D668072%26hmpgID
%3D62%26bcd%3DfebemailfooterNO62)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20090228/0b20f983/attachment.html>


More information about the pianotech mailing list

This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC