[pianotech] Hammer Technique: was Q & A Roundtable (David, Ron)

[Mr. Mac's]

On Feb 2, 2011, at 10:01 AM, David Love wrote:

> …The fact is (and I'm not necessarily addressing you but the general
> discussion) most people just find a way to do what's necessary without
> really thinking about it.  The movements they make are kind of instinctive
> and part of a feedback loop.  That's ok and necessary in fact as a part of
> the process. …

Ron, David,

I've been following this exchange of yours, and poof,
    this paragraph above started a flow numerous thoughts in me.

I shall try and be as brief as possible. Good luck on that, huh  :-)

I am a person who just finds a way to do what is necessary.
Yet I once was a person who did think about all of the particulars,
   once upon a time. Particulars such as have been mention,
   tuning lever position, string rendering, pin flexing, etc.

Now I've become one of those instinctive types.
I place the hammer where it is most comfortable,
   gives me the greatest leverage, and just simply feels right.

I no longer care
   about the basics that are taught in classes, that one way is correct
   and all the reasons why those ways are correct, but yet I fully understand
   why such things are taught. I have gone beyond those basics
   and have written my own textbook, so to speak, by experimenting
   outside the domain of what persons believe is so and what isn't so.

Continuing, the one difference I perceive, though, in the differences expressed thus far
  in some of the back and forth is this.
David is a hybrid tuner. Ron, please let me explain.

I'm guessing, Ron, that you start in the middle of the piano and work outwards
   towards the bass and the treble most of the time.
And I'm guessing that David does not do this much anymore, but works from A0 upward to C8.

I became an A0 to C8 ever since I attended Albert Sanderson's class on pitch raising long ago.
It just resonated in my being for the reasons he gave,
   but more than that, I discovered that I get to know the piano more intimately
   by graduating from single string notes, to double string notes and then the triple strings.

By the time I get to the first low plain wire note, I have established some degree
   of understanding about the piano I am tuning. That is the greatest part of all.
This technique is one of the greatest revelations to have ever come to my attention.

And I can never go back to any other method then that fundamental A0 to C8 trip.

Thanks, Al, wherever you might be.

Sincerely,

Keith McGavern, RPT
pianostuff.kamcam.com