Pianotech

  • 1.  "I just tune it until it sounds happy"

    Posted 12-16-2020 21:21

    "I just tune it until it sounds happy"...

    I got this quote out of Richard West's journal article this month on Keith Kopp, regarding how Keith approaches teaching tuning to students.

    In case you haven't read it yet, Keith was talking about one particular student who was having trouble learning to tune, listening exclusively to beats. The student couldn't hear or maybe recognize beats, and was not progressing well.Then, suddenly, the student began to improve and tune better. Keith asked him what changed. The student said "I just tune it until it sounds happy".

    I can relate to this. I know what this happy sound is. It is how I tune unisons, as well as check intervals aurally while I'm using the ETD. I hear beats...its not a question of not hearing them. But listening to beats exclusively degrades the musicality of my tunings...it always has. Its one reason I use an ETD, as it leaves my ear uncluttered to focus on the resonant sound of partials musically locking in...a happy sound, and a very musical sound. It makes tuning a musical experience for me. 

    I don't often hear folks describe tuning in a way I can relate to, so this was nice to hear about this soul. I wonder if there are more lone souls out there who can relate to this quote?



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    Jim Ialeggio
    grandpianosolutions.com
    Shirley, MA
    978 425-9026
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  • 2.  RE: "I just tune it until it sounds happy"

    Posted 12-17-2020 04:21

    I love your post Jim. It resonates with my own approach. Long ago I thought to compose several demonstration songs to demonstrate how happy the piano sounds each time I finish up tuning. I observe each time if it's happiness resonates with it's owner if they are within earshot. If not I may tweak my music some, and I listen to my clients too.

    One protective mother told me her special needs son sees color as well when he hears music. He is happy when he sees vibrant bright colors come from their piano. She explained when minor chords or arpeggios are played he sees dark colors and sobs in a state of deep depression. She tells me the piano gets played little. My demonstrations always have combinations of majors and minors for they create the accidentals where I can know each pianos “state of consciousness”. Yet  I have yet to meet her son. When I do I will know in my heart that I have achieved a  gold standard in both hearing and seeing both light and sound that a happy piano has  to give, such as  the French chef's laser focus on earning another Michelin star.

    Yesterday after wondering why another customer had waited several years before calling me back to tune once more, I demonstrated piano's tuning I had finished with one of my songs. Afterward she asked me if I had it written so she could purchase it and play it. Both she and her piano were happy. I can tell you one thing Jim. I spend a lot of time with second passes on fine tuning to ensure those unisons are pure and all is equally tempered. A while back I eliminated basic tunings and just offer Full Service tunings where my clients who all are willing to pay me more for their piano’s happiness. I have never looked back.



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    Kevin Magill
    Williamsburg VA
    757-220-2420
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: "I just tune it until it sounds happy"

    Member
    Posted 12-17-2020 07:37

    I had trouble hearing the beats of unisons at first. I slowly developed a method wherein I hit the note, then as the note fades and I pull the string up (or down) it gets to a point of a quiet hum (didn't realize this at first, but this is very similar to the way I used to tune my guitar years ago.) I can now hear beats easily but listening for the "hum" is quicker and more enjoyable. 



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    Don Dalton
    Chester VT
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: "I just tune it until it sounds happy"

    Posted 12-17-2020 08:49

    Don, 

    Your "hum" sounds like something similar to what I look for. 

    I am a tenor. I have always known what I was listening for, in terms of resonance. I always wanted to hear a certain quality of resonance in piano tone, even though the pianos I grew up with certainly never had it. With a few notable exceptions, I never really heard a piano achieve this resonance, it until I figured out how to create it myself.

    Back, when I was first starting, David Andersen's tunings, confirmed for me that the resonance was possible, and that I wasn't totally nuts. Being a tenor, I really think, that when I hear that "happy" resonance, in a piano, it is the same physical resonance that that happens in the cavities of my face and skull when singing. When I really nail the unisons and intervals, or achieve my "grail" tone when shaping a rebuild's tone, its that singer's resonance I am looking for, and experiencing.

    I have noticed that some of the nicest tunings and tone work, or at least nicest, to me, in terms of tone goals I can relate to, have been produced by techs who are also singers. 



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    Jim Ialeggio
    grandpianosolutions.com
    Shirley, MA
    978 425-9026
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: "I just tune it until it sounds happy"

    Posted 12-19-2020 18:25

    I like to think of tuning unisons until they sound "pleasant". It seems to me it's something, especially at first, that's easy to over-think. Many times we don't trust our own instincts when we should. I was taught to tune each string individually with an ETD and then check the unisons when I was done, but I quickly realized, on my own, that I could tune quicker and better by tuning them by ear. Even though I tune electronically I enjoy the process of tuning unisons by ear, as Jim described.  



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    "That Tuning Guy"
    Scott Kerns
    www.thattuningguy.com
    Tunic OnlyPure, TuneLab & PianoMeter user
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: "I just tune it until it sounds happy"

    Member
    Posted 12-30-2020 11:56
    Nice Post. I have thought of the "happy experience" you are talking about and can relate to it in a certain way. I am very much into solo jazz piano and have an extensive LP and CD collection of many great known and relatively unknown jazz pianists. I also have a fantastic sounding high end stereo system, which with to listen to these recordings. Jazz piano music is filled with dense complex chords of 9ths, 11ths, 13ths, 6ths, major and minor 7ths, augmented and diminished chords. I experience a form of sonic and emotional ecstacy when I hear these harmonies played on a luscious grand piano that sounds perfectly in tune. I am sometimes astounded at how acurate all these chords sound on a very well tuned piano, and I wonder about who may have tuned the piano and how they got the tuning to sound so good. 

    Before I started to learning how to tune myself (I am still a beginner), I was never completely happy with even one tuning that was done on the many pianos I have owned in my life. I would always have the technician fix certain notes, usually unisons. Now that I am learning to tune, I am living in the world of clashing approaches of trying to hear the beats of the intervals, and relying on my ear for what sounds right. I suppose that it will take a while to figure the tuning approach that works for me, and gets me the results that I sometimes hear on recordings. 


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    Joe Burros
    Cell: 646-410-7174
    jbcello@gmail.com
    www.fmi-newengland.com
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    Original Message