*bump* just to make some folks nervous...

And my tech is scheduled to come out this Thursday to tune and voice my piano! So this weekend I'm banishing the children outside and going at it hot and heavy with the Zoom.

Monica - can one safely assume that the "Zoom" is an audio recording device?

Regards, JF

JohnFrank:

Oh boy, my tech left yesterday and I absolutely LOVE how my piano is sounding. My kids had better pray for good weather this weekend because they'll be spending most of it outside while I'm recording! If they're well-behaved I'll even set out a bowl of water for them!

...all of which is another way of saying "bump." One week until the recital opens...

Heh, still have to update the software.

Oh, and to think of something to perform. That would be good too.

Hey, I just got back from my 2 weeks vacation ( without practicing piano ). The first time I played again, it was like relearning the pieces and this thread is adding pressure (and Monica kept bumping it to the first page). I am currently polishing my 2 new pieces so I will see which one is better to submit to the recital, the other one I will use to participate in the next month piano bar. So this weekend is critical for me and you guys will definitely hear "a lot of clunkers" from me in this recital as I won't have time to play with "red dot" much.

TB

Monica,

I can hardly wait to hear you play on your freshly tuned and "voiced" piano. Is this the first voicing you've had done to your piano? Having mine voiced was the best enhancement to the overall sound of my piano of anything else done to it since I've owned it...other than regular tunings.

I'm happy for you and I'm sure that the others in your fan base will be as happy as me.

Warm regards,

Lisztener

This is the second real voicing the piano has had; it's been about two years since the last voicing, and some of the high notes were getting rather shrill, and the bass notes had a few high ringing overtones. Now it sounds overall much mellower.

If I have time, I'll start a thread where I post "before and after" recordings of the same snippet of music and see whether anybody else can tell a difference.

Great idea, Monica,

I forgot to ask if this was a needle voicing, or did your tech take your keys out of your piano and sand the faces of the hammers?

I had difficulties with keys that were too loud compared to their neighbors. My tech put a painter's drop cloth over the piano bench and the surrounding floor, then proceeded to remove the keys from the piano and place them on the bench to sandpaper the hammers. After replacing the hammers, he fine tuned with the needles to make the key strikes more uniform in volume for the same pressure applied to each. Since that "major" voicing, my tech continues to needle the necessary keys to keep the touch uniform each time he tunes the piano. He said that after three years, depending on amount of use, we'll consider another major voicing.

Regardless of how your tech voiced your piano, I'm delighted that you can discern an audible difference.

Enjoy...enjoy...enjoy!

Best regards,

Lisztener

He was definitely sanding the hammers... I didn't see any needling, but that could've happened when I wasn't looking. He also did something that involved taking a hammer and whacking away on the bridge (well, "tapping delicately" is perhaps a better way to put it)... levelling the strings, perhaps?

OK, folks. I have updated the recital submission software with a few small new features.

The performer's name will be written in bold text, and there is a field for entering your location so we know where you're from. Also, the duration of the pieces is now automatically calculated from the MP3.

I also made some other changes that you won't see -- until they break something. So when you are submitting your MP3 for the recital and you find something strange, send me or Monica a PM.

I believe he was making sure the strings were seated at the bottom of the bridge pins. This allows the string to terminate precisely at the bridge pin and bridge. That makes sure that all the strings for that note are all the same length, or as close as design allows. If you look close enough, you'll notice that the pins are at a slight angle, this helps to hold the string down against the bridge. You can also look straight down on the 3 pins and see that the notch in the bridge intersects the centers of the pins (they should be very close) that's a sign of a quality piano.
...disclaimer...not a tech in anyones mind but my own....

Mahlzeit,
you are awesome! Thanks for doing all this.

Monica:

I think I once posted that when my M&H was brand new, it played like a truck! .

VERY heavy-sluggish action. Come to think of it, many of the M&H pianos I played were like that and the dealers told me that it could easily be changed with some action work and teflon dust lubrication (amongst a host of other little tricks/tweeks). Apparantly many good pianists like the heavier action so they have more control over the keys and not just loose slop!

After a day with a good tech, my piano played like an absolute dream.

With the extreme humidity we are having now due to the monsoon season, I am expecting things to possibly get a bit sour but so far so good.

I don't want to tune the piano now knowing that our humidity levels will go to almost nothing in just another month so I'm going to wait.

Most everyone else will probably be in a different situation since they will most likely have a more constant humidity level.

The difference my tech made on my piano was literally taking an instrument I could barely play to making it a fine tuned race car!.

There is no reason to pay an exorbitant amount of money for an over priced tech but a good one will be worth every penny.

BTW, this upcoming recital I will finally be submitting a 100% originally composed piece. I figure I've hacked up everyone elses music so much that it's about time to "put up or shut up"!.

A good improviser should be able to compose their own music at this point. I don't want to be called a "poser"!! .

This is going to be one that I abuse my admin privileges on and cheat and listen to early.

I banished the kids to their rooms today (too hot to chain them outside, alas), and got one usable take of a piece that I feel happy about.

Haha.

Hey, a good tip would be to use some type of soft rope to tie up your kids as it leaves less marks than chains .

Also, some dry toast and a water bucket is really all they need for the day. (plenty of starch easily converts to glucose for energy) and their electrolytes should be fine as long as you tie them up under a shade tree.

The threat of a good spanking should also keep them quiet and I don't think child protective services even answers the phones on the weekends so you should fine for a least a few hours :p .

Mr S.H...

Monica, Whenever I read posts about children interferring with practice or recording I am reminded that I have absolutely no excuses. My three boys are all grown up and one even has a child of his own!! How do you do it???

I have three little Christopher Norton pieces almost ready.... my summercamp is off this year so I've been mindlessly 'playing' with non classical pieces (shhhhh don't tell my teacher).. although I have been trying to bring Moonlight back....Would that be too boring for a recital????

I also haven't turned on my metronome, practiced scales or any of the technical exercises he left me with......tsk tsk..... I've still got 4 weeks before my next lesson ... maybe I'll cram :p

Unless I get a decent recording today or tomorrow, I may have to skip this one. On Monday we're off for a week in the San Juans with no piano in sight. I'll be back for four days before we go off to the Sierras for another week.

Ted

Count me in! I'm working on finalizing a Final Fantasy piece (from FF X-2) called Wind Crest. It's especially not easy for me given my skill level right now, but I've been working on it for months and it's almost ready. I'm confident I'll have something to show for all those hours of effort & practice come August 15th.

3 months used to be a long time.

I'll be there.

I can't turn in the piece I've been working, I don't think it'll be ready. Maybe I'll go to an old standby that I just need to polish a bit...

Typical - you decide on a piece, work on it until it's almost ready, and then you hear something else which makes you think "i want to play that one instead!"

I had a fairly decent recording going when my 92 year old step grandmother I'm watching this month called me from the other room. Oh well.

She can hardly hear (even with the hearing aids she has) and can barely see so she doesn't even likely know when I'm playing my digital piano from my bedroom.

Hopefully I'll be able to get a good recording at some point without being interrupted. If it's any consolation I did play the tricky parts fairly well the next few times through without the recorder turned on (I was just practicing those spots). That's something I've not been able to do too many times as of yet.

At the end of the last recital, I had a great plan to learn a piece "as written" instead of playing something on the fly, by ear. I picked out my piece, and jumped right into it... summer got in the way, and I only have half of it... so, it may end up only partly finished if I can't get my behind in gear to sit and learn some more (yard work never ends!!!)

I'm ready...

But I almost punched out the "Red Dot"

My piano is not in tune, but talk about humidity fluctuations ... July in DC? Even though I keep the room at ~50%.

I have missed the last two recitals, but I'm determined to submit something for this one. I'll work on it tonight.

Okay, I will submit Ravel's "Sonatine", first movement.

I will try to submit a couple of short pieces that I played at my 1st recital recently. It didn't go as well as I hoped, so this will be my second chance

Soldier's March, Op.68 No.2 (Schumman)
German Dance in Amaj, WoO 13 No.11 (Beethoven)

I spent some serious time with the old red dot today but I still don't quite have something I'd like to submit. I'm waffling between submitting Grieg's Waltz (Op. 12, No. 2) and the first movement of Clementi's Sonatina in C (Op. 36, No. 3). Any requests?

Looks like only me and Serge so far are representing the Beatles.....

angelojf[/b] - Here Comes the Sun is one of my favorite tunes. I can't wait to hear your version.

I was watching "The Bee Movie" last night (the animated Jerry Seinfeld movie) and the movie closed with a pretty good version of Here Comes the Sun.