Tune Time

My, my, my. I just never know what will happen. After last week's (and weekend's) massive pile-up of key work, I started getting tuning calls. I do only a moderate amount of tuning work. Not because I'm not looking for it, but mostly due to being the 'new' tech in a territory with a 'legendary' tech. So I'm lucky if I do one or two tunings per week. Thursday was booked with a morning tuning and another in the afternoon. Both repeat customers and the jobs went smoothly and easily. So much so that I didn't hesitate to delve in to spring yard clean-up when I got home at 3:30. Yes, I knew that I had another big tuning day coming up...well, an afternoon anyway. Friday afternoon was devoted to getting two pianos in shape and tuned at the Rockport High School. It was a short notice, high visibility/impact job. On Wednesday morning I got a call from the Rockport Chamber Music Festival. They were coordinating a full orchestral performance with Gordon College for local elementary school students. Or some such thing...anyway...Rockport High was the only school that would/could provide two pianos on stage.

Now, one of the pianos lives on stage and is a nice Yamaha G1 grand that stays fairly well maintained and tuned. The other was to be moved on to the stage. It would be a Yamaha P22 upright that I hadn't tuned in two years. Yikes. That's why I set aside the entire afternoon. I was more than a tad nervous about the P22, and very nervous about getting it to sound decent with the grand. I rolled the grand in to position on the stage and a group from the school lifted the P22 from the auditorium floor to the stage, then I rolled it to it's position next to the grand. The better piano, the grand, would be the first to be tuned. It would be the standard to match with the upright.

Just before I started, one of the music teachers came in and asked if I had time to tune one of the practice room pianos when I finished in the auditorium. Sure, why not?

The grand was flat. Tis the remnants of the dry heat of the auditorium in winter! When I had tuned it last September it was a slight bit above standard pitch and I had left it there (summer humidity the culprit). My next tuning, just before Christmas, and the piano had settled in at pitch. Today, I would have loved to let it 'float' very slightly flat of standard but in tune to itself, knowing that upcoming warmer and more humid weather would inch it sharp, but with a multi-instrument performance that wasn't an option. I made a quick tuning pass and then played hard and heavy. I went back through and caught a few notes that had drifted.

On to the P22! I got everything set including the tuning lever in place on my starting note, then I walked to the grand and simultaneously played the same note and wedged the key down to keep the note sounding. A quick couple strides back to tune the note on the P22 to match. From that point I tuned the midrange of the P22, then went through the wedge routine with the grand to make sure both pianos sounded as one in the midrange. Then finished the P22. Since it, also, had been a tad flat, I went through each key and 'beat them' with a firm blow. Touched up a couple upon checking for drift and did a random check between the two pianos. Everything sounded good, but I'll be returning very early (for me) on Monday morning for a quick check through. The musicians will be setting up around 8 a.m. and I think the performance begins at 9 a.m.

With aching arm and back and legs, I packed up my tuning gear and headed for the office to let them know I'd be in the music department tuning an additional piano.

This piano was very flat and I yanked the daylights out of it to get it up to pitch and then cruised through a tuning. I discovered a very weird 'fix' that the previous school technician (or someone) had made and undid it. I did a proper fix. By the time I finished, my body was starting to scream. It's not used to 5 pianos in two days! (Not to mention the yard work).

Thank goodness for a weekend in which I'm expecting only one set of keys...for key tops and key bushings. I like those 'double' jobs!