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Piano on an Outside Wall?
This week i’m refinishing an old upright. One that was made in 1917. When this piano was built, houses were not the same as we know them today. Today we have insulation, modern heating capabilities of gas furnaces, baseboards and even oil heaters. Interesting because nearly 90 years after this piano was built, i can just hear the salesman of this piano when it was new out of the factory “And be sure you don’t put the piano on an outside wall”. I came from the prairies… in the prairies, the ice on those old farmhouses in 1917 would have been about as thick on the inside wall as the outside. Without insulation, the wood stoves and fireplaces put out incredibly dry heat. If you put a piano on an outside wall back then, you ran the risk of exposing the piano to fluctuation in temperature and humidity. The cold would come right through those thin uninsulated walls and by day the room would heat up with the old stoves. Back and
forth the contraction and expansion would happen on the soundboard. The safer bet would be to put the piano on an inside wall where there was less fluctuation. It wouldn’t cool down like the outside walls.
OK fast forward to the 2012… construction of buildings now have insulation minimums. The walls have are thicker and more resiliant to temperature. So when people ask today if they should house the piano on the outside wall, my litmus test is “If you can touch your wall and it feels close to room temperature, you’re fine”. That dispells many of the myths of why pianos should or shouldn’t be on an outside wall. Piano Music… novelty?
35 days
Written in 1923, this incredibly catchy song was one i grew up both listening to and playing. Recently my youngest son was sniffing around for some new music. I played a few bars of this from memory and his eyes lit up. Edward Elzear aka “Zez” Confrey wrote what was called ‘novelty’ piano music. In later years, he composed more for jazz band. What i didn’t know however was that he only died in 1971 with quite a career in composition. His other famous song was entitled “Kitten on the keys”. If you need a challenge for more advanced students… let them loose on Dizzy Fingers. It’s a musical tongue twister and is supposed to be performed at break neck speed. BTW, you can still order it online and have it shipped to your door which is what i did.
Without further adieu… here it is performed by none other than Liberace. He embelishes the ending but is still a wonderful performance.
Piano Names
50 days
by admin
in The Piano Market
What’s in a name? Funny you should ask. From names we derive culture, history and even fads. Think about famous names such as Lincoln, Rockefeller, Ford, even Bill Gates. These all come packaged with history, with credibility. Their names have outgrown them to an iconic state. Package names with products and you all of a sudden transfer that credibility to the product. When IBM or Sony buys up a new product and brands it, all of a sudden it has credibility.
Enter the piano market. The name Steigerman was a Yamaha invented name in the 1970′s: “Stei” from Steinway and “german”… trying to sound German. 
At the last China music trade show, it struck me how many names were trying to cash in on credibility. The piano that started my gears turning was one named Beethoven. Of course all of the composers have been done… i’ve seen Schubert, Mozart, Strauss. And so “obviously” one would assume that pianos with composer’s names should be musical right? WRONG. I can’t STAND Mozart pianos. Jes sayin’. They’re terrible. I can say that because they’re no longer in business. hahaa. But now we see names like Romance, Grammy… really? do they think their piano is award winning? And romance?
But now we’ve entered the more subtle means of marketing… where big fish swallow up small fish and trade the name. For example, Yamaha purchased the godfather Bosendorfer! Baldwin bought Chickering. Samick owns Knabe. We could spend a day talking about acquisitions and who owns what names. To me it all comes down to ownership. The ownership of the company will also speak to the future direction of the piano manufacturing. There are some really big shake ups that are in the wind… ones that will affect the industry as we know it today. But that’s the ebb and flow of business. My rule of thumb, stick to companies that put their own name on the front.
A Piano That Can’t Be Tuned?
There are two thoughts that resonate in my brain when someone says “A tuner once said it couldn’t be tuned”. The first thought is “hmmmm here’s a challenge” and my second thought is “lazy”. Lazy? Lazy?? Yep… you heard me. I’ve run into this many times where a piano is so badly out of tune that tuners don’t want to bring it up to pitch. Why? Because it will require multiple tunings and probably string breakage… the piano is usually old and frustrating to work on. Au contraire pour moi. I enjoy the challenge. It’s kinda like washing your car 
when it’s really dirty and you have a better sense of satisfaction when you’re done cleaning it. Tuning a piano that’s really out of tune is quite satisfying for me. I find that i enjoy bringing it back to life – to the original sound that it was intended to make. Y’see… individual notes are meant for a specific pitch. The gauge of wire corresponds with the pitch of the note. Subsequently, when a piano has slidden down terribly in pitch, it resembles sound more akin to a steamship than a piano! This last week i had such a case. The piano is called a Sterndale. From outward cabinetry i would date this piano at about 1880-1890. Though the name sounds English, directly below you’ll see the word “Berlin”. I must say that Germany really is known for engineering and when i took a quick look at the inside structure, i thought that immediately that this piano has potential (contrary to the
aforementioned words of “can’t be tuned”). I put on my strobe to find out exactly how far down we’re talkin’. UGH! 150-200 cents down! It beat my previous record of 110 cents down. 
Just to give some perspective, a piano on average will slide between 3-5 cents per year… so… 200??? Exactly. You do the math and think that this piano hasn’t been tuned in awhile. In fact, inside i saw a tuner’s signature in 1923. I laughed and thought… “y’know… this may have been the last time” hahaa. Anyway… 3 tunings later and one broken string and VOILA! The metamorphosis happened! This turned into my second favorite old piano (first being an old Steinway i tune regularly). Tightening down flange screws, taking out lost motion, adjusting front pins and damper heads and i must say… what an incredible instrument. So the next time you hear those words “Can’t be tuned”… think again. It’s amazing what a little time and TLC can do. Should Piano Tuners be Piano Players?
Is it necessary that a piano tuner know how to get around on the piano? No. Piano tuners can competantly tune an instrument one note at a time. HOWEVER, that said, it is an INCREDIBLE asset to know how to play to CHECK the tuning. My background is in performance and teaching. I started tuning only about 10 years ago. When i first started tuning i would then play a favourite song and say to myself “BLECH… this is TERRIBLE!” hahaaa. Then off i would go fixing what sounded ‘out’. For a brief period in college i studied ancient Greek language. The first 3 rules of interpretation are… context, context, context. Similarly when tuning, the context of a note within a chord reveal pitch. I’ve spoken about how some notes on certain pianos don’t sound ‘right’ and you can alter them to sound more…mmmm soothing instead of jarring or clashing. And the way in which you tell if a piano sounds in tune is from playing a song, an arpeggio, a chord or melody. So is it necessary to play if you’re a tuner? Absolutely not. Anyone can play 2 notes at a time. But is imperative to check the tuning? Absolutely. Piano Stage Fright
92 days
by admin
in Performance
Recently i was having this discussion with a few friends. Some think i’m crazy while others relate COMPLETELY. This is Glen’s theory of stage fright. I believe that i get nervous 100% divided by the amount of players on stage. So… if there are 5 of us on stage, 100/5 = 20%. Yep. I get only a tingle of nervousness. If however, i’m doing a duet, 100/2 = 50%… i get a bit more of the jitters. If i’m going solo i carry 100%. Stands to reason right? If i’m in a 100 voice choir, i hardly get nervous at all… maybe 1%. See where i’m going with this? Actually… to be honest… hahaa i’m not going anywhere with this. This is just something i’ve noticed in myself over the years. About 20 years ago now i read a book called the Inner Game of Music. He asks the question “If you were to play a simple song like… happy birthday on the piano, would you get nervous? What about if you were to play the same song in front of thousands in a concert hall. Would you then be nervous? What changed? The song is the same and yet somehow we become more frightened at the thought of playing in front of other people. He then suggests:
Performance = our maximum potential – internal distractions
Our performance equals our very best less any internal head games and distractions. As teachers we push push push maximum output… we push skills, technique, repertoire. In the book he wrote, “Why not also minimize distractions?” Huh. Interesting. I’ve had very little time over the years being taught to perform… to analyze the stage… with the exception of Thomas Manshart. He said “You need to OWN the stage. You have been given the opportunity to interact with an audience… quite possibly to shock them, to make them pay attention to beauty… to sit at the edge of their seats.” I believe that often as performers we are battling our wits than we are owning the stage – thinking about what we are communicating. A retired concert pianist here in town doesn’t believe in recorded music. Hahaa he calls it ”information sound”. “Truly” he told me once “music is a moment in time where you, as a performer interact with an audience… something recordings will never do”. Interesting. OK i’m blathering on now but i find i do find the concept of performance interesting… a topic we barely give air time to. Piano Book Contest Winners
96 days
by admin
in Uncategorized
Congratulations to the 6 winners from the PianoHQ.com contest! The contest ran from July 1 until October 31st, 2011. Each contestant was given a free song from the PianoHQ repertoire. They then learned the song, recorded it and mailed it back. The prize? A pianoHQ book of their choice. The winners in no specific order are:
Joan from Dubuque, Iowa * Mia from Reston, Virginia * Xingqi from Branford, Connecticut
Nikolle from Manassas, Virginia * Nathan from Halifax, Nova Scotia * Lucas from Oak Hill, Virginia
It was GREAT fun listening to all of the contestants. Everyone who participated but didn’t win also received 2 more free songs. Thanks for making this such a delight. Let’s do it again k?Art Case Pianos Part 3 – From the Sublime to the Ridiculous
99 days
by admin
in The Piano Market
China Music Expo 2011 happened Oct 11-14th this year. And… well… i just HAD to share some of my findings. It just strikes me as kinda funny that culturally what is acceptable in one country seems strange in another. So… these pianos just give me a giggle and i thot i’d share. Art case, remember refers to anything other than standard piano shape. If it’s a fancy case or fancy legs or just an interesting concept… in the piano world it’s referred to as art case. And so without further delay, i present to you some of the more…mmmm … interesting (?) pianos at the exhibit.
Personally it’s a tossup between the spaceship and leopard print… what to choose, what to choose… hahaa.
Personally it’s a tossup between the spaceship and leopard print… what to choose, what to choose… hahaa. Brahms Rhapsody in Eb Major Op.119 No.4
112 days
by admin
in Performance
I once watched a suspenseful movie… can’t even remember the title. Very interesting concept (bear with me) where these kidnappers would take high profile people, drug them. When they came to they were in some sort of maze with a map of the maze in hand only the map didn’t lead to a way out. It made people delirious to the point of confusion and exhaustion. After a week they were then drugged and put back into society. Bizarre concept, i know but here’s where it got interesting- when this group of kidnappers wanted to “take out” one of their victims, they would simply show this person the same maze map and (in the movie), they would die of heart failure at the thought of the extreme conditions they were in.
Why do i tell you all that? Well… i had a similar incident happen with my mother. Y’see… back when i was 17, i had a very short time to prepare a Brahms rhapsody for a piano competition – 2 weeks to be exact. “Attainable” i thought…”i just need to practice upwards of 5 hours per day for the next two weeks”. Hmmmm doing full-time highschool, i calculated that i could do 2 hours before breakfast, 1 after school and 2 in the evenings. The clock struck 6AM and i started into this song. For those of you who may not know the piece… here it is:
Well… that song at 6AM led to my Mum coming down the stairs in her nightgown. “DO YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS?” she asked. “Why yes it’s 6AM… Mum i only have 2 weeks of this”. So (hahaaaaa) for the next two weeks my Mum bolted outta bed every morning at the sound of this. It became the standing joke in the house… kinda like the movie, if i ever wanted to raise her blood pressure, i only needed to play the first line and she would come racing down the stairs, rolling pin in hand… hahaaa ohhhh the power… lol. Just want to remind her that i DID win the competition 
Well… that song at 6AM led to my Mum coming down the stairs in her nightgown. “DO YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS?” she asked. “Why yes it’s 6AM… Mum i only have 2 weeks of this”. So (hahaaaaa) for the next two weeks my Mum bolted outta bed every morning at the sound of this. It became the standing joke in the house… kinda like the movie, if i ever wanted to raise her blood pressure, i only needed to play the first line and she would come racing down the stairs, rolling pin in hand… hahaaa ohhhh the power… lol. Just want to remind her that i DID win the competition
Art Case Pianos – Part 2 – The Classics
113 days
by admin
in The Piano Market
In part one of this series we looked at the very FIRST art case made by Steinway. Oh sure there have been many MANY other manufacturers before and after 1856. That was just a small story introducing the concept of “art case” – if you weren’t familiar with the term. Now we’re going to look at a few examples of modern art case pianos. To begin with, i thot i’d introduce a recent photo of a piano named Grotrian – high end, beautiful and such a classic art case. To me an art case is all about proportions – note how the cabriole legs (double curved 18th century type) give a certain elegance to the design. The music rack is embellished with scroll work. Repeated again under the keyboard. Even the side rims are notched and accented with motifs. Though i prefer satin art case instruments, this one has been high polished. In England, they’re called ‘bright’ finishes. Check out these other examples of art case: a few vintage Steinways – one with ornate carvings, the other with detailed inlays. While some would call these garish, if you’re a woodworker of any kind, you’ll appreciate if nothing else, the labour that went into the meticulous detail.
And finally, some modern day examples of art case – Bosendorfer designed by Audi. Steinway’s year 2000 “Rhapsody in Blue” limited edition (commemorating George Gershwin). And one of my all time favorites, Schimmel’s Pegasus. Click on the picture to see the enlarged photos.
