I had previously written about my Bass Piano experiment that is underway, which you can read about here. In this first round I tuned the piano down a 5th. The next phase was to tune the same piano down a full octave. I did a rough recording of an improvised tune on this 8vb Bass Piano at the Shatford Centre a little while ago. The dramatic change in tension in the strings creates a very different timbre than a normal piano. To me it sound more like a steal drum or bells, the metallic character of the strings really comes through. Plus, lots of strange harmonics, buzzing and bizarre sounds start happening.

My annual tuning trip to Toronto was full as always. I had five days of biking around the city doing piano tunings, re-stringing a piano at Paul Hahn & Co., and installing a damp chaser for one of the “worlds most influential management thinkers” (thinkers50.com).

new pinblock complete and plate ready to be inserted at Paul Hahn

installing a damp chaser in a Steinway

restringing a Heintzman upright

Tuning in a remote area is usually a pretty fun adventure. Enderby and the surrounding area is one of the few places left in the Okanagan that hasn’t been ruined by chains and strip-malls. The Herbert’s farm is a 25 minute drive from Enderby along the Shuswap River. They have devised a little ferry to get across the river to their farm which is powered by the force of the flowing river water.

I tuned their piano, met the dogs, chickens and cows and had a tour of their amazing self sustaining setup.

post card of the Enderby cliffs

Admiral of the Herbert ferry

vegetable garden and the cows grazing in the pasture

obligatory piano photo

I tuned this little guy at the Maeve Lily School of Music in Penticton. I love mini pianos, I wish there were more of them around. This one has an octave less off the top and bottom (64 notes as opposed to 88) and bi-chords (2 strings per note instead of the usual 3) in the mid and high range. This Eterna piano was made by Yamaha in the early 60’s. Check out that cloth front! It looks like a amp. The sound is small and cute as well, like an overgrown toy piano.

Piano hammers are like your shoes, they wear out with a lot of use. After many years of hitting a string your felt hammers will form a hard flat surface at the strike point. This creates a tinny, harsh tone and a piano that is difficult to control. Hammer carding, or reshaping, is the process where a technician will sand all of the hammers down so that the hard flat surface is gone and the shape is similar to a new hammer. I carded the hammers on Lone Jones‘ piano the other day and it made a world of difference to the sound. This old upright became so much more mellow with a wide range of colour and dynamic possibilities. Lone was so happy and felt a lot more comfortable playing her instrument.

before: notice grooves in the hammer surface

during: it's like a manicure for your piano

after: new rounded hammer tips

I tuned this Yamaha grand in Gyro Park in Penticton recently. It was for an outdoor concert by Canadian tenor Michael Burgess (who you may know from such performances as Jean Valjean in Les Miserables or singing the anthem before a Leafs game).

Many of the keys were not working on this little piano. Upon opening it was pretty clear what was happening. A mouse family had moved in, built a house and jammed everything up. After a few hours of taking everything apart and doing a thorough cleaning she was playing again.

As a co-host of the on line radio show Weird Bird on Peach City Community Radio I am happy to announce that the second episode is now available. This show is focusing on piano music (and a few other keyboard instruments) in our regular genres of 20th century classical and experimental jazz . This show was recorded live in our makeshift radio studio (pictured below) at the Fort Whoop Up headquarters in Naramata. You can listen to the show streaming on peachcityradio.org.

A few days ago I tuned the miniature piano that is on tour with John Mellencamp (who has dropped the Cougar and apparently prefers to be addressed as Mr. Mellencamp). The piano was set up on the stage of the South Okanagan Events Centre in Penticton and I was scheduled to start tuning exactly one hour before the Cowboy Junkies hit the stage. As I was tuning, the 4300 members of the audience were pouring in and the sound system was blasting country tunes. The violinist from one of the bands knew that I was faced with a difficult task and offered a little electronic tuner which was no help with all the racket. After I was done tuning I played some Neil Young, but I am pretty sure no one could hear it. It was a great set up though: a 67 note amplified piano and a Hammond B3 organ with a Leslie speaker (and a digital synth of course).

On stage behind the curtain.

Peeking out at the audience.

I was at God’s Mountain Estate for my regular spring tuning and Sarah had a new instrument that she had recently added to her extensive antique collection, a Faventia hand crank street piano from Barcelona. I repaired some of the hammers and tuned it according to the instructions on the inside of the lid. It was the strangest piano I have tuned to date and most likely the only one that has been played by a monkey.

Here is a video of the Faventia before tuning…

and this is after tuning…

This is the barrel piano in it’s little cart.