Piano Student Series #1

For any serious growing musician a multiplicity of teachers over time is best for his/her musical development.   There is a synergistic compounding effect for a student by having more than one teacher.   Every teacher has a unique mix of strengths and weaknesses.  “Best Practices” strategists today are telling people to work from their strengths rather than to try to improve their weaknesses.  What this means for piano teachers is that they should (and will) teach according to the particular style of playing or music that they are strong in (and they like).  If you’re learning from a teacher who personally favors jazz over classical, over time, you, as the student will naturally get influenced toward jazz style piano.  I call this phenomenon, Particular Influence.  It is an influence that leans you toward a particular style of technique or music.  Please note, Particular Influence is not necessarily bad, as long as you are aware of it and that’s the style you want to develop in your piano playing at this stage of your development.  Just be aware of it and YOU make the decision, rather than be unaware of it, and let someone else make the decision for you (or to you). J

When teachers follow a published piano method, the process of “particular influence,” is reduced but it is not completely eliminated.  Also following a published piano method helps insure the student will get a fuller, more well rounded exposure and training to the entire repertoire of piano music and technique.  However, at the same time, a published piano method does not guarantee that!  And, as I’ve already hinted, a fuller more broad based exposure to piano music, style, and technique, may or may not be what is best for you at this stage of your development.  Depending on where you are personally in your piano playing development, you may be better off right now, focusing in on just one particular style.  These are questions that need purposeful consideration and decision, by YOU, the student.  Think about what YOU ultimately want to be doing with your piano playing.  Then, research the options available to you to get your there.  And do not neglect your current instructor!  Quality instructors can be the greatest resource you have to help you analyze your goals and how to attain them.  Additionally, even if you ultimately want to move into a particular piano style, your present teaching, may understand how to help you establish really solid technique for that style.   Your current teacher may actually be a very good choice for you to stay with; helping you lay those foundations before moving on to the next teacher who specializes in the particular style of music you want to play.  Keep the big picture and process in mind when making these decisions.  See each of your teachers of individual members of a team that you hire to help you reach your goals.  Each member of your team brings a set of different strengths to you.   Don’t get stuck on one teacher.  You will gain much more if you create a “team” concept of teachers. 

One caveat:  Generally speaking, it works best to space your Team out over time rather than to be seeing multiple teachers concurrently.  However, in special cases, two teachers working together to design a course of study for you, could produce exceptional results.  But this couplet must be chosen very carefully.  They must be able to see the arrangement as an opportunity to help a talented student in ways that exceed what either of them could achieve alone.  There must be mutual respect and neither teacher must try to claim dominance over the other.  Both teachers must see themselves as equals, just with different, but complementary strengths that they can blend together in a unique fashion and bring to YOU for YOUR greater benefit. J

Upcoming blogs in this series:

• “Team Concept of Piano teachers: What is it, Why is it Valuable, How to Design it?”
• “A Teacher for Myself, or My Children”
•  “Handicaps and Playing the Piano”
• “Playing for Myself Only, Or For Others As Well”
• “Amateur vs. Professional:  What’s the difference?”
• “Developing a Repertoire”
• “Types of Pianos and How the Condition of the Piano Affects the Student’s Development?
• “Four Parts of Quality Piano Instruction--Hands, Ears, Head, & Heart”

Regulating:

This is the job of readjusting all the moving parts to bring them back into engineered specifications.  Like voicing, over time, moving parts suffer wear and tear.  Eventually they wear so far that the lever system no longer functions at top efficiency.  Some keys literally (physically) play differently than others.  You will find that some keys seem "sluggish," or like you have to strike them harder than others to get the same amount of volume.  The piano loses its dynamic range, particularly in the very quiet end of the range ( ppp ).  It becomes impossible to play very quiet sections because some of the hammers won't strike their strings.  So you lose a great portion of musical expression; you end up playing certain sections of music louder than you would prefer.  Consequently, you don't hear the full beauty of either your playing ability nor the piano's.  Certain passages of music played on notes that are our of regulation are difficult to play.  Often the mistake is made of concluding that the player, adult or child, just doesn't have sufficient talent to play that passage.  But often the truth is, the player does have the talent to play it, but the piano doesn't have the "talent" to do its part.  It's the piano that is not keeping its end of the deal.  The player is playing fine, but the piano is only giving a 70 to 90 % response depending on what note is being played!  No wonder no one every plays really good on that piano!  Regulating the piano could make all the difference in the world.  BEFORE you conclude, for example, that your child has already maxed his potential  . . . that that's all the better he can get . . . GET THE REGULATION OF THE PIANO CHECKED OUT!  If it's a regulation problem in the piano, you'll be exceedingly amazed with joy at what you hear coming from your child's playing after the piano is properly regulated. 

Here's a simple test you can do.  Sight down the keys.  Are they all level?  Or are some higher or lower than others?  Are some crooked, leaning to the side?  Then your piano NEEDS Regulation.

Voicing:

The sound the piano makes is made up of a lot of features, but the two most important ones that can be readily manipulated by the piano technician (and should be) are tuning and voicing.

We've adequately described tuning above.  But the second half (or first half) of tuning is "voicing."
Voicing is the manipulation of the hammer head felt so that when it strikes the string it brings forth the most beautiful tone possible.  A well voiced hammer  produces a sweet, clean, velvety tone (timbre) of proper loudness directly proportional to the effort exerted by the performer.   A poorly voiced hammer (one that is too hard or soft, or is a mixture of hard and soft spots) will produce a mushy, dull or bright, harsh howling tone (timbre) and does not feel to the performer to match his effort for loudness.  The timbre (tone color, flavor, sensation) is either good, bad, or somewhere in between (and so is the loudness).

What a technician does when he/she voices the piano is to soften or harden the hammer felts, blending them evenly through the entire range (all 88 hammers) so that the tone is even and smooth throughout the entire piano.  Think of it this way.  Generally speaking, when we change notes, we only want to hear the pitch change from note to note.  We do not want to hear the tone change.  In worst case scenarios, you will play a piano that has serious voicing problems and as you run up or down a scale, it will suddenly sound like you changed pianos right in the middle of the scale--not only are the pitches changed but suddenly the tone or volume also changed.  Sometimes if sounds like (and feels like) one note "jumps" out from the rest and "bites" you every time you play that note.  Do you find yourself not liking certain notes on your piano?  Voicing problem!  Do you find yourself either trying to play certain notes softer than others or harder than others? Voicing problem! (and/or regulating problem discussed below).  Do some notes sound real pleasant to you and others sound harsh or biting?  Voicing problem!   You get the point; a fine tuning on a poorly voiced piano will still not give satisfying results, and still be far from what that piano is ultimately capable of.

Generally speaking, hammer felts harden over time because of being "hammered" into the strings over and over.  The felt gets compacted, as well as groves getting cut into the felt.  If you look at a hammer you will see it is actually a wooden wedge covered with felt.  Image the sound that would be made if all the felt was removed and the string was getting struck with just the wooden wedge--a terrible, minimal crash, clunk, ?@%# kind of sound.  Now picture the fact that over time, the felt is getting harder and harder.  Thus the sound (tone) being produced is moving more and more toward that which would be made by the wooden wedge by itself.  Voicing restores the felt characteristics, thereby regaining the optimal tone on each and every note.

Tuning
Tuning is the job most often requested of a technician.  But it is often the most misunderstood job of fine piano preparation.  A very fine quality tuning can actually sound poorly if the piano is poorly voiced.  Also, a very fine quality tuning will not last more than a few hours if the piano is not tuned frequently enough.  This is because over time the piano goes out of tune in two ways . . . 1.  to itself (so the intervals and harmonies don't sound right anymore), and 2. the entire pitch of the piano drops away from the standard of A=440.*

Piano string wire is made of high carbon spring steel and consequently it has all the characteristics of any spring, i.e. when you pull a spring apart and let go of it, it will pull itself back to its "homeostatic tension point."  Conversely, when you push a spring together and let go of it, it will push itself back out to it's homeostatic tension point.  Piano wire has the same characteristic.  When we pull it tighter it will try to pull back, and when we loosen it, it will actually try to push back up (tighter).  The internal tension in the string will increase when we pull or push it away from its homeostatic tension point.  The further we have to pull a string to get it to reach proper pitch, the stronger the pull back becomes (just like in a spring)  We can all bend a leaf spring, or pull out a coil spring a little bit.  But if it is a strong/heavy spring we can't move it very far.  We notice that it gets harder and harder to pull out until we just can't pull it (or compress) it any more.  These is because the "pull back" or "push back" force increases greatly the further we try to move it away from its homeostatic tension point.  The same thing happens with piano wire so that if a tuner has to move it too far away from its current homeostatic tension point the pull (or push) back become so great that the string itself will overcome some of the new setting and literally pull (or push) itself back "out of tune" some amount.  It will not stay exactly at the pitch the tuner moved it to.  The further the tuner has to move the string way from its current homeostatic tension point to get it to the proper pitch, the strong and more pronounced will be the string pulling itself back out of tune.  This effect is immediate and can be easily hear within a few minutes.

Now here's the reason for sufficiently frequent tunings.  Over time the internal homeostatic tension point in the piano wire relaxes and falls further and further away from the A=440 standard.  Thus, the tuner needs to do two things when tuning: 1. bring the pitch back to the 440 standard and, 2. insure the piano is all in fine relational harmony to itself.  But if it has been too long since the last couple tunings, the homeostatic tension has fallen too far away from 440 to allow it to be brought back to that point without the pullback being too strong, thus preventing the piano pins from keeping it at the pitch where the tuner set it.  In these cases, the tuner will need to "raise the pitch" then "tune" the piano.  He will need to follow that up with another "final" tuning within a few weeks (2-4) to be able to get the piano wire to accept a new homeostatic tension point that is now at the 440 standard.  At this point, the whole matter now works in favor of the piano owner, because now the piano wire will resist moving away from its new homeostatic tension point, which is now exactly at the International pitch standard of A=440.

To keep a piano from falling too far away from the 440 standard so that a very fine tuning can be put on it and the wire will allow the change most home pianos should be tuned twice a year here in Eastern WA.



Footnote
*A=440.  This simply means that the sound wave on the first "A" note above Middle "C" will cycle 440 times each second.  At that speed, we will hear the correct pitch.  If the string is pulled too tight, the sound wave will cycle more than 440 times per second and we will hear it as a higher pitch.  Conversely, if we do not pull the string adequately tight, the sound wave it produced when struck will cycle slower than 440 times per second and consequently we will hear it as a lower pitch.

Start with the size of your room
Too often, a purchaser of a piano will start with their budget.  They look for the most piano they can get for however much they have to spend.  But they really ought to start with the size of their room!

When a person buys a piano according to their budget they could easily buy too much piano or not enough piano.  I.e. they will either buy a piano that produces way too much volume for the room where they will be playing it, or conversely, they will end up with a tiny piano with little volume in a large or acoustically sound absorbing room.

Too large of a piano
In the first case, they will constantly "hold back" playing because the volume seems too loud.  In this case they develop bad technique and shallow or limited expression in their playing.  There seems to be an imbalance between how firmly they strike the keys and the amount of volume they hear.  It always sounds like there is more volume coming from the key strike than there should be.  Consequently, they hold back their playing . . . they limit their physical manipulation of the keys to a small range, a range much smaller than the piano is capable of.  They never explore nor do they experience the full range of that piano, either in its dynamic range nor in its physical abilities for speed, repetition, etc.  It's kind of like owning a high priced and powerful sport car, such as a Lamborghini, but never getting it out of first gear when you drive it because you only drive it on down town streets and through parks and school zones.  You just don't have the open space to really explore the capabilities of that car.

There is another very strong factor in this situation as well.  That is, that the sound has nowhere to go.  When you play your piano, the sound should pass by your ears and move away from you to make room for the next sounds you produce on the piano.  Those new sounds, harmonies and melodies, should be free from competing sounds.  If so, they will be pure and delightful.  But where the piano overpowers the room, the previous sounds (chords, harmonies) have nowhere to go.  They keep bouncing around that room "mixing" with the next notes and chords you are playing.  The harmonies of that beautiful (and expensive) piano get all muddied up and dissonant as sound waves begin to clash with one another.  Eventually you find that if you play everything softer, you won't hear the bothersome clashing as much.  The piano will sound better to you when always played at its quieter levels.  And so, you learn to play it this way. Bad for both technique and interpretation and expression.

It would be better for people to buy less piano, save some money, and feel a direct relationship with the instrument-it's performance, sound, and volume.  They would become better piano players, they would develop better playing technique, and they would ultimately enjoy their piano more (and it cost less!)

Too Small of a Piano
On the opposite end of the scale, too small of a piano for a large room will always feel like you can never get the dramatic or explosive expression you want sometimes at the high end of the volume range.  You'll find yourself always striking the keys harder than you should, just to get enough volume.  Again, this will tend to create bad technique in your playing and in your interpretation of music.  You will tend to become one of those "musicians" that always sounds like they're pushing and driving the piece forward, ahead of the tempo.  Their music always sounds like it's being manhandled.  Even in the gentle subdued, tender passages, they never come across that way.  The expression, again, has become compressed into a narrow range; this time at the high volume range of the piano.

The Most Important Thing -- Right Size the Piano for the Room
So here is the most important thing about buying a piano.  Size it to the room where you'll be placing it and playing it.

A Real Example:
I have a client who teaches piano performance and she has a 6 foot Baldwin grand.  She had it in a tiny room (about 12ft x 12ft with an 8ft ceiling) where she taught her students.  Recently, she moved and her piano was placed in the new home on a raised deck open on two sides to a vaulted 2 story ceiling height entry and lots of horizontal space for the sound to move away from the piano.  She called me to express her amazement with how much better her piano sounded in the new house!  She wondered why that was so.  She is playing it now more for her own enjoyment, and not just to prepare lessons for her students.

When you have the right size piano for the room where you will be playing it you will enjoy it more, play it more, and develop your skills and technique more because both the sound quality and the feel of playing your piano will be correct.

Over the nearly 25 years I've been preparing pianos for performance or general playing, I've notice a recurring phenomenon--People play better, play longer, play more often, and enjoy their playing more after their piano is finely prepared for them, than they do when it  just "tuned," once in a while.  Let me explain.

THREE MAIN JOBS TO PREPARE A PIANO
There are three main maintenance jobs to be done on a piano -- Tuning, Voicing, and Regulating.  All Concert performance pianos are being serviced continuously in all three of these areas.  Otherwise, there is no way the performer could get the spectacular results he/she does and which we enjoy.

Many (most) home pianos are terribly neglected in all three of these critical service areas.  The reason--I am most often told by home piano owners, is that they just don't play that well, or that often, to justify the increased cost of more frequent tunings, voicing, and regulating.  However, the truth of the matter is, that if they did tune their piano more often and get it properly voiced, and regulated, they would play it more often, they would play it better, and they would enjoy their playing much more.  Let me explain why.

Why?

First I need to define tuning, voicing, and regulating so you can understand why these jobs so directly affect the owner's playing skill, time, and enjoyment.

Tuning is the job most often requested of a technician.  But it is often the most mis-understood job of fine piano preparation.  A very fine quality tuning can actually sound poorly if the piano is poorly voiced.  Also, a very fine quality tuning will not last more than a few hours if the piano is not tuned frequently enough.  This is because over time the piano goes out of tune in two ways . . . 1.  to itself (so the intervals and harmonies don't sound right anymore), and 2. the entire pitch of the piano drops away from the standard of A=440.*

Piano string wire is made of high carbon spring steel and consequently it has all the characteristics of any spring, i.e. when you pull a spring apart and let go of it, it will pull itself back to its "homeostatic tension point."  Conversely, when you push a spring together and let go of it, it will push itself back out to it's homeostatic tension point.  Piano wire has the same characteristic.  When we pull it tighter it will try to pull back, and when we loosen it, it will actually try to push back up (tighter).  The internal tension in the string will increase when we pull or push it away from its homeostatic tension point.  The further we have to pull a string to get it to reach proper pitch, the stronger the pull back becomes (just like in a spring)  We can all bend a leaf spring, or pull out a coil spring a little bit.  But if it is a strong/heavy spring we can't move it very far.  We notice that it gets harder and harder to pull out until we just can't pull it (or compress) it any more.  These is because the "pull back" or "push back" force increases greatly the further we try to move it away from its homeostatic tension point.  The same thing happens with piano wire so that if a tuner has to move it too far away from its current homeostatic tension point the pull (or push) back become so great that the string itself will overcome some of the new setting and literally pull (or push) itself back "out of tune" some amount.  It will not stay exactly at the pitch the tuner moved it to.  The further the tuner has to move the string way from its current homeostatic tension point to get it to the proper pitch, the strong and more pronounced will be the string pulling itself back out of tune.  This effect is immediate and can be easily hear within a few minutes.

Now here's the reason for sufficiently frequent tunings.  Over time the internal homeostatic tension point in the piano wire relaxes and falls further and further away from the A=440 standard.  Thus, the tuner needs to do two things when tuning: 1. bring the pitch back to the 440 standard and, 2. insure the piano is all in fine relational harmony to itself.  But if it has been too long since the last couple tunings, the homeostatic tension has fallen too far away from 440 to allow it to be brought back to that point without the pullback being too strong, thus preventing the piano pins from keeping it at the pitch where the tuner set it.  In these cases, the tuner will need to "raise the pitch" then "tune" the piano.  He will need to follow that up with another "final" tuning within a few weeks (2-4) to be able to get the piano wire to accept a new homeostatic tension point that is now at the 440 standard.  At this point, the whole matter now works in favor of the piano owner, because now the piano wire will resist moving away from its new homeostatic tension point, which is now exactly at the International pitch standard of A=440.

To keep a piano from falling too far away from the 440 standard so that a very fine tuning can be put on it and the wire will allow the change most home pianos should be tuned twice a year here in Eastern WA.

Many pianos will drop in pitch fairly evenly over a period of three or four years.  This is a long period of time and so the owner doesn't notice the drop in pitch nor the dis-harmonies that are setting in.  The piano owner only starts to think the piano needs tuning again when the dis-harmonies become very obvious.  What the owner has NOT realized however, is that the entire piano tension has ALSO fallen significantly away from the 440 standard.  In fact it has fallen too far away from the standard to stay precisely where the tuner will now put it.  Thus, after the tuner leaves, the piano continues, for a few days, to pull itself a bit back out of tune.  It still sounds better than it did before the tuner arrived, but it does NOT sound as good as that piano is ultimately capable of sounding.  The owner, nevertheless, is satisfied, because on his 3-4 year tuning schedule, this is all the better he has ever heard the piano's tuning sound.  He has come to think that this is what a properly and newly tuned piano sounds like.  But it is not.  It is only what a newly tuned piano sounds like when it hasn't been tuned for 3 or 4 years.  If that tuner would come back and tune it again in a few days, the owner would be amazed at the improvement!  He wouldn't believe his ears.  He would say, "I've never heard this sound soooooo good!"  And he would sit down at it and enjoy playing like he has never enjoyed it before!  He would play longer, he would get "drawn into" the beautiful tones coming from "his" playing and "his" piano; beautiful, quality tones he has never heard before from his piano!  The psychological phenomenon of this experience will affect him emotionally and physically.  He will actually play better and will become one of those homeowners who has finally discovered why he bought this piano in the first place!  It will gain a renewed prominence in his life. 

Now . . . add the factors of voicing and regulating and experience even greater piano joy!

Voicing:

The sound the piano makes is made up of a lot of features, but the two most important ones that can be readily manipulated by the piano technician (and should be) are tuning and voicing.

We've adequately described tuning above.  But the second half (or first half) of tuning is "voicing."
Voicing is the manipulation of the hammer head felt so that when it strikes the string it brings forth the most beautiful tone possible.  A well voiced hammer  produces a sweet, clean, velvety tone (timbre) of proper loudness directly proportional to the effort exerted by the performer.   A poorly voiced hammer (one that is too hard or soft, or is a mixture of hard and soft spots) will produce a mushy, dull or bright, harsh howling tone (timbre) and does not feel to the performer to match his effort for loudness.  The timbre (tone color, flavor, sensation) is either good, bad, or somewhere in between (and so is the loudness).

What a technician does when he/she voices the piano is to soften or harden the hammer felts, blending them evenly through the entire range (all 88 hammers) so that the tone is even and smooth throughout the entire piano.  Think of it this way.  Generally speaking, when we change notes, we only want to hear the pitch change from note to note.  We do not want to hear the tone change.  In worst case scenarios, you will play a piano that has serious voicing problems and as you run up or down a scale, it will suddenly sound like you changed pianos right in the middle of the scale--not only are the pitches changed but suddenly the tone or volume also changed.  Sometimes if sounds like (and feels like) one note "jumps" out from the rest and "bites" you every time you play that note.  Do you find yourself not liking certain notes on your piano?  Voicing problem!  Do you find yourself either trying to play certain notes softer than others or harder than others? Voicing problem! (and/or regulating problem discussed below).  Do some notes sound real pleasant to you and others sound harsh or biting?  Voicing problem!   You get the point; a fine tuning on a poorly voiced piano will still not give satisfying results, and still be far from what that piano is ultimately capable of.

Generally speaking, hammer felts harden over time because of being "hammered" into the strings over and over.  The felt gets compacted, as well as groves getting cut into the felt.  If you look at a hammer you will see it is actually a wooden wedge covered with felt.  Image the sound that would be made if all the felt was removed and the string was getting struck with just the wooden wedge--a terrible, minimal crash, clunk, ?@%# kind of sound.  Now picture the fact that over time, the felt is getting harder and harder.  Thus the sound (tone) being produced is moving more and more toward that which would be made by the wooden wedge by itself.  Voicing restores the felt characteristics, thereby regaining the optimal tone on each and every note.

Regulating:

This is the job of readjusting all the moving parts to bring them back into engineered specifications.  Like voicing, over time, moving parts suffer wear and tear.  Eventually they wear so far that the lever system no longer functions at top efficiency.  Some keys literally (physically) play differently than others.  You will find that some keys seem "sluggish," or like you have to strike them harder than others to get the same amount of volume.  The piano loses its dynamic range, particularly in the very quiet end of the range ( ppp ).  It becomes impossible to play very quiet sections because some of the hammers won't strike their strings.  So you lose a great portion of musical expression; you end up playing certain sections of music louder than you would prefer.  Consequently, you don't hear the full beauty of either your playing ability nor the piano's.  Certain passages of music played on notes that are our of regulation are difficult to play.  Often the mistake is made of concluding that the player, adult or child, just doesn't have sufficient talent to play that passage.  But often the truth is, the player does have the talent to play it, but the piano doesn't have the "talent" to do its part.  It's the piano that is not keeping its end of the deal.  The player is playing fine, but the piano is only giving a 70 to 90 % response depending on what note is being played!  No wonder no one every plays really good on that piano!  Regulating the piano could make all the difference in the world.  BEFORE you conclude, for example, that your child has already maxed his potential  . . . that that's all the better he can get . . . GET THE REGULATION OF THE PIANO CHECKED OUT!  If it's a regulation problem in the piano, you'll be exceedingly amazed with joy at what you hear coming from your child's playing after the piano is properly regulated. 

Here's a simple test you can do.  Sight down the keys.  Are they all level?  Or are some higher or lower than others?  Are some crooked, leaning to the side?  Then your piano NEEDS Regulation.

Footnote
*A=440.  This simply means that the sound wave on the first "A" note above Middle "C" will cycle 440 times each second.  At that speed, we will hear the correct pitch.  If the string is pulled too tight, the sound wave will cycle more than 440 times per second and we will hear it as a higher pitch.  Conversely, if we do not pull the string adequately tight, the sound wave it produced when struck will cycle slower than 440 times per second and consequently we will hear it as a lower pitch.

Tuning pianos, like every fine skill,  is a skill that requires both knowledge AND practice.  Some people study hard and practice more under the supervision, critique, and feedback of top technicians.  Others don't put as much study or practice into their craft before they start offering their services to the general public, i.e. to YOU.  Consequently, they don't tune as finely as better tuners and they know it.  It is reflected in their price.  And ultimately, it is reflected in the sound of YOUR piano, YOUR playing, YOUR enjoyment and YOUR satisfaction while playing, and in YOUR motivation to play more and grow in your own skills as a piano player or performer.

READ: The Psychological / Physical phenomenon of a Finely Prepared Piano (Tuning, Voicing, Regulating)