When a Little Means a Lot
My daughter has been involved in acting and musical theater for a number of years. During her high school days she was involved with a particular acting company that presented a musical at a theater located in a large Methodist church. This particular church was, and still is, very active in the art community and has a large music program that includes the piano in the theater. My daughter had been asked to play for this run of performances and after the first practice said the piano was in desperate need of a tuning. I offered to help without really knowing what was in store.
New to the technical side of piano work, I arrived at 10:00 a.m. to find an older Kimball grand piano and thinking I would be able to brush things up, tune tit to A440 and walk away. What I later found out was this instrument had been slated to be retired after this run of programs and had been neglected for some time. Plucking the strings indicated that the soundboard and bridges were in moderately good condition. The hammers, however, were worn till the strings disappeared into the groves worn in them and the pitch was at least 30 cents off.
I had just completed a technical session with a very good friend and mentor where we discussed the art of shaping hammers. There were four hours till the dress rehearsal and after some diagnosis of the issues, I thought I knew what needed to be done. For the better part of three hours I filed and vacuumed until the hammers resembled something of the shape I thought they needed. With only minutes to spare I finished the second tuning, cleaned up the area, packed my tools and went to find some supper.
Later that evening my daughter pulled up to the house and came inside. “Dad, what did you do to that piano. It has a whole new touch and sound!” At the time it was my intention to adjust the tonal quality of the instrument and get it to play in pitch. I did not realize my efforts would impact the touch as well. Primarily, I believe she experienced the ability control the tone and volume of the piano making it ‘feel’ different to her. But I will admit that I felt gratified to know my work could make a difference.
It was my mentor who said that when you are placed in a tight position, try to focus on those things that will make the greatest impact. I wish I could say my work was a calculated effort to make the most of the short time I had with the instrument. However, it did open my eyes to my mentors wisdom and has become a theme for all of my work.