Received my first aural exam back...

I mailed the first tape for evaluation to the school on December 12th. A month went by. Then two. I'm a patient man; but this was clearly a case where, unlike the proverb, all things do not come to those who wait. Thinking that perhaps they had never even received the original tape, I emailed the school secretary this past Thursday asking whether they had received the tape, and offering to re-submit it as necessary.

Her reply was "we received it" and it's in the hands of the instructor; then gave me his personal e-mail. I sent him an inquiry and received an almost instant response "working on it right now." About two hours later there was a seven-page evaluation of the initial tuning I'd done.

While the instructor had fluffed it out a bit with some boiler plate, it was clear he really had evaluated the tape, note by note, and had some excellent suggestions regarding hammer technique.

Zelda is still the principal instrument I'm practicing on. And, perhaps because many of her strings are fatigued from a hundred years, it doesn't take much hammer movement to change a pitch dramatically. So he gave me some clues about a technique that isn't discussed in the text -- making the adjustment at the exact moment you're striking the key. That way not only the hammer movement but the key strike as well work together to alter the pitch. What I had done on my intial tape was to alter pitch after the strike...and with Zelda any movement creates a big change. Working on some strings was the aural equivalent of watching a pendulum swing back and forth; and never quite coming to rest. As a consequence, while not many, there are several strings that I just couldn't get an exact unison even though I could hear it was out of pitch.

The technique is make more blows, strike more frequently and make the adjustment at the moment of the blow. I tried it out this afternoon.

It works! I went back through the piano and reworked some octaves that hadn't been perfect before. Then searched for any unisons that were out -- even if it was only a half a beat off every couple seconds. I cleaned and cleaned.

Just when I thought Zelda's pitch couldn't get any better because of what I believed were stringing inharmonicities, I was proved wrong. She can give even more -- she just had to be coaxed the right way. I spent another two hours on her.

The results were great. Full, clean chords. Perfect octaves. And great unisons--even in that irritating upper treble. I'm guessing she can do even better as I become more adept. But I was so pleased with the results that I put my hammer and mutes away around 4:30. With only a break for dinner and a couple of phone calls, I've been playing non-stop ever since. She sounds so rich and full. The more I play her the more I realize how blessed I am to have this instrument in my life -- as both muse and musical companion.

Though it was a bit longer coming than I'd wished for, the feedback and suggestions were great. Interestingly, the suggestions came at a time when I could really put them to good use.

And oh, by the way, the instructor was very complimentary. He commented that while the initial tuning wasn't perfect (I knew that) that I really had nailed all the basics (sigh of relief).

This coming week I have several goals. Obviously, I'll keep practicing the basics, tape and send in the second aural exam. I've also lined up another piano to work on. It'll be important because it's an older spinet, which will pose a whole other set of tuning and repair challenges.

Until next time.