This is a story that goes back further than I think Marc and I care to remember.
I was taking care of all the acoustic keyboards at Temple University, Presser Hall, teaching a course in Piano Technology and acoustical physics, and generally pulling my hair out, a story for another entry.
Professor Harvey Wedeen, chair of the piano department, and I were close. I would like to think we were friends; dinners out, baseball games when Helen Kwalwasser, Chair of the string department and his wife was out of town, and I got to use her season ticket seat, etc.
Harvey confided in me one day, that he was teaching a promising young student in Canada, none other than Marc-André Hamelin. I thought that was a challenge right there. Harvey explained that he mailed, there was no email then, Marc a lesson, then Marc would mail back a cassette tape, with all its physical and acoustic flaws, to Harvey. Harvey heard the talent through all the wows and flutters cassettes provided. That went on for a while until Harvey said, “We have to get Marc down here”. And he meant to the USA, Philadelphia, and Temple.
Quite honestly, I don’t know all the ins and outs to the logistics of getting Marc moved here, and if I did, I would have forgotten them, but down he came.
Marc-André was someone you would have quickly recognized as a big, no, a huge talent.
One afternoon, I went to Marc’s apartment to tune his piano. To my astonishment, it was a Baldwin Hamilton, better known as a “PSO”; Piano Shaped Object. Clearly this thing was well below Marc’s talent. When I went there, I was greeted by Jodi, Marc’s significant other, at the time, and I remember Marc’s outrageous sense of humor. So, the tuning started off with a joke or a story and maybe, just maybe, a bit off color.
I went back to Harvey and complained that Marc was practicing on this “thing”. Harvey said, “No, he isn’t”. I was just there. It was the only piano in the apartment. Harvey said, “Marc practices in his mind!”
There was a short period where I was convinced to try selling pianos by the Aeolian Company that made Mason & Hamlin, and very badly at that. They flew me to Rochester, NY to try and figure out how to get that 9’ CC to ring out. It didn’t take me long to figure out that my task was insurmountable. The egos did not allow for change, but they tried, and so did I. So, for a bit, a very little bit, I tried to sell the Mason & Hamlin line after some drastic manufacturing changes.
All this leads back to Marc. Harvey came to me and said Marc needed a real piano. I had a 7’ BB that I had worked on, and reworked until it was a suitable instrument. Harvey said Temple had $10,000.00and asked if there was anything I could come up with. The BB was selling for about $26,000.00. I told Harvey that Temple and I would go in ‘halfies’. Harvey asked if I could afford that. I couldn’t, but I told him I couldn’t afford not to. Marc was that important, and so was his gift to the musical world. I needed help! The devil, as they say, is in the details, and the only way I could do this for Marc was to remain anonymous for reasons I could not divulge at the time, and which are unimportant now. Temple and I agreed, and the piano was moved under Marc’s hands.
Marc continued to flourish, and as I remember, the classics and the romantics were not his favorites. Marc loved the new stuff. The stuff no one else could read let alone play. When the comp students wrote in atonal or 12 tone ala Schoenberg, and no one could play it, Howard Levitsky said they would say, “Give it to Marc”. He would sit and rip it off as if he wrote it.
Time went on and Marc-André Hamelin went on to become listed in the top one hundred pianists that ever lived. I’m talking Glenn Gould, Franz Liszt, Wilhelm Kempff, Martha Argerich, Arthur Rubenstein, Emil Gilels, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Vladimir Horowitz, Morizio Pollini, Rudlolf Serkin, for whom I also worked, Yuja Wang, and the list goes on and on. Yes, Marc-André Hamelin is on that list. He continues to flourish and is still with us today. Thank you, Marc, for letting me be a part of your success, albeit a minor one.
I watchen an interview with Marc where he said to the interviewer, “A performance is not an exhibition, it is an offereing”. The words of a true artist!
He lives now in Europe, and we have lost touch, except recently through Maestro Albert Franz.
Gretchen and I are trying to get our resources together to visit Albert in Vienna for a concert on November 23 of this year. I am hoping against hope, Marc will be there. Seeing him again would be a reunion I would cherish.
It was many years ago; come to think of it, everything was many years ago, I had the pleasure of prepping a piano for Maestro Watts at the Philadelphia Musical Academy. That, in fact, is where he studied and had some lessons with my piano professor, Mrs. Florenza Decimo Levengood. His studies at PMA were under Genia Robinor, Doris Bawden, and Clement Petrillo, then of course Leon Fleisher at Peabody.
I had to babysit the Steinway B and Mr. Watts. He was doing Tanglewood auditions, as I remember.
Student after student filed in and played what they thought would impress him enough to get selected for the summer program in Boston. Between students I got to hear story after story and we laughed and joked, and then were interrupted by the next victim. He smoked this huge cigar I would need two hands to pick up.
By the end, he reached into his coat pocket and came out with two tickets to his performance that Friday afternoon. I asked what he would be playing, He said, “I was supposed to play Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, but I can’t even read the darn thing!” I, in a bit of shock, reminded him the performance was in a couple of hours and asked what the strategy was.
He explained that under contract to Columbia Masterworks at the time and being booked years in advance, he was doing 100 recitals a year. Practice came at a premium. So, he would play pieces he knew, then throw in some new pieces to test them out…YIKES! He would indeed change the program that afternoon.
He went his way, and I went mine. Of course I went to the recital. I had great seats and took a friend.
Just before the recital, the hall manager came out and announced that there would be a program change and instead of Pictures, Mr. Watts would be doing the B-minor Chopin Sonata, some excerpts from Candide, in honor of Leonard Bernstein, and some of the usual suspects.
Out on stage he comes, changed into his suit; matinees usually didn’t come with tuxedos, he bows to thunderous applause, knows where I am, winks at me with a tiny smile, turns to the piano and sits. His hands approached the keyboard and out came the unannounced Beethoven’s Fur Elise, played at a painfully slow, yet artistic tempo. After that, the stated changes.
OK, when all was finished, ancors and all, I went backstage to collect my final hug. I went to the green room where he greeted me like an old friend. I got my hug but asked, “Maestro, what the heck was that?!”, “Oh, you mean the Fur Elise, I told you I’m short on time, that was my warmup!” We laughed and I parted with a great memory and a great story.
Maestro died at 77, way too soon. I shall always remember our day together; what a gift. You can’t see me, but I have tears running down my face.
I got treated to breakfast:
In my quest to put together a quality podcast, I enlisted the aid of top audio engineer Joe Morinelli.
We met at the Brickhaus in Ridley Park.
Joe was the audio engineer for the White House under Gerald Ford along with personalities like “hi Lit” in WIBG and the list goes on, and on, and on, and on. He quite literally pioneered a lot of the audio techniques engineers copy today. I am in good hands!
I am going to be a guest on his weekly radio show, “Radio Voice Italia” and he will be a guest on my podcast for which the list of interviewees grows.
Maestro Joe will be setting me up with the proper equipment and teaching me its use.
I…am excited!
I received a call from a parent this morning. Her son wants to be a concert pianist…OK
Some things to consider:
I happen to know this young man has the talent and the drive…that’s a start.
HOWEVER: it’s a question of balance.
I have seen many young students burn out without the right guidance. Remember, the world is not as accepting of a concert pianist as it once was, making the competition frightening. The proverbial stage parent can ruin a life!
First…don’t give up your youth so quickly. Do well in elementary and high school. Practice your instrument…sure…but there are other things in life.
My old piano professor used to complain about other musicians. She would say, “they don’t know the sun rises in the East”. What she meant by that was there is a lot of world out there and just because you are great at your instrument, you should not give up the rest of life.
OK…in high school…spread yourself around but not to thinly. There are dances, sports, clubs. I know, I know…there is orchestra, jazz, chorus…but there is also the chess club, photography, languages…don’t box yourself in too soon.
So, the life of a pianist is much different from that of other instruments. There are jobs for violinists…there are NO jobs for pianists in an orchestra, so you fight for a place in the concerto or recital world. Today, it’s about 80% concerto and 20% recital…that makes it political.
Now for an anecdote. Years ago, I was working with Andre Watts. We were working Tanglewood auditions. He was there to audition, I was there to babysit the piano and him.
We spent an entire day together talking between auditions. At the end, he handed me two tickets to that afternoon’s performance for which I thanked him profusely. When I asked what he was going to play, this is what he said, “I was supposed to play Pictures at an Exhibition, but I can’t even read the damn things!”.
I said, “excuse me but the performance is in a few hours” He said, “I know, and I will have to change the list at the last minute.”
He reminded me that his record label, and I think it was capital at the time, had him doing a hundred concerts a year. That’s one every three days!!!!! So, he continued, practice time comes at a premium.
Off to the concert I went and before everyone was settled, out came the Hall Manager explaining that Mr. Watts would be changing his schedule of pieces and instead of Pictures, he would be playing a Chopin Sonata, some excerpts from Candide among others. He walked out on stage to thunderous applause, knowing where I was, winked at me, and started to play Beethoven’s Fur Elise at a painfully slow pace after which he continues with his performance.
When it was all over, I went backstage for a final hug and asked what that was all about. He said, “oh, you mean Fur Elise?!” “I was warming up…no time for anything else!
So, the point here is the concert stage owns you. Make sure that is what you want. The road becomes your home, make sure that is what you want. The better you are, the more you travel and think about what that might do to family life. These are big choices.
So, the young man said he wanted to go to Curtis. I have clients who graduated from Curtis…it is nothing less than grueling NOT romantic. The general rule is, high school, music college for that Bachelor’s degree, then and only then you can think Curtis.
So as an example, two of my favorite clients and friends were Michael Stairs and Michael Korn. They both went off to Westminster Choir college, graduated, THEN wound up in Curtis. But I promise you, their family was the rehearsal studio, the concert hall and the audiences. At least before Curtis, they had some life under their belts…matruity to see them through.
This is what we call, “the life”.
It is most rewarding or most cruel, it all comes down to balance!
A final word, and it is my Run, Walk, Crawl method to a music career.
1. RUN to that Bachelor of Arts in your instrument.
2. Walk to your Master’s degree…maybe in music education.
3. Crawl to your DMA in your instrument.
You should have that DMA in your bag of tools because someday, you may want to be that professor…No DMA…no professor.
By the way…remember my story about Albert Franz, one of the top concert pianists in Europe…he is also an Iron Man Tri-athlete.
Ciao,
RJ
Long day today…
But what made it shorter was visiting with a young client who has a passion for music. In fact, the violin is the path.
I have followed his movements, he is now all of 13, and that’s when they start showing or not, for several years now.
We had a lovely conversation. He is about 4 or 5 years passed his chronological age.
I think he has it and I think he is Curtis material. I can help him with that!
He just won a spot in “violin camp” where he will have several lessons with none other than Itzhak Perlman…WOW.
If Maestro is smart, he will snag this person for a student!!!!!
I have been at this for years, and I have developed the “ear”. In the future, if he continues down this road, one day, I will have to pay to hear him play.
We will leave his name out as he is a minor and anonimity is prudent. But not too far down the road…anonimity will not be a choice.
I just love running into young folks who have the “passion”.
Ciao,
RJ
So Gretchen’s best buddy JoAnn came to visit for the weekend from State College.
They spent Saturday in the Chestnut Hill/Mt. Airy section of Philly and the Woodmere Art Gallery, then off to the hunt to visit Cogslea the home of the Red Rose Girls.
I wanted to make this a special weekend for both, so on Mother’s Day, I treated both to a musical event not to be forgotten any time soon at Victor Cafe.
JaAnn was unaware.
If you know Victor, you know you will be treated to great food and opera and broadway arias from the area’s best.
The first suprano hit the bell, the music started and for JaAnn…so did the tears.
It was truly a memorable Mother’s day!
OH…the food was over the top!
ciao
I’m here hoping that all the moms, or those who act like moms, like mentors, teachers, etc. have a wonderful day!
My wife Gretchen, without whom I would be homeless, is hosting her best friend from State College area and I am determined to make this a musical day.
I am taking both to the Victor Cafe at 4:30…This will be special for JoAnn especially as she has no idea where we are going or what she is in for.
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY,
Ciao,
RJ, Ralph, Ralphie…your call!
I am excited…
The blog is up and running, and I am on the cusp of starting the Poscast.
I am being mentored by a world class recording engineer and he is helping my with the blog; equipment, advertising, in person and over the phone visits…old dog, new tricks.
Since I put it out there, I have literally scores of artist willing to be guests from all over the world…I am excited.
We will be showcasing music perfoemance, artists lives, music educators, students, etc.
This is going to be nothing less than fun and informative.
We will talk about how the movie “Quartet” came to be, fruited from a true story. And that storing now only starts in Milan with Giuseppe Verdi, but right here in Philadelphia with Theodore Presser.
Also, we will be most happpy to answer questions about pianos…all pianos. If you have a burning question about your insturment, what it can do, what it can be made to do…shout our. I and my 60 yeats (I can’t believe I just said that) experience are here to help. And if I don’t know the answer to your question, highly unlikely, I will endeavor to find the answer for you.
Please feel free to use the comment section. I just learned how to make it work!
Ciao,
RJ
So today I was at Penncrest High School.
What can I say.
first off. Craig Snyder happens to be the best high school band director since Vince DeMarro.
Every time I am there and the upper band is playing, it sounds like Texas A&M.
The word it Tight!
Today, they did the National Anthem. As a Marine, I stopped what I was doing.
Nave version…to the note…on the money.
Thank you Penncrest!
So I have the mose interesting clients.
This morning started with Elizabeth Shamash…wonerful singer and human.
She, of course, like most of my clients wasn’t home…leave the key…let myself in…take care of the baby…a Mason & Hamlin 50, a real singer’s instrument. She is a cantor at a big Temple, I believe in Elkins Park. If I’m wrong…forgive me Lizzie! You can correct me in the comment section.
Then, off to the Sataloff’s.
This is Dr. Sataloff who is a world class Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor. He has taken care of the world’s leading singers. His wife Dhalia is at Jefferson. She is an oncologist.
Both have their DMA’s in music as if doctoring didn’t keep them busy enough.
Robert is a conductor and Dhalia a pianist…together they keep me busy!
OK…
More tomorrow,
Ciao
Ralphie
I have nothing to say but watch!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuUDr-bzRVQ
So I promised myself I would write “something” every day. So let’s see if I can keep my promise.
This blog will be a bunch of missives about me, my journey through life, my journey through my working career and my experiences with clients at every piece of the spectrum.
I have worked with folks who own pianos for personal pleasure, all the way up the the original “Maria” from West Side Story. Does anyone out there know who that is? And, I mean the original stage play, not the movie.
Since I am a newbie at this…it may be a bit jumbled…you know, the way my mind works! Please bear with me.
Hostway is my site manager for my website: www.onestipiano.com, and this blog. The other day when I tried to get this going again, they said they don’t do blogs anymore. Yet, here I am. Perhaps I am grandfathered in.
There seems to be a way to leave comments and I encourage you to do so. In that way, we journey together…what fun. If you have questions on any level about anything…do not hesitate to ask!
Since I closed my shop some years ago…my arthritis graciously given to my by the United States Marine Corps, I am, at 76, still doing field work. Why? you might ask…two reasons; I can’t afford to stop, and I’m not sure I want to, at least on a limited basis!
Ciao,
RJ
Welcome to your new blog! This is the first post. Edit
or
delete it, then start blogging!
I will endeavor to keep up with this as much as time permits.
And…I will strive to make it chronological.
However: I have a really great story I MUST share NOW!
This is a story you may not need to hear, but it’s one I need to tell!
My profession is that of being a piano technician, however, I have been told that I am not a piano technician; that I am more like a mentor.
Dr. Vincet Craig whom I saw through his master’s degree and ultimately his Doctorate at Peabody, and as a result, with my guidance and encouragement every step of the way, became the head of the piano department at Wells College of Music at West Chester State University. Vincent called me to tell me two things: “I have a broken string, and by the way, you have never given me bad advice.” to which I responded, “Vincent, that’s because I don’t have any bad advice!”, we laughed.
Some 30 years ago, I was called to do an “emergency” service call in a house in Springfield, PA. “We have a genius living with us for the summer and he is a pianist.” I was in my piano shop at the time and there was significant begging involved. I, being who I am, just can’t refuse.
I arrived to a see a console piano with Liszt Transcendental Etudes on the music desk. OK I thought…so tune the piano I did.
In walks this tall, slender young man from the Pittsburgh area. At the time he was a student at Penn State in the engineering department, a sophomore I believe. I asked if the music on the piano was his to which he replied in the positive. I asked how long he had been playing, to which he replied, “Two years”. I said, “This is not your music.” He begged to differ. “Sit.”, I said, and play. He had every note right where it belonged, but there was no music. He was typing. However, I heard something there but wasn’t sure what that was. He was, at the time playing Chopin and Liszt etudes like the Revolutionary and Winter Wind and Gnomenreigen at full tilt within a year or so…rather amazing!
OK, for those not familiar with the process of becoming an artist at the piano, what Albert did in two years, most take ten. And, most start when they are five or six, Albert much later. But there it is and there he was, the proverbial diamond in the rough!
I asked him to be quiet while I made a phone call to Professor Harvey Wedeen of Temple University, probably the best living pedagogue on the planet. Harvey and I were good friends, and at the time I was teaching piano technology and the accompanying acoustical physics involved while taking care of all of the pianos at Presser Hall. I told Mr. Wedeen what I had experienced. He asked what the boy was playing. I told him. He said that was great then asked how long he had been playing. I went silent, then finally found the wherewithal to say” two years”. Harvey said, “Ralph, seriously?” I proceeded, “Harvey, you know me, I wouldn’t waste your time, please hear him”. Harvey agreed.
So, this young man found his way to North Philadelphia to the studio of Professor Harvey Wedeen and played. Harvey called me later that day to say that he would agree to give him lessons for the summer. I told Harvey that that boy young man no money to which Harvey responded, “I didn’t say I would charge him, did I?”
So, all that summer, Albert studied with Professor Wedeen. Every once in a while, Albert would visit me at the shop telling me how it was going.
At the end of the summer, I gave Albert money to purchase Harvey a bottle of vodka and a box of chocolates, both of which were his favorites. I didn’t think to realize that Albert was too young to buy vodka.
At the summer’s end, Albert once again visited me. He thanked me for my help and then said, with a tear in his eye, “Well, it’s all over”. I didn’t understand. As it turns out, his family was the neighbor of the folks where he stayed that summer before they moved to Pittsburgh. He was “hiding” there that summer to play the piano as he was forbidden to do so at home.
I asked if I could help by having a conversation with his father, and with terror on his face he said “No”. Then I said,” If it is all over, why won’t you let me help?” We talked further and he relented and gave me his father’s phone number, and I called.
I said to his father, “You don’t know me, and I don’t know you, but I am a concert level piano technician.”, and there he stopped me abruptly. “He isn’t playing the piano, is he?” I asked the father what he did for a living, he said he was in banking. I said, “Banking, and that’s what you wanted to do since you were 5 years old?” He replied, “Well no, but my fa…,” and stopped talking. I said, “So, you want to do to Albert what your father did to you?!” Needless to say, the phone call did not go well.
Albert returned to his studies at Penn State and cleverly switched his major to a degree in music. Albert quietly became so proficient that he received a full Fullbright Scholarship to Vienna, the City of Music, and was mentored by none other than Paul Badura-Skoda, a famous Austrian Pianist.
Albert went on to win competition after competition and his career was set in stone. He is now a Bosendorfer artist and widely acclaimed for his performances, and the rest I will call, “What goes around comes around”.
Just a few weeks ago, an old friend who moved to Arizona working for the largest Bosendorfer outlet in the US called to ask me to take care of a 7’ “Bosey”, the Klimpt, Tree of Life model…quite beautiful and quite pricey being shipped to Berwyn, PA. I, of course, agreed. I show up to this lavish home in Berwyn, PA. The owner said, “You come highly recommended.” I said,
‘Yes, I know Sonja Lynne very well.“ The owner said, “NO…it was Albert Franz from Vienna!” I nearly fell over. Albert was her teacher via Zoom. She asked if I would return to tune again in a week as now Maestro Albert Franz would be there and asked if he could be present to reunite with you. I was aghast.
So just yesterday, after a one-hour tuning, in walks none other than Albert Franz and we had a four-hour visit. Tears were involved. We chatted and laughed and reminisced. We exchanged phone numbers and emails and took pictures.
Then I said to Albert, “You know, there was another young man, in whose career I had a hand at Temple,” and wondered if they had met. Then he showed me a photo on his Apple I Pad of he and Marc-Andre Hamlin at a table in a pub. They were the closest of friends, no surprise, and advised that Marc remember me fondly…more tears. These are two of the top pianists in the world, sitting and chatting at a spot in Vienna, are you kidding me?!
Albert said I had changed his life, and I said, “No, I opened the door, but you chose to walk through, and YOU did!”
So, of the many young people I have helped, most go on to careers never to be heard from again, but yesterday, the Universe decided to give me a gift.
Indulge me here please. Everyone tells me that I should write down the many anecdotes of my career in Piano Technology. “You should write a book!” they say. Quite frankly, I don’t think I’m smart enough for a book, but I will re-ignite my abandoned blog; “The Other Side of the Keyboard”. I hope you will search for it and enjoy it.
I am not very religious or political, and I’m not sure “everything happens for a reason”, or even fate, I am a Humanist. But I do believe in Karma!
I adore my musical family. On May 14, I will turn 76, and riddled with the gift the Marine Corps gave me, systemic arthritis, I will go on. I hobble to work, and I hobble home. There may still be young folks I may be able to help, and I won’t hesitate.
In closing I will say that this is only my part in Albert’s story. The rest is for him to tell. And, I did not change his life, he changed mine!
Enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuqfdI9gBC8
Ralph
It’s called reverse engineering…
Since I had work and no one to help me…I had to use my deductive powers to figure out exactly what the designer of the piano wanted. Many times the design of anything doesn’t quite make it out the other side of production intact.
I read and read and read on the design and construction of pianos. I tried to assimilate what the mechanical and acoustical design wisdom was. And it was collective. There weren’t too many difference from one piano to another and from one designer to another. Now, that is a generality. Of course what makes one piano feel and sound differently from another is design difference, but the differences aren’t major. One will find how one manufacturer feels about the scale design and how another feels about the action geometry and trigonometry. But I promise, the differences are more nuances than departures.
OK…here’s a pet peeve: there are those who like to hear themselves talk about “action geometry” to impress the class. Geometry is that branch of mathematics that deals with size, shape and position of two dimensional shapes and three dimensional figures. Trigonometry on the other hand depends on angle measurement and quantities determined by the measure of an angle. Of course, all of geometry depends on treating angles as quantities, but in the rest of geometry, angles aren’t measured, they’re just compared or added or subtracted.
I read the letterhead of a fellow rebuilder which stated that they made a certain type of soundboard and used a word to describe it that I had never heard before used in soundboards of pianos or anywhere in the study of acoustics. I won’t repeat the word here because I think it is still in use and it is an embarrassment. I had to ask what that meant. He told me he made the word up…YIKES how some people focus on the wrong things. I figure you focus on making great soundboards, not make believe ones. The saying goes: “if you can’t amaze them with your talent, you baffle them with your bull…”, or something like that.
My study of pianos led me down many paths; guitars, violins, and harps, anything that had strings, and a way to excite them and produce an amplified sound. That approach revealed many truths in the piano world which I used to learn the math and procedures to give that rebuilt piano the quality of touch and tone it deserved while staying true to the manufacturer’s intent and design…not an easy task.
Of course, all of this study, research, trial, and yes error did manage to hold up production in the beginning, but it all paid off in the end.
In reality though, there is no end. One strives for perfection but one never gets there. You never, never stop learning. A prospective client once asked if I could say something about my work that would prompt him to write a check for a rebuilding deposit. Without thinking, I offered the following, “My next rebuilding is always better than my last.” He wrote the check. That is still true today.
I teach my students that the progression of improvement in piano rebuilding goes something like this: the first one is awful, the second better, the third better, and the fourth awful. What happened on the fourth, “you get cocky and over confident”. You have to learn to leave your ego and over-confidence in the back seat, slow down and pay attention to the task at hand.
In the ensuing offerings, we will take that journey over again while we go through the piano and try to understand it better. I promise to mix in some stories, both funny and not so to keep things on the move.
In the meantime, if you have a piano, play it. Don’t just let it sit there. I know you don’t have time, you can’t play anymore; you wish your mother made you take lessons. I’ve heard all the excuses. It’s music, it’s culture, it’s beautiful, and as my friend Jim says, “there are no wrong notes”. It’s not called work the piano it’s called play. Go…play. Just fifteen minutes a day and you will be surprised how the consistency will bring improvement which brings joy and fun.
Remember, as adults we have diseases. The symptoms are the adult ear, we think we can run home and play something we’ve heard on the radio just because we have the music, and, we have responsibilities…mortgages, kids, work. Fifteen minutes a day…use it as your “me time”
So…who will teach me????
Where do you go…to whom do you go to learn a craft and trade that almost doesn’t exist?
You try the mentor route. The trouble with that is the first sentence…there is no one out there that actually gets this trade.
In the old days, a piano needed a pin block…maybe it gets replaced…but a soundboard and bridges…you just take the piano out back, one bullet to the brain and it’s the dumpster for you.
The mentor route wasn’t viable because those trying to rebuild just put back whatever the factory put there in the first place. You may think this interesting, but the factory is not always right. Just look at the older pianos from the late 1800’s. They weren’t really pianos as we know them today. The mechanical and acoustical features were crude at best. We can’t put it back together that way.
And even in the case of the better modern pianos, was it before or after???? Before or after what…?…the beer break. “Back in the day” as the kids put it, there wasn’t a coffee break at 11AM. Someone would come to the middle of the floor in the factory and put down a bucket of suds…that’s right…BEER. The workers would approach the bucket with their personal stein in hand, take their dip and go back, trade stories, and down the brew.
Now then…was your piano done…before…or after the dip.
My dilemma remained. Where do I go to learn how to do it if all around me were just “doing it the way the factory did it”? Worse yet, I would hear after asking a pertinent question about a process, “Well, we always did it that way”. It was cutting off the ends of the roast all over again. Don’t know that story? This is as good a place as any.
One day a young girl asked her mom, when making a roast, why it was she dutifully cut off the ends. The mom replied that her mom always did it that way, that’s the way she learned, and that’s the way she continued to make a roast. But being a good teaching mom, she suggested that the next time they visited with grandmom, the granddaughter should ask, and ask she did…”Grandmom, why did mom learn to cut off the ends of a roast? Grandmom replied, “When I was a young married woman, we didn’t have much money and a large roasting pan was not something on which I would spend that hard earned cash. The normal sized roast would not fit in my pan (…wait for it…) so I got into the habit of cutting off the ends.”
That was nice for the meal, but not good enough for me to learn a complicated process.
My background was in science. We learned a lot about deductive reasoning. The process then was something they call today: reverse engineering. I let the piano teach me.
I was able to get my hands on two pianos; a Steinway A, and a Mason & Hamlin AA. These were two top tier piano designs. I took to the task of ripping them down, but as I did that I would record what was done, and try to figure out, both acoustically and mechanically where the manufacturer wanted to be, and how I could get them there during the “put it back” process.
It took a long time and a lot of sleepless nights, and as it turned out, many more pianos than those two I had at the time.
After fully realizing that my “mentors” were not going to give me and my rebuildings what I needed, I moved off on my own to my first little shop. This goes back some 45 years.
I took on jobs but had no tools. How do you do that…you stall. “Ralph, will you rebuild my piano?” “Why certainly,” I would reply, “but my schedule is so backed up, there will be a bit of a wait.” With that, I would contract the job, get a healthy deposit, and you guessed it, went out and bought tools for that specific job. Before you knew it, my shop was small, but it could do everything but refinish. Refinishing was better left to those who did that for a living…so I left it with them.
And down that slippery slope I call piano rebuilding I slid………………………………………
OK…so there I was!
The year was 1962…WAIT…I have a question…NO…two questions:
1. Why is when people have me as a technician, they insist on surprising me with a new piano purchase done without my FREE help. Today I went to a client’s house and they surprised me with a grand piano that isn’t as good as the console they had…oh…they were so proud. What do you say…”Congratulations!”
2. How in heaven’s name does someone write on Facebook, from my account, in what looks like my name…???? How do they do that…hacked again!!!! I had to send out 250+ apologies for what…for having a Facebook account that was apparently unsecured.
Ok…where was I…? Oh yes, 1962…
My Uncle was bent on my being a piano technician…I was bent in the other direction. So for some time I followed him around from client to client. When an action was broken…we would both stare at it like a helpless driver stuck on the side of the road looking into the hood of the car for something…anything!
He would go to the car to fetch a part, and inevitably, by the time he got back…I had it figured out. You see…I was one of those kids that took all of their toys apart…but put them back so they worked better…I was doomed!
Soon, he became frustrated with me and passed me off to one John “Larry” Scheer. Larry was “Mr. Technical” in the guild. He wrote most of the technical articles…he was the guru of piano technology and happened to live close by…what luck????
Ok…I was almost hooked…almost. I called Mr. Scheer and he told me he was no longer taking on students. I understood. We talked more. He asked questions and I answered them. He was impressed by the fact that I had read the last nine years of the piano technicians journal given to me by my uncle, and memorized all of his technical articles. “OK…maybe one more student”.
Now, instead of following Uncle Pete around, I followed “Uncle” Larry. He loved the fact that I showed up on our first appointment together with a note book…yes…the same kind I kept track of my book request; that black and white marble, hard cover, sewn copy book.
We worked together for one year until he said, “Kid…I have nothing more. You take faster than I can give”, and turned me loose just after I promised to take my test and become registered…more on that later.
In the time I spent with my Uncle and Larry, I bought books…read them all, bought tools…wore them out learning and by 1964 started…wait for it…Onesti Piano Service…NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO not a piano technician…doomed!
I thought I would just do it to get me through college…I did that, but forgot to stop!
Through all of this…there was the mystery of rebuilding…you know…taking the piano apart and putting it back together…only better. I did it with toys. This was a musician’s toy…sorry…tool…why not.
Why not, I’ll tell you why not! That business really wasn’t up and running yet. It was in its infancy…yet to be invented, and I was in on the invention…now it gets interesting.
The Judge said, “Get a job or go to Jail!”…
That’s what I say when people ask how I got into the piano service business…a joke of course.
Truth is, I started with my Uncle Pete, on my mother’s side of the family, who was a technician back in the early ‘60’s. He would take me around with him on his runs in the summer. It really isn’t what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to be a music educator. Piano was my instrument.
The main problem was my choice was limited to my physical ailment of arthritis that I got from the Marine Corps in 1969. I went in rather heavy, and instead of putting me in the “fat boy” platoon to get me into shape for regular boot camp, they kept me with the regular platoon and put me on a diet of raw carrots and raw celery and coffee for 12 weeks. So malnourished and physically punished, I developed osteoarthritis at a surprising young age. And to that, pushups on my knuckles completely destroyed my hands.
The other influence in my life was Uncle Frank on my father’s side of the family. He was an educator and a big deal in the Philadelphia Public School System.
So what do I do now…I service and rebuild pianos and teach!…go figure. Never give the finger to the witch doctor.
I have been doing this as a result of the deterioration of my joints, especially my hands, knees and shoulders. In music education you have to have the main instrument, and piano was it. So, I went to the State of Pennsylvania Department of Vocational Rehabilitation. After a full examination, both physical and intellectual, they saw the I deserved a full pass to the Philadelphia Musical Academy.
I tried. I was Dean’s list, but my hands refused to let me play anything! So, music education was not in the cards for me. Back to piano service for me… hated it.
I service pianos in homes, in studios, on the concert stage. I’ve taught for the Piano Technicians Guild, The Master Piano Technicians of America, retailers, and at Temple University. I’ve done, and still do, consultations for technicians, rebuilders, and manufacturers. And, I still hate it…but I love the people.
The truth is that in spite of my ailment, I could do piano technology through the pain. My doctors told me the best I could do was to keep moving and improve my muscle strength. I did was I was told and was able to work. There was no medication for my problem, just perseverance!
The musicians in my life think that their schedule is my schedule…and…they are correct. They know I’ll do anything for them if humanly, and sometimes inhumanly possible.
It seems I’ve worked for just about everyone in the biz.
So why am I blogging…something else I said I wouldn’t do?!
Many times I would go to an appointment, service the piano, be my personable self, tell stories, and people would say, “You need to write a book”. Well, “I don’t think there is a book in there.” I would reply. But they kept saying it and I kept refusing. However, I decided that if one thousand people asked me to write that book, I would consider it.
I went years ago, to purchase one of those hard over, marbleized copy books. In it a put a stroke for every person who said, “You need to write a book”. I never really took it seriously.
A few months ago I went to an appointment, tuned the piano, told my stories, and the client said…you guessed it…”You need to write a book”. When I said I didn’t think there was a book in there…he said, “Think Blog!”
That evening, I dutifully went to my little copy book to give him his deserved “stroke”, and what do you know…he was number one thousand.
Welcome to, “The Other Side of the Keyboard”. This blog is named after a lecture I do for audiences filled with piano owners, pianists, teachers, etc who want to know more about their rather complicated instrument.
This is my first entry, and I will do my level best to be diligent in keeping it up. I’m not very technical with blogs yet, but I do plan to cover humorous stories, technical issues, and anything that comes to mind, mine or yours.
Welcome to this new venture and adventure…let’s see where it goes, shall we?
To learn more about me, you can go to:
theothersideofthekeyboard http://theothersideofthekeyboard.onestipiano.com
On here…you can read, and comment, ask questions, anything you like. This is here for the individual piano owner, the serious musician, the hobbyist, and technician…if you like pianos…come on in…the water’s just fine.
Ciao and wish me (us) luck,
RJ