I've often thought: "How do I explain what is the problem with pianos, the neglect and the abuse they suffer, to a non-pianist or even a non-musician?
Here's my take on the problem..
If one thinks of a plumber, a carpenter, ophthalmologist, chef or any other skilled tradesperson or professional we all understand that they are only as good as their tools allow.
Chef's and surgeons keep their knives and scalpels sharp (we hope).
Professional musicians are no different. String players tune their instruments, they service the various parts, and they are responsible for their sound. They have professional craftspeople service what they themselves cannot.
Reed players go through boxes of reeds trying to find ONE they can live with. They are very motivated to do justice to their craft, in an effort to transcend the craft and make it ART. If a pad on a flute is loose it's repaired. Musicians know what they need to do to make themselves and the music sound its best. They are responsible. They keep their tools sharp. If they sound like crap it's their fault. And everyone knows it.
With all that in mind let's consider the pianist and his chosen tool.
The pianist is totally dependent on a highly trained crafts-person- artist to even TUNE his instrument.
This job alone takes at least an hour and a half even if the piano is co-operating. Which they rarely do because,
1. The piano may not have been tuned for months or even years!
2. It's been sitting near a heat source!
3. It's been in a bay window with freezing windows, and then the hot sun shining on it for years.
4. There's no climate control.
5. It's been treated like a piece of FURNITURE not a highly complex musical instrument. Drinks have been spilled on it, in it. etc.
Pianos are complex machines, with parts that wear out. No, they don't improve with age!
The Action (the parts that make each hammer move) needs to be regulated. Want to see how complex this is? Go to http://community.middlebury.edu/~harris/piano.regulation.pdf
It's enough to know that the level of adjustment we're talking about here is on the order of tolerances of thousandths of an inch.
I won't even discuss Voicing the Hammers.
Suffice to say, many books have been written about these technical matters.
At any rate, let's consider this.
A piano is bought for say a room in a hotel, or a restaurant.
Who's responsible for it?
Who knows?
The piano starts off sounding pretty good, but only the pianists who play it really know how it feels. During the first decade the piano is played by many pianists, hundreds of them, good and bad. Some are children who pound on the thing. Probably dozens of piano technicians have tuned the thing.
Likely not ONE of them has even suggested an action regulation or voicing. Why bother, obviously nobody cares about this instrument. "The owners wouldn't know the difference, they can't even tell if it's in tune it or not!"
The professional pianist, MIGHT say something about maintaining the piano to venue management, but they NEVER know who the technician is and have never spoken to the technician / tuner about that one note that keeps sticking or a thousand other possible problems. Besides, the pianist is being paid by the venue, why make waves, it might cost him a gig. Oh, he's got to run to another gig anyway. Let the next piano player suffer through that little problem.
At some point the manager of the room changes. People move on, the piano players change.
Generations of people have careers, live and die.
But the piano is always there. Ignored, except for being occasionally cursed.
Decades later, the venue (let's say the King Edward Hotel) renovates, installing new marble, new wallpaper, new plumbing, new bathroom fixtures, spending 50 million bucks. But that beaten down brown baby grand with the hundreds of drinks spilled over the pin block and soundboard that has never been cleaned, that they paid maybe $500.00 for in 1940. THAT piece of furniture, they need to keep!
For years pianists sit down at this thing and the best of them figure out how to play AROUND the problems. Their own professionalism smoothes out the obvious problems, and to the layperson / causal listener he sounds pretty good, so does the piano. So when one of these concerned pianists (after sweating bullets for 3 hours trying to tame this beast) finally gets the gumption to say something to the management about the sorry state of the piano, his own skill has undermined his position:
Venue management says: "Sounds fine to me."
or "Sheesh, who does he think he is, Glenn Gould"
(OK, OK I know, I know, what am I thinking: AS IF one of these venue managers would even KNOW who Glenn Gould was.)
Where was I?
Oh yeah.
It's obvious that the pianist and the tuner are the only people who can say anything about the state of the piano. But, (and it's a big but) they are paid by management, and unlike the other musicians discussed above don't own the instrument or its problems.
NO ONE is responsible to it, and for it. The only people who can speak to its condition have a great disincentive to keep their respective mouths shut. After all, no one in management wants to hear about something that will just cost him or her money, especially when they can't hear the difference.
(Aural memory is one of our most ephemeral memories. That's why we 'A' 'B' loudspeakers in the same room, one right after the other when we comparison shop.)
Thought bubble over venue manager's head:
"Let's just hire THAT guy! The one who tells us what we WANT to hear."
You can see the problem. A piano in a public venue is an ORPHAN. It's not just an orphan. It's a poor neglected, abused, fetal alcohol syndrome, crack baby that grows into one pathetic old beast that can break your heart.
So is it any surprise when after 60 or 70 years of this, the venue manager says to the whisper of complaint:
"What's wrong with the piano? No one else has complained about it!"
Venue managers somehow think pianos (because they DO last for decades) could last for ... who KNOWS how long. It seems infinite.
Epilogue:
The irony is that these days, if a pianist has the intestinal fortitude to say ANYTHING, and is successful in convincing a venue manager that something must be done, he will probably only succeed in that the venue will not fix the piano, but get rid of the piano, and not replace it.
The venue will now expect to have all the piano players bring their keyboards, (poor imitations of a decent acoustic piano at best), and not pay any more for the fact that pianists have now let them off the hook. The pianists will have absolved the venue of any responsibility to do justice to the music that THEY are presenting.
And in advance of the inevitable responses that electronic keyboards are the answer, I say not for me! Not if you're serious about being a PIANO player. Ultimately PIANISTS would prefer player the real deal if possible. But to make a living, and play at all, many are forced to accept this option. Don't kid yourself; most piano players aren't thrilled with this "choice".
Mark
