I’ve had people tell me that they can’t play the piano because their hands are not big enough.  That’s no longer an excuse.  Check this video to see why.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifKKlhYF53w&feature=video_response

 

Now, regardless of the size of your hands, you too can play the piano like a pro!

I had an interesting experience a few months ago.  I was called to tune a piano for a customer who had just inherited a grand piano from his father who had recently passed away.  While I was vacuuming and cleaning the soundboard, I discovered something under the cast iron plate at the rear of the piano.  I used my soundboard cleaning tool and did some pushing and maneuvering and finally extracted a very tarnished silver bar.  I kept working at it and eventually ended up with 6 silver bars, totaling over $1400.00 at today’s rates.

 

The owner was aware that his father had some silver, but hadn’t been able to find it anywhere.  I guess he thought the piano would be a great hiding place.  As it turned out, it was almost too good.  Anyway, I became an instant hero for finding the family treasure.  You’d be surprised at some of the things that I’ve found in pianos-some good, some not so good.  The most common findings include coins and pencils.  I will write a seperate entry about the lost matchbox car.  But the bottom line is - do not use a piano as a place to hide valuables!  Use a safety deposit box or get a safe!

This article is provided courtesy of  “The Cutting Edge” (http://blog.eagleamerica.com/), the blog of the Eagle America Company, supplier of high quality woodworking tools and supplies.  I thought it was another interesting piano story.

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You may or may not know who Hanna Montana is but if you have children between the ages of 5-15 or watch television you have probably heard her name. So why is her name popping up on a woodworking blog?  The reason is simple, ROUTER BITS!!??

He offered to send a few  pictures of how the project was moving along, I said great because my 6 year old daughter loves Hannah Montana so he sent me a few to show her.  Above you can see the rough cutout made to the body of the piano and then the finished cut that was made with one of our Eagle America router bits.

If you are a woodworker or a fan of Hannah Montana, here is just a small connection between the two.

 
The finished Project

Watch this video - think of the possibilities!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw

Today I will recount an experience from my past.

A number of years ago I was the tuner for the Flint Center for the Performing Arts in Cupertino, California.  In this capacity I tuned weekly for the San Francisco Symphony and several times a week for other visiting artists.

 

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to tune for Ferrante and Teicher (a famous piano duo - see http://ferranteandteicher.com)  a number of times.  They usually played Baldwin concert grands (supplied by the local Baldwin dealers wherever they performed),  but at Flint Center, they used our Steinway and our Baldwin concert grands together.  They really liked the way the two pianos worked together.

 

The usual tuning procedure for their performances was fairly involved.  I would prepare the pianos and have them waiting at around 5:00 pm when the artrists would arrive for their practice and warmup session.  After about an hour of practice, I would retune the pianos and have them ready for the performance at around 7:00 pm.  During intermission, I would again go out on stage and touch up the tunings for the 2^nd half of the concert.

 

Ferrante and Teicher did a lot of talking, story and joke telling between numbers.  After I did the intermission tuning, I packed up my bag and went home.  It had been a long day and I was tired.  Anyway, the next day two of my regular customers called me and asked where I was last night.   It seems that after the first number of the second half, they stopped and said, “you people here in the Santa Clara Valley are lucky.  You have one of the best piano tuners in the country right here.  We have been trying to knock these pianos out of tune all night, but they won’t budge.  We’d like Mr. Jim Johnson to come out on stage and take a bow.”  Needless to say, I didn’t come out because I was almost home by that time. 

My one big chance to be recognized for my tuning work and I was not present!

 

The next time Ferrante and Teicher were in town, I apologized to them for not being there and maybe embarrassing them.  They were most gracious with me and even laughed about it.  I sure liked working with them.

The other day a customer of mine called and told me that she had bought a piano that I had recommended to her.  The story started in August, 2008.  While I was at her home tuning her piano, she mentioned that they would be interested in finding a good quality upright to replace their piano, a small spinet of lesser quality.  I put her name on my watch list where it has been for over a year.

A couple weeks ago, a new customer called and asked me to appraise her piano, one which was part of her parent's estate.  She needed to know what it was worth, and advice on selling it.  The piano was a J C Fischer upright, over a hundred years old, but looked almost like a new piano.  I looked in my appointment book and found several names of people looking for an upright piano.

I called the customer who eventually bought the piano (the most likely candidate on the list) and put her on the phone with the owner.  The owner told her the following story about the piano's history.

The piano was purchased by a wealthy mine owner here in Sacramento in 1906, for his wife.  The mine owner's partner was the seller's grandfather.  Sometime in the 30's, if I remember correctly, the miner's wife passed away and the owner gave the piano to his partner's daughter (the current seller's mother) as a wedding present.  The piano has been moved to several locations around northern California over the years, but always ended up back in the Sacramento area.  With the death of her mother, the piano ended up going to the daughter.  She and her sister took lessons on the piano when they were little girls.  She really wanted to find a good home for the piano, and the family who bought it is very excited to have it.  I'm sure they well take good card of it.  They have two young daughters who are taking lessons and who are very interested in history in school, so they were very excited to hear about the piano's past.  I'm sure they will love it and take good care of it.

The piano is unusual in that it has an absolutely pristine ivory keyboard.  It looks like it just left the factory.  That is extremely rare for any piano, especially one this age.  The instrument was refinished and received a high quality piano finish instead of a cheap furniture refinisher's open grain finish, which is also rare.  It is a beautiful dark red cherry color and has a matching claw foot swivel stool.  Here is a picture of this beautiful old piano.

The church music director who purchased our harpsichord came to pick it up today.  He looked over the Emerson Grand we have for sale but it wasn't quite what he was looking for.  We had met him last week when he first looked at the harpsichord and he had said nothing about looking for a grand.

In the meantime, I had a customer with a gorgeous Kurtzman 6' grand who could not find a buyer.  It needed about $1000 worth of work (very sluggish action) to bring it into shape for a buyer to determine if it was suitable to purchase.  The owner was unwilling to invest any more into the piano and she needed to get it moved out of its current location so she determined to give it to a non profit organization and take the tax deduction for her donation.   She found a local high school that was willing to take the piano but they had no funds to do the work or even to tune it so the owner paid for the move and the tuning.  The school will use the piano as-is and probably within a year, it will get all beat up and not be worth anything at all.

When the church music director found out that he could have been the recipient of the Kurtzman instead of the high school, he was heartsick.  Our parting words - always check with a reputable technician.  when you are looking for a piano to buy.  He or she may know of the perfect instrument for you.  And if he/she doesn't know right away, within a few weeks, an owner with a potential candidate for sale will call the technician for help in selling or donating the instrument.

The following may be of little interest excep to toher piano technicians but I add it here so that readers understand that there is more to the job than just tuning.

When we moved recently from a home with a 3 car garage that never housed the cars to a home with a 2 car garage with CC&Rs requiring the cars to be in the garage. I was faced with the dilemma of how to organize my piano shop workspace.  Yes, I chose this challenge willingly.  The biggest challenge was designing and building a piano action repair and regulation center.  MY requirements for the space included:
1.  A workbench top that is level ( to simulate a grand piano keybed) with dimensions of 30" X 60".
2.  An air filtration system to remove the woll felt particles from hammer shaping.
3.  Good lighting
4.  A complete entertainment center - the last but definitely not the least priority!

When working in my shop, I like to have a TV with satelite connection with surround sound and DVD player.  Then I do not mind the repetitive nature of some of the work.

I am still trying to figure out what to do for air-conditioning.  The garage gets over 100 degrees easily on most summer days.

White pianos - people have different reactions to them.   Some people love them.  But in today's market, a white piano does not hold the same value as the typical ebony or natural wood finishes even though other than the white finish, they are identical in every other way   As you can see from the picture below, in the right setting they can look rather heavenly.  

One thing to be aware of regarding white pianos is that as they age, the finish may turn yellowish in color, which may not look appealing when compared to the white keys.  Exposure to sunlight can hasten the change.  Actually sunlight can change the color of any finish.  I will write another entry later about the effects of sunlight on pianos.

We heard a story about a man who presented his wife with a beautiful white Steinway grand that at the time, cost upwards of $50,000!  But the wife hated the color and the man ended up donating the piano to a church.  Lucky church.  We did not hear what kind of piano the wife eventually received.  Do you think he bought her another Steinway?

I did an insepctrion/appraisal on a white Yamaha G2 (not the piano in the picture below) last week that the owners are considering selling.  The bad news for them is that all things being equal, they will have to ask a lower price than if they had the same piano in black or walnut.  The good news for potential buyers is that if they like the idea of a white paino, they usually can get one at better price.  If you are interested, drop me an email (jim@johnsonspianoservice.com) or call 530-677-8225.

Welcome to my blog. Please check back often for new entries.

OK, I have been persuaded by friends, customers  and family members that there are actually people out there besides other piano tuners who might be interested in the musings of someone who has been tuning and repairing pianos for 43 plus years. 

I have enjoyed being a piano tuner.  I get up every morning looking forward to my day.  Piano tuning combines my interest and love of music with my interest in working with my hands.  I have always enjoyed making models and constructing things.  Sometimes I have needed to design and make my own parts.  My wife says I should have been an engineer.  Piano work has combined all my interests and so has never become boring.   Each piano is unique and has its own personality of sound, looks and feel.  I enjoy the challenge of bringing out each one's best potential.  

Actually I just now thought of something that is boring.  It is when I used to do institutional tuning and stayed in the same building all day, going from piano to piano with no interaction with the outside world.  That I did not enjoy.

I love meeting people and seeing how and where they live.  We live in such a beautiful area and I get to know all the back roads and scenic spots as I travel from home to home.  And I've had some of the same customers for 40 years and they have become like family.  I'm seeing some of the 3rd generation now. 

I also get to indulge my love of photography as I travel from appointment to appointment.  I always have a camera with me and at this time of year, am looking forward to the fall colors.  If you check out my photo website - currently www.jhjphoto.com (we are working on a new one) you can see examples of my professional photo work.