Muscle memory

Notes from the Berkshires, Day 37

Lenox Coffee, 7.08 a.m.

I saw all of my new pianos yesterday, and managed to actually put my hands on all but two, just to make sure there wasn’t anything non-functional about them. Scheduled time on three of the most important and/or often used, and will hit two or three more of those today. I also was able to sit in on part of a rehearsal for the Gunther Schuller Quartet for Double-basses, which brought back memories: I played that piece back in 1989 with a quartet comprised of bassists from UMass. I had been playing the instrument for less than two years at that point, and really had no business trying to negotiate my way around that piece, but there I was anyway. It’s a very well-written work, and I learned a lot from the experience. The performance is this Sunday morning, as a part of the weekly chamber music concert; I’ll need to make a point of going to support the bass Fellows.

I hesitate to say this, but I may be starting to figure a few things out about my tuning. Yesterday I had the feeling that certain things were in my hands that haven’t really been there before; sort of like the feeling of having a piece of music “under your fingers” on the bass. Not that things moved any more quickly, necessarily, although that might have been the case as well, but more the sense of accuracy in the manipulation of tuning lever, wire, and pin. Of course, two of the pianos I tuned were very nice B’s, which doesn’t hurt the cause.

I also brought out the piano music V delivered to me over the weekend, and picked a handful of pieces to try to get together over the next few weeks. One that I had been struggling to play from memory turns out to be in a different key than I was remembering, which might explain why I wasn’t able to gain much ground from muscle memory – there wasn’t any! I’ve decided that having a small repertoire of short pieces at my disposal is a necessary tool as a technician. It gives a frame of reference for testing the action and regulation – the feel – of a piano, and it provides a set of musical cues by which I can judge the tuning as well.

The sun is shining, the sky is blue, but more storms are forecast for the afternoon. I’ll run this evening if I can dodge the raindrops.