My Philosophy
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Download official article below, published in Europiano Magazine
Psychophysiological Aspects of Piano Tuning Perception (PDF Version)
“Ask one of 100 pianists about what they feel after a good tuning of their piano and they’ll answer: easier playing, plays by itself, weightless keyboard, etc.” Psycho-physiological Aspects of Piano Tuning Perception In the following article a phenomenon will be presented, in condensed form, and its manifestations and functions explained. Also, a diagram will show the moment of manifestation of the phenomenon, with the study of the reaction of people to the phenomenon for an easier comprehension of the essence and process of the phenomenon itself. “En route!” Let’s remind ourselves go the meaning of the word Psychology, “Psycho” and “logy”. It’s a scientific search of the phenomenon of the soul with the use of thought through objective reactions (speaking, behavior) using scientific methods. The scientific methods that will be used are empirical, logical, analytical, and the method of observation based on the theory of the modalities of internal experience. I will analyze the appreciation of musicians of the result of a good tuning and the transfer of their feeling of appreciation of the changes in sound of the piano after the tuning, explained orally. This is followed by an answer and reaction from the piano tuner to the information given by the musician. These exchanges lead to a state of “cul-de-sac”, and have done for about 48 years - this I know from my father’s experience. The name that I gave to that phenomenon is “INCOMPATIBLE RESPONSE” because it creates/reflects the problems of communication between the musician and the piano tuner. Investigating the whole chain of all answers, explanations, and reactions of the musician through the way they perceive sound and their appreciation of a good tuning, will allow us to understand further the heart of the phenomenon. Very often in my childhood, within my father’s circle of friends, this issue was repeatedly argued very emotionally, They were all trying to find possible explanations for it; it seemed to me that they didn’t find any. They tried to explain the situation by maintaining that a pianist’s hearing was inferior to that of a violinist, or pointing to the eccentric character of famous musicians, etc. Research was made in the wrong direction and these people were very good professional tuners but they didm;t have psychology basics, enough musical experience and musical education to arrive at other points of view. But when I started tuning at a good level, I found myself in the same situation. Often, after completed work, satisfied musicians asked the question: “What did you do with the action?” The musicians were asking what I did with the action because they said the keys were easier to depress. They were bringing me to a “cul-de-sac” with their questions and their desire to know how I tuned the piano and changed the action. I stupidly answered that I had only tuned the piano, an answer which was disappointing to them; or I kept quiet, not knowing what to say. Later, knowing what will happen in advance, I acted as if everything was normal, but I still didn’t understand what was happening in reality with the musicians. Why weren’t they commenting on my tuning instead of insisting that the touch was lighter, although I had not worked on the action or keys? Only 1% of the musicians made remarks about the changes in the tuning in this particular situation - they were very few. Following these experiences I began to pose questions to pianists and other musicians, after tuning their piano, but I received unsatisfying, irritating, exasperating answers. The “straw that broke the camel’s back” was a 13 year old Chinese boy speaking perfectly well 3 languages (French, English, and Mandarin) and very educated for his age. He played Chopin’s C sharp nocturne and said to me: “It was mush easier to play, the action got easier, and it was easier to press the keys.” I realized that this boy’s words reflected the truth. I want to note that not only insufficient education was depriving piano tuners from finding answers, but also the piano tuner’s Ego. It made them search for answers in the musicians only. Comparing the playing of a folklore trumpeter, trombonist and a philharmonic pianist playing on a 9 feet Hamburg Steinway that was off tune, all heard in my teenage years, allowed me to find part of the answer to the “INCOMPATIBLE RESPONSE” phenomenon. If the piano is off tune or badly tuned, the pianist is emotionally “tuning” his badly tuned piano to his hearing patterns, hearing models, modes that he possesses within his level, using a lot of extra energy for no purpose and forcing the brain and soul to work more intensively to achieve the sound he wants to hear. Sometimes he even deadens the unpleasant sounds of the instrument, getting the instrument to sound much better than before, but it’s still not perfect. We shouldn’t forget at what cost the musician has to do this. He feels the action’s weight, the sound’s toughness. Consequently, a composer won’t compose his best pieces; a beginner won;t enthusiastically get to the piano. The instrument doesn’t attract, it’s like a “vampire”. This means that one of the formulas of the “INCOMPATIBLE RESPONSE” is a good tuning and a “voicing” = a lighter keyboard - the brain is exempted from unnecessary effort; and the opposite: a bad tuning = a heavy keyboard, which requires extra effort and tension on the brain and emotions. To sum up: a musician gets the feeling of a lighter keyboard during the playing because less unnecessary brain and emotional effort are required. Second formula: the difficulty of that process is in the transmission of the feelings from the field of hearing to the field of touch. The hearing field in the brain dominates the other fields (tactile, etc.) when a well tuned piano is played. The result = a lighter touch. On a badly tuned piano, or a piano that is off-tune, the brain’s hearing field is overloaded and it reflects negatively on the tactile field. Result = a heavier touch. In this way, the tactile sense dominates the other fields of the brain and it makes the keyboard harder to play, etc. I would like to emphasize the fact that a pianist is frequently in a sitting position with both his legs and arms in contact with the piano for at least 3 hours a day. And his tactile sense and hearing are in immediate contact with his mind. His tactile feelings form him with time and practice. The principal of a piano tuner’s Ego crisis is that he only hears what he doesn’t want to hear from the musician; it means that his work on the piano does not correspond to what he thinks about it. But in reality, everything is logical because only by changing the structure of the sentence, the contact installs itself naturally. For example, a pianist saying: 1 “You tuned the piano so well, 2 it sounds better 3 and it is easier to play.” The contact occurred naturally but not the understanding. The understanding of that phenomenon between the piano tuner and the pianist comes only after a deep comprehension of that phenomenon. Comprehension of that phenomenon comes only after the study and reflection on that phenomenon by the piano tuner or the pianist or even better, both of them. Formulation The influence of a good tuning on a musician facilitates the process of playing by liberating the hearing brain field that controls and analyzes the hearing and also the “disguised” transfer of the perceived sound of the well tuned piano from the hearing field to the tactile field of the brain with a “masked language”. I want to acknowledge all the people that have helped me to achieve this discovery including my father, all the piano technicians who shared their knowledge of their art with me, all my clients, piano teachers, and many other people that were there to help me. Andrey Solodovnikov (Montreal) Translated by Pavel Solodovnikov Dedicated to my father, Vladimir Solodovnikov.