Linda Holzer is Associate Professor of Piano at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock. She has performed in more than 17 states, and abroad at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She recently oversaw restoration work on the Music Department's concert hall instruments: 2 Steinway model D's and a Bosendorfer Imperial Grand.
Linda Holzer
Department of Music
University of Arkansas-Little Rock
Little Rock, AR 72204
501.569.8436
lrholzer@ualr.edu
Anne Garee has enjoyed a career in piano technology for twenty-two years at Florida State University. She designed and implemented the Master of Arts in Piano Technology degree program in 2003 and joined the faculty in 2004 as Program Director. A registered technician with the Piano Technician's Guild, she has offered technical courses for pianists and technicians at FSU, in Costa Rica, and in mainland China.
Anne Garee
College of Music
Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL 32306
850.644.6811
agaree@garnet.acns.fsu.edu
How to handle a piano? To paraphrase Lerner and Lowe: "Simply love it." But what if you work for an organization or at an institution that has more than one piano? How do you adequately care for a fleet of important keyboard instruments? Love isn't enough. You need inventory management techniques. Many of these techniques are borrowed from the world of computers, in which the technical support staff for an office must oversee the equipment for many computer users.
Let's start with the basics: What have you got, where is it, and what kind of shape is it in? All of this information can be addressed by compiling it in a computerized inventory database. Common software programs for this purpose include:
Constructing a Database - Inventory Identification
A good database includes fields to account for all the relevant information about a piano.
It is important that conventions for entering data are followed consistently every time a new record is added to the database. This can be accomplished by designing the database to include edit controls on the specific fields that you want to sort by, such that it forces you to enter the data correctly. For example, when entering the year the instrument was manufactured, the field should be formatted to require four digits, i.e. "1966." If you don't follow conventions, and sometimes enter "1966" but other times only enter two digits as '66, you won't be able to sort the data accurately by year. Ultimately, you need support from administrative staff who are familiar with database design in order to set up a solidly functional database.
How is the make identified? The make of the piano is often stenciled on the exterior and cast into the plate inside. For the model, look for an additional marking that may include letters and numbers either close to the serial number or in a different location altogether (e.g. Yamaha "C7" or Steinway "L"). In the absence of such a marking, refer to grand models in terms of their length, measured from the keyslip1 to the edge of the lid in its closed position. (e.g. 5' 2" grand). For upright models, refer to the height of the instrument measured from the floor to the top of the lid. (e.g. 36" spinet, 42" console, 48" studio, and 52" upright).
Where is the serial number located? The typically 4-8 digit number is most often located near the tuning pins, either printed directly on the plate or engraved in the wooden pinblock. Or, the number may be printed elsewhere on the plate or on the soundboard.2
The serial number of a piano is as distinctive as the serial number of a car. It is unique to that particular instrument. Once you have located a piano's serial number, you can look up the serial number in the reference books The Pierce Piano Atlas, or Atlas der Pianonummern (Germany), or The Musician's Piano Atlas (England), to find out the year of manufacture. Several websites will allow you to type in the serial number to find this information as well.3 If the instrument is more than 30 years old, depending on the kind of use it gets and the condition of the parts, it may need restoration work, such as new strings, or new hammers. The 30+ year old upright, exposed to daily practice room wear, should be put in the trade-in/replacement category. A piano technician can advise you on these and other condition and maintenance issues.
Designing a Maintenance Request Form
Providing a piano maintenance request form for users (pianists) is essential to keeping the instruments in good working order. The partnership with your piano technician will be enhanced through use of written maintenance requests. The form should be written in a way that helps the user focus on relevant specifics, and gives the piano technician enough information to quickly zero-in on mechanical problems.
So many people who play the piano are unfamiliar with how the instrument works. They enjoy the sound, they know the names of the keys and pedals, but when something isn't working quite right, they aren't sure how to describe it. And yet, the piano technician depends on the people who use the instrument most frequently to communicate with him or her about what needs to be fixed.
The web site PianoFinders.com4 highlights a common initial challenge of talking with your piano technician:
"What to call the keys" (or, "Which C is this one over here?")"A problem often arises from the fact that on the piano keyboard there are several different C's, D's, A's, etc. What do you call the C two octaves below middle C? . . In one system that has been around since anyone can remember, the notes are numbered according to the octave in which they lie, and each new octave starts with C. . .Thus, the first C at the far left of the keyboard is C-1, the next C an octave up is C-2, then C-3, C-4, C-5 etc on up to C-8 at the top of the keyboard. Because each octave begins on C, the notes below C-1 are labeled A-0 (A-zero), A#-0, and B-0. . . .this system has been used for many years, and many musicians and piano tuners still use it today. In this system, middle C on the keyboard is C-4."
Sidebar 1 is a sample maintenance request form currently in use at a university music program, making use of the key-naming convention described above. (Sidebars are viewable with Adobe Acrobat which may be downloaded at www.adobe.com)
Ideally, pianists should make it a point to learn the basics of piano technology. Not that you're going to tune the instrument or change strings yourself, the way a violinist would care for her instrument. But you should know the basics of how the piano functions in order to be able to talk intelligently with a piano technician about problems you want repaired.
Many resident piano technicians at large music schools offer introductory piano technology courses for pianists. In some cases, a course like this is required as part of the curriculum, in others it is an elective. Sometimes, local piano dealerships will offer a workshop on the subject. Other educational resources include:
There are comprehensive programs in North America for those that want more in-depth training towards a career path in piano technology, including:
For further study on high-end concert work, piano design and action geometry issues, there is now a Master of Arts in Piano Technology degree program at Florida State University.
How to Schedule Service
It is easier for the technician to keep the users happy if the technician gets good information in a timely way. Establish an "in box" for your piano technician to keep track of maintenance request forms as they are turned in by users. Let your technician know before he or she arrives on-site what problems have been reported, so that an estimate of parts and time needed for service can be done ahead of time.
According to the Piano Technicians Guild, it is recommended that tunings be done at least twice per year to deal with the climate and humidity changes that accompany the change of seasons. However, instruments that are played often will go out of tune more quickly. Concert hall instruments typically need in excess of four tunings per year. Ideally, these instruments should be tuned before most concerts and recitals, receiving weekly and sometimes daily attention during peak concert season. Other maintenance such as repairs to broken strings, or adjustments to fix squeaking pedals or sticking keys may become necessary, and should be noted for your technician on maintenance request forms.
Action regulation refers to more extensive adjustment to the mechanism of the piano. According to Larry Fine, for a home instrument that is only played occasionally, action regulation may only be needed once every 10 years.5 But for an instrument that is played professionally many hours per day on a regular basis, the process may need to be done annually. Voicing is an adjustment to the tone of the piano, concentrating on the hammer felts. The amount of playing the piano receives determines when it needs voicing.
As maintenance is completed, the facts need to be logged in the database. Studying the maintenance history can help you and the technician identify future needs. Your piano technician will be able to advise you on when action regulation and voicing or major restoration work are needed based on the kind of maintenance requests being turned in over time, and how the instrument is responding to service. For example, if the strings on the piano are breaking repeatedly, even with modest use, the technician may diagnose age-related metal fatigue, and may recommend that re-stringing be done.
This system of maintenance request forms and an inventory database also works well for digital piano inventory for similar reasons. Heavy use results in wear and necessitates service. Keeping good records makes it easier to provide relevant service in a timely way for all your instrumental equipment.
Who Views and Maintains the Database?
The person in charge of overseeing maintenance, and the personnel hired to perform maintenance view and maintain the database. If you work at an institution or organization that employs a full-time piano technician, these roles are filled by the same person. But if you contract out for tuning and maintenance, this process is covered by two people, one who works for the institution, and one (the piano technician) who is employed as needed. The database should be kept at the institution where the pianos reside.
There are two ways to approach the essential business of backing up electronic data. Institutions without an Information Technology (IT) staff need to back up the inventory files on CD, DVD, or an external hard drive to make sure that the data is preserved in case of a computer malfunction. Institutions with an IT staff need to coordinate the best way to back up documents and work within established security protocols. There may be an existing, overall inventory system that could function quite nicely for piano inventory and could be accessed from a central server. In this way, multiple people with password protection could access the database for annual evaluation and campus-wide inventory. The database can be further protected by granting "read only" capability for most viewers, avoiding costly mistakes in accidental deletions, etc. Your piano inventory database is the equivalent of the medical history of your pianos. After investing time noting all the details for your inventory, you want to ensure that the records are secure.
Who's Protecting the Investment?
Pianos affect every sector of a music program: music appreciation, history, theory, performance studies, and music education. When the pianos don't work well, it's everybody's problem. Managing piano inventory is a time-consuming process, but necessary. The time that it would take a professional technician to manage this inventory and oversee maintenance translates to an enormous extra workload for a faculty member whose time is already full with teaching, committee service, publishing, and performance activities. It is in the best interest of administration to find the resources to increase staff positions by hiring a piano technician.
Piano inventory may be worth anywhere from $2,000 to $1,000,000 depending on how many and what kind of instruments your institution owns. A half-time or full-time staff member whose job is tuning, maintenance, and inventory management can, over time, elevate performance standards. From a financial standpoint, a well-managed inventory also staves off instrument replacement in many cases.
If there is an inventory management system in place that can record what happened during the year, it allows administration to evaluate which instruments have been neglected, jeopardizing the investment. With a simple report from the database, administrators can analyze the Big Picture, and make informed decisions about allocation of resources.
Rationale
Why is this so complicated? "On a modern piano, each of the 88 keys represents a series of 7 moving parts - keys, wippen, repetition lever, jack, hammer, damper lever and damper wire."6 There are more than 12,000 parts on a piano. A typical year for your institution's pianos may include numerous concert or worship service performances, festivals, competitions, auditions, workshops and rehearsals, and all those parts get quite a work-out.
If the only attention your pianos receive is a couple of tunings each year when the seasons change, and there is no formal process for requesting maintenance beyond tunings, frustration will build in two directions. The musicians will get tired of struggling with instruments that aren't mechanically responsive to their musical efforts. And the piano technicians will get annoyed that they are expected to magically transform the piano to perfect working order when they show up to simply tune it, with no input from the people who play on it every day.
Keep good records about your piano inventory. Build an accurate database. Communicate regularly in writing with your piano technician. Make piano maintenance request forms available to all your users. These tools will go a long way towards preserving harmony. The race car driver understands that the love of racing alone doesn't get you across the finish line. It takes a supportive pit crew to win the race. In the musical arena, the magical team of piano, technician, performers, and administration is the winning combination for the instrument we love.
Notes
1. The keyslip is the piece of wood below and in front of the piano keys. Larry Fine, The Piano Book, 3rd ed., Brookside Press, Boston, MA: 1994, p. 8.
2. Fine, 157.
3. A Google search on the phrase "search piano serial number +name of manufacturer" will help you find the most relevant web sites for your purposes.
4. Karen E. Lile and Kendall Ross Bean, PianoFinders.com/educational
5. Fine, 181.
6. David Rostkoski, "Taming the Temperamental Tyrant: A Piano Technician Speaks Out," American Music Teacher, August/September 1991.
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