Tallowood Talking

The church’s pianist, Barbara Jones, writes about a recent visitor who came all the way from Japan to fine tune Tallowood’s beautiful grand piano. 

Last Monday our 9-foot grand in the worship center, Shigeru Kawai number 36, got a visit from Mr. Takanori (Terry) Otake, one of the Kawai Company’s handful of exceptionally trained piano technicians/tuners known as “Master Piano Artisans.” 

His visit was part of the church’s original purchase agreement, that the piano would be serviced “in place”.  Although great care had been taken to prepare the instrument before it left the factory in Hamamatsu, Japan, and other adjustments had been made to the instrument once it arrived in Los Angeles (just before we went to play it for the first time) there are some details that are best addressed once the piano is finally “home”, and has had a chance to settle into its new environment.  

Because one of the major components of a piano is wood, which is highly sensitive to humidity and temperature changes, the settling process often takes about a year.  So the time was right for him to come.

I was grateful that Mr. Otake had a chance to hear the Shigeru “at work” in
the late service Sunday morning.  He was able to listen to the instrument
from a distance to see how it spoke in the room, and also had an opportunity
to observe how we use the instrument.  

Although it is a marvelous concert-level solo instrument, our Shigeru spends much time needing to “play well with others”:  accompanying vocal and instrumental solos, working with the choir, and also helping support congregational singing.  Yet at the same time it needs to be able to “stand on its own two feet” for offertories.  For me, the work colors what sounds the piano needs to be able to make.  The Shigeru has been the perfect answer for our needs!

Monday was a FULL day of work on the Shigeru.  The process was threefold:
regulating, tuning and voicing.  It began with regulating the piano, which
deals almost exclusively with the mechanics of the instrument, the “nuts and
bolts” if you will.  There is an intricate series of parts set it motion
every time a piano key is depressed.  Over time those parts can shift,
become susceptible to our Houston humidity, or need to be lubricated or
polished.  

Much of the day was spent making tiny adjustments to put those
parts back into factory specs.  The work requires amazing surgical
precision!  An example are the small punchings (they look similar to paper
reinforcements) that are stacked on a metal pin under each key to adjust the
height of the key to make it completely level.  They range in size from .08 of an inch to .001 of an inch.  Other adjustments were made within millimeters,
and half millimeters.  The level of craftsmanship, like the instrument
itself, was perfection.  It was humbling to watch.

Les Bartlett, our new tuner in Houston, who took over the task of looking after our pianos once Lew Zailer decided to retire, was able to be there Monday to watch and learn, and ask questions.  He picked up a few new tricks of the trade, copied down the design for several very handy homemade tools (Shigeru specs, of course), and came away affirmed that the work he has been doing to care for our Shigeru over the past year has been dead on.

Once regulating was done, Mr. Otake tuned the Shigeru, and then began voicing.  Since we have been pleased with the general sound of the Shigeru, no major voicing was necessary, but small adjustments were made.  He went
through all 88 keys and identified those notes where sound was quite
different from that of its neighbor and then went back and worked each
hammer individually, using a tool very much like a narrow awl to poke the wool in just the right spots to smooth out the sound.

All of this made me appreciate once again the love and dedication with which Lew looked after the Tallowood pianos for so many years, and made me very grateful that we have found someone as capable as Les to take his place!

Happily, I was allowed to play the Shigeru once the tech’s work was done, and my, oh my, the way it responded to the hand was just delightful! I am privileged indeed to have such a magnificent instrument to play Sunday after Sunday.  As far as I know, we are the only venue in Houston to have a Shigeru.  Mr. Otake said that number 47 was currently being built at the factory (there are less than 50 in the entire world).  

I love that we have a piano in the Worship Center that is almost as unique as Tallowood!