Pianos Inside Out takes an in-depth look at the history, design, and maintenance of the piano, and provides practical guidance to anyone who wants to learn how to improve action performance, or tune, repair, regulate, voice, or rebuild pianos. Covering a wide range of topics, from introductory to advanced, the book puts between two covers all the advancements and understanding gained by the piano industry over the last 30 years, to provide a unified and coherent view of that much-needed information, from coincident partial tuning and interval inharmonicity, to touchweight analysis, string leveling, and the different types of modern lubricants. Although written for hobbyists, students, and piano technicians, Pianos Inside Out will also help pianists and owners of pianos to better understand their instruments and to communicate more effectively with their technicians. The book is full of clear, concise, step-by-step instructions, and more than 700 illustrations and diagrams.
The subject of this book is tuning theory and the integration of aural and electronic tuning techniques. All of the information presented will be analyzed from both aural and electronic perspectives, so that every technique used aurally will have an electronic equivalent, and every technique used electronically will have its aural test. The information is equally helpful for those who tune strictly by ear or exclusively with an electronic aid, and provides a firm understanding of the equivalent tests and procedures from both worlds for the growing number of tuners that use both their ears and an electronic aid.
Why does a piano sound like a piano? A similar question can be asked of virtually all musical instruments. A particular note-such as middle C-can be produced by a piano, a violin, a clarinet, and many other instruments, yet it is easy for even a musically untrained listener to distinguish between these different instruments. A central quest in the study of musical instruments is to understand why the sound of the "same" note depends greatly on the instrument, and to elucidate which aspects of an instrument are most critical in producing the musical tones characteristic of the instrument. The primary goal of this book is to investigate these questions for the piano. The explanations in this book use a minimum of mathematics, and are intended for anyone who is interested in music and musical instruments. At the same time, there are many insights relating physics and the piano that will likely be interesting and perhaps surprising for many physicists.
Kottick presents technical information in an accessible, but entertaining, way: the forms and styles of harpsichords, advice on purchasing decisions, maintenance techniques (such as voicing, regulating, and changing strings, tongues, plectra, springs, and dampers), aids in troubleshooting common problems, and detailed instructions on tuning and temperament. As builder of some thirty keyboard instruments, Kottick is well qualified to speak on the subject.
A veteran piano tuner presents a literary, minimally technical view of the quixotic tuning systems used on keyboard instruments for hundreds of years. The work explains temperament strategies accessibly and reflects on the technical process of piano tuning in both practical and philosophical terms. When Anita Sullivan started a second career as a piano tuner 25 years ago, she was immediately puzzled by the piano's complicated tuning system. Surprised to learn that her new profession was not only technically complex, but in fact required artistic judgements she set herself to describing the tuning system in a way that would make sense to ordinary listeners, rather than piano technicians alone. Her exceptional book was the result, now updated for a new generation of readers [Publisher description].