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Copyright June 4th 2007

Blog

June 20, 2007

Ok, everything is pretty much done! The new site is up and running. So far feedback has been very positive. Music performance bookings, music instruction inquiries, and piano tuning jobs have all started to come in more frequently. I'm not sure how the new site will fair on google though. The competition for placement of words like music instruction guelph or wedding musicians guelph is fairly tough. Hopefully, the new content will help.

About me: I've played music in many of Ontario's urban centers including Guelph, Elora, Fergus, Toronto, Mississauga, Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, Oakville, Belleville, Kingston, Hamilton, St. Catherines, Niagara on the Lake. I play guitar and piano professionally and have done so for 18 years. I have two degrees (one in music from McGill University) and I have taught both piano and guitar now for 18 years. I have worked with many great musicians during this time. Some of the best musicians in Canada are a phone call away for me.

Promo: Looking for Music for your special event? Wedding musicians available. Corporate events are our specialty. Guitar or Piano music performances available. Supplying music to the greater Toronto area for ten years including Guelph, Elora, Fergus, Toronto, Mississauga, Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, Oakville, Belleville, Kingston, Hamilton, St. Catherines, and Niagara on the Lake. Classical or Jazz piano and guitar is available. I have played many wedding ceremonies and wedding receptions and would be happy to play yours. Piano tuning is another business I run in the Guelph area. I also tune pianos in Kitchener. Piano tuning in waterloo requires travel time. Kitchener piano tuning is the same. People in Cambridge also give me a call for piano tuning. I tune pianos in Mississauga, Milton, and Georgetown too. Chris Wilson

Piano Tuning: April 10th. I have tuned pianos in the Wellington county area including Guelph, Kitchener, Cambridge, Elora, Fergus, and Waterloo for the past 10 years. One clear fact about living in southern Ontario or any Canadian city is that the climate is very hard on musical instruments. The dry winters followed by intensely humid summers cause havoc with all instruments, not just pianos. The problem is that pianos require an expert to tune them whereas most other instruments are tuned regularly by their owners. As a result, pianos rarely get tuned more than once a year. I often get asked to tune pianos that have not been tuned in 3 to 5 years. This is problematic because the longer one waits between tunings; the harder it is to get a good tuning that lasts. A piano that has been left untuned for many years is not only difficult to tune but impossible to keep in tune even with proper tuning technique (setting of each string etc.). Often the pitch in such a piano will sink lower and lower until the notes are nearly a semi-tone away from where they started! (For example middle C is now B). The more one has to raise the pitch of a piano string, the more likely that string will want to return to its original state. This means that within days of trying to tune a neglected piano the recently tuned piano will be out of tune again. Every tuning that I do receives the same attention to detail. I use a combination of techniques to arrive at a good tuning. First and foremost, a piano tuner should have a good ear. This means that when a pitch is even slightly out of tune I know it. As a jazz musician, I am acutely aware of anything that is out of tune. Jazz harmonies tend to be very dense and complex. On an out of tune piano, they sound horrible! One test I do at the end of a tuning is to play the piano and check that these harmonies sound right. I have performed on enough out of tune pianos to appreciate the necessity of a well tuned piano. I also use a Sanderson accu-tuner as a guide to help insure that things are progressing down the right path. The accu-tuner is one of the best tools a piano tuner can own. It enables the piano tuner to accurately calculate pitch curves for individual pianos. By sampling the piano in three places, one can get an accurate picture of the uniqueness of each piano. After all, tuning a 9 foot Steinway is completely different than tuning a spinet piano. It also allows me to raise the pitch of a piano if the pitch has fallen. Typically, when a pitch raise is necessary, the piano tuner must raise the pitch past concert pitch by 25% of the amount that it was low. For example, if a piano is 50 cents (or half of a semi-tone) lower than concert pitch, that piano must have its pitch raised by 12.5 cents (25% of 50= 12.5) so that when the pitch falls back again it falls close to concert pitch.

Piano Tuning: May 11th As wonderful as pianos are, one thing will always remain true about acoustic pianos: they go out of tune! Normal fluctuations in humidity within the home will usually put a piano out of tune to a small degree within days of a professional tuning. After six months to a year, a piano can be so far out of tune that it can be detrimental to a students progress. To a student, their piece simply doesn't sound right and they are not sure why. Their frustration level increases and their motivation to learn the piano decreases. Pianos that have not been tuned for several years can be so far out of tune that the piano can be physically damaged. Pianos are built to have a specific string tension. After a few years, pianos will often lose that tension and go flat. For every semitone a piano goes flat, the overall string tension is reduced by 5000 pounds. Putting that tension back onto a piano after several years can be a tuning nightmare. Strings can break, tuning pins can loosen, even the frame or soundboard can crack. In this case, the tuner must raise the strings tension higher than their normal level and then let the piano settle back to concert pitch (the ideal string tension). A second tuning is almost always necessary. My flat rate for each tuning is $100.00. However, if a piano needs to have its string tension restored, I will have to do two tunings. I usually tune the piano again about a month after the first tuning.

Call me at (519) 822-4498 if you need to have your piano tuned. You can also email me using the link above.