upright raze the man came to tune the black_and_white beast today. now it sings sweeter than it has in some time. its teeth are just as pristine as ever, but there was something catching in its throat that's been cleared. and when that airborne phlegmatic substance smacked into my face after freeing itself, i was so wrapped up in the sound, it felt like a wet kiss. 130219 ... unhinged ooooohhhh i'm so jealous i haven't played a real piano in years 130219 ... raze come play mine! it would love to meet you. 130219 ... unhinged i do my metta practice and my spine straightens itself without even a conscious thought 130324 ... raze the teeth of the beast have been shaved, its gums massaged, and now its diction is even better than before, each vowel and consonant clear as a bell. 130620 ... unhinged it is so much goddamn effort for me to stand up straight it doesnt even seem worth it 130620 ... gabbie as in 'not sideways' perhaps? funny with less than genuine humor 130621 ... raze whenever rick comes to tune the piano the mic stands that hold the microphones used to record the beast need to be moved out of the way. when he's finished they go back where they were and all is well. ever since the last tuning, i haven't been able to get things to sound right. the recorded sound of the piano is muddy when that's never been a problem before. i backed the mics off and there wasn't enough body. i moved them closer and there was too much. there was no middle ground. i spent days trying to figure out what had changed. no dice. the other day, more out of laziness than anything else, i angled the mics so they were pointing toward the middle of the place where the sound escapes at sharper angles. i hit the record button, and there it was. distance wasn't the problem. i'd forgotten the right angle. in all the hours i spent fussing with proximity, the fix was something it took five seconds to do. palm of hand, meet forehead. 140417 ... raze he came to give it another checkup. said he was surprised how well it survived the brutal winter we had. he's seen a lot of dead pianos past resuscitating lately. wasted pin blocks and cracked soundboards. there's no graveyard for pianos. i assume they go to the junkyard when they've passed, unless someone wants to adopt their cadavers and strip them for parts. a few of the higher keys were pinging a little, he said, so he did a little revoicing. now they don't ping anymore. 140604 ... raze it's been crankier about the summer so far than it was during the cold. it went sharp already, but not in any uniform or terribly noticeable way. it still sounded in tune with itself. it wasn't until you tried playing it with another instrument that something would start to sound a little bit off. all better now. and no storage closet mishaps. but i told rick about that dream, and it made him laugh. 140717 ... unhinged i cant stand up straight. my shoulders hunch over, my eyes_cast_down. oppressive heavy 140717 ... raze it's been a long time since it was a part of something someone else recorded. but i got a message a while back from dave. his band is recording a new album. they wanted to record a piano part for one song, and they've been having trouble finding a good-sounding instrument. seems all the people who claim to run recording studios in the city either don't have a real one, or if they do it's a hunk of junk. he asked if i might be able to help. i like dave, and pianos like to be played, so i said sure. sunday he and his brother and the guy who's recording the stuff and the guy who's playing the piano part are all supposed to come over. should be interesting. 150108 ... raze yeah. "interesting" is the word. it made me appreciate that maybe i really do know what i'm doing sometimes, because if i'd been the one recording the stuff we wouldn't have lost more than an hour to some technical difficulties that were pretty easy to avoid. and it was another reminder of the way a lot of people seem to think the only way a sound can ever be good is if it's as loud as it can get. even a piano part. but they're nice guys, and it was kind of fun to get to look in on someone else's process for a change, even if once again i ended up donating my microphones to the cause because they were better than anything the other guy had at his disposal. i should be getting paid for this shit. 150112 ... raze too much piano neglect lately. you know, if i could carry you up the stairs, this wouldn't happen. but then you'd be a guitar. 151103 ... raze dave's band's album is done now. after letting them use my piano and equipment and "studio" space for free (their engineer didn't even use his own microphones), i figured the least they could do is give me a nod somewhere in the liner notes. even something in a "thank you" section somewhere would have been fine, if they didn't want to give me actual credit for the use of my stuff. nope. nothing. i guess it's some consolation that the way the piano was recorded and mixed, it doesn't sound like my instrument. it doesn't really sound like any real piano. i thought the whole point of recording the real thing (especially an upright) was to capture some of its organic idiosyncrasies. there's none of that here. they might as well have used a digital piano sound. would have done about the same thing. well. won't be doing that again. 151127 ... unhinged assholes that seems to be the way people function now; take whatever they want or can from others without even a thank you in the end. 151128 ... raze i don't know why i don't sit at the piano and let myself wander as much as i used to. i'm trying to do something about that. curtail the neglect. cue six million melancholy-sounding ideas. 170207 ... unhinged your piano misses you If you won't play it i_will 170208 ... raze i thought a few notes were getting a little harsh and maybe the hammers needed some subtle revoicing, but a fresh tuning took care of it. forty seven times he's tuned this piano now. he says it's at its peak. 170717 what's it to you? who go blather from