The Harmonist Piano Services
Spike Taylor (Teatro Martí, Havana, Cuba): Photo courtesy Hilary Ison
“Registered Piano Technicians are professionals who have committed themselves to the continual pursuit of excellence, both in technical service and in ethical conduct.”
Every piano, no matter how old or new, no matter how neglected or played, needs to be tuned at least once a year. Without regular maintenance, intractable problems will set in.
A piano that has not been tuned in many years will have suffered a drop in pitch that will require a more in-depth tuning, including a pitch raise, to return it to its proper pitch.
Pianos in performance spaces and professional recording studios require more frequent tunings, but even a modest home instrument deserves to sound its best.
With hundreds of moving parts inside every piano, breakdown and repair is a natural course of events.
Issues arising from normal aging or wear and tear are most often easy to diagnose, and quickly resolved.
Spike assesses the condition of every piano he meets, and will inform you about any necessary repairs or restoration needs.
Regulation optimizes a piano’s mechanical function; voicing optimizes its tonal quality. Spike works with customers to determine the best ways of realizing their piano’s potential.
Each instrument has its own character and quality of sound, but it can always be improved upon with various voicing techniques.
More than tuning and repairs, regulation and voicing offers opportunity for the customer to make aesthetic choices according to taste and preferences.
Broken Piano (Mile End, Montreal): Photos courtesy Ken Dobell
