I have just arrived home from tuning a fabulous Bluthner grand piano for the Ken Dodd show this evening at the Lyceum theatre in Sheffield. I didn’t go looking for him since I was there from 2PM – 4PM and the show started at 7!

The piano itself sounded relatively well in tune, and my tuning fork and electronic device allowed me to start off with middle C as precise as it could possibly be. Upon assessment I discovered that certain notes ranged from one to two cents flat. I could hear a few not quite perfect three string unisons and the occasional fast beating fourth or fifth. Needless to say, fixing these imperfections and getting the piano precisely in tune was no easy job, as this particular piano required a careful, gentle turning of the pins due to its long strings. Being a concert grand, the strings were much longer than the upright pianos I’m typically used to, which meant a longer amount of time was speant to achieve the same accuracy (the whole piano tuning took just over 2 hours!).

After I left the theatre I observed the Christmas lights being switched on; the city centre was absolutely heaving with people. All seemed to be enjoying the fun fair, bands and various forms of entertainment. I hung around for an hour or so, had some tea and then walked home.

In other news I’ve been very busy piano tuning around South Yorkshire. Many people seem to require a piano tuner at this time of year. In the last few days I had two tunings in Rotherham on Thursday, a tuning in Woodseat, Sheffield on Friday morning, a tuning in Doncaster on Saturday and have had bookings for two schools on both the Norton side of Sheffield and the Darnall/Tinsley side. I always appreciate tuning pianos at schools as it tends to be a full days work and a good way to meet potential customers. I’m still nowhere close to having ‘too many’ customers!

– Richard, Piano Tuner Sheffield.