Steinert Piano Conditions

The state of the pianos in the Steinert practice facility is unacceptable. Firstly, all of the pianos in the facility are badly out of tune. On the Kawai baby grand directly as you enter, D6 sounds the same as C#6. Many of the other pianos have similar examples of extreme tuning problems. Aside from "wrong" notes where a string has clearly lost tension as above, the general tuning of the piano is also unacceptable to the point that even someone with relatively bad pitch hearing can easily distinguish the problem. This not only makes practicing piano difficult and unenjoyable for piano players, but also can hurt those who are working on their intonation for voice or other instruments.

In addition to the tuning problems outlined above, there are numerous broken strings on several pianos. The worst example is probably the Yamaha baby grand in the corner to the left. There are at least 4 completely broken strings, causing some notes to not sound at all, and others to sound something like a pot being banged with a spoon. This makes it nearly impossible to play many pieces on the piano, since every note sounds like a mistake.

In addition to this, there are other general problems that need to be fixed by a piano technician. The baby grand in the back right corner has a sustain pedal that is permanently down, making the piano absolutely useless. Other pianos have sustain pedals that need to be tuned, since they don't fully release the dampers even when pushed all the way to the floor.

We understand that piano tuning costs money and that it may not be possible to keep every piano in top notch shape throughout the year. However, the problems outlined above have been consistently present for over an entire year. Many of them were reported last September and are still present.

We hope that the necessary steps will be taken to secure a piano tuner and instate a regular tuning schedule for the practice pianos in Steinert through this petition.