to keep him busy, so to Colorado, Nebraska or.
the time he spent
ianos,he still played
NO IDEA AN OLD
DULB BE DROUGH
LIKE THAT AND I
DOLT TO LEARN IT."
EVER MORES
remembers her father
every day and how
talked to hear it echo
the house.
takes care of the 115
murphy Hall and the Lied
who works on campus;
r still works in the
boardment and his ex-
entle, is the assistant
it.
employs himself so take away from the because they are who it to see. Ewesole says his school year he has events to tune for and does not event. Some pianists touch weights and preferences for every he says.
SOME EXAMPLES OF ADJUSTMENTS
> How fast a note repeats
(This one can involve numerous
adjustments in the repetition lever
alone.)
→ Touch weight or amount of force it takes to propel the key with one's finger. Two and one-half units of pressure per key is ideal.
- Touch response or control of sound, getting the note to play at the anticipated amount of volume level.
> Key height: are the keys level or do they sag at different parts of the keyboard?
Do the keys travel at the right distances when depressed?
Is the sound even from one note to the next or are some notes too bright or to dull?
→ Do the pedals work when pressed with one's foot?
> Lining up the hammer hitting on the string for the optimum strike point, in order to achieve the best overall sound.
$\Rightarrow$ Adjusting the dampers so that the note sings when depressed or cuts out after releasing the key.
→ Keeping the keys clean
"Iborne, as he is fondly referred to by the Lied Center technical staff, is the best replacement that they could have ever hoped for. He says Ann Hause, Lied Center technical director He has a great sense of humor and he's good at his job, she says. Because it's not a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. job, there's all the care of the performers taking care of the performance."
He really cares about taking good care of the pianos, especially the 590,000 Steinway & Son, she says.
"I think he's thrilled to be working on it and takes pristine care of it," she says. To him, she says, it's not just a piano. He takes interest in it and the musicians who play it.
Hause says Eversole even plays it himself after his turnings. She says he plays the K-State fight songs for the team, which is the associate technical director.
In his lifetime, Eversole thinks he's tuned over 22,000 piano, and his arm is playing for it. He's taken a Cortizone shot in his shoulder to alleviate some of the problems. He intends to stay at the University and keep tuning, though. He's been playing the piano since he was 7 years old, and he's not stopping now.
BY THE NUMBERS
1:15
it takes one hour and 15 minutes to tune a piano.
115 There are more than 115 pianos on the Ku campus
290
Eversole will tune for 290
events this year
22,000 Everesle has tuned around 22,000 pianos in his lifetime
50
Everleigh has tuned for more than 50 high-profile music artist and more than 100 regional famously one
88
There are 88 key in a piano:
52 white and 36 black
(although some antiques and
special pieces have a few
more keys)
(above) To prepare for an upcoming concert, Tom Eversole tunes a piano at the Lied Center of Kansas on Tuesday, Feb. 20.
02. 22.2007 JAYPLAY < 09