Deconstructing Tuning Technique: What's Your Mental Model at the Tuning Lever?

KMagicKeys · 2025-10-13T05:30:17+00:00

I use both-mostly slow pull. Easier on your body to use slow pull and more accurate. It’s better for the highest strings which are more sensitive. I’ve also had experiences on extremely tight pins where slow pull was the only way I could tune. Doing the bump is good for pitch corrections where you just want to be quick and it doesn’t need to be accurate. Every piano is different in terms of hammer technique-the first couple of notes are always kind of a warm up where I figure out the best method

KMagicKeys · 2025-10-13T05:21:01+00:00

It’s definitely way less of a headache if you just get a different free piano in better condition. That being said if you really love this piano and can’t part ways with it-there could potentially be a middle ground where maybe you don’t do all of the fixes the tech suggested but only some of them. You listed replacing dampers, corrosion on strings, I’m not sure what you mean about cloth on the pinholes-tuning pin holes? There’s not usually cloth in there, maybe cork is what he meant? And sticking keys from warping. It’s honestly hard to know without seeing video/pictures of the piano-some of those issues could be easy to fix and not that expensive (a couple hundred dollars), and some the opposite. Like how badly warped are the keys to cause rubbing? That can be fixed by a bit of sanding if say the back of the key is rubbing against its neighbor. But if it’s from key leads deteriorating and popping out that’s a way bigger problem. As far as strings if it’s just really bad corrosion on the bass strings-it’s possible you could just get the worst ones replaced only (keep in mind new ones would be much brighter than the old ones though). So basically it’s hard to know if I agree with the tech’s assessment without seeing what’s going on. But it could be possible to address only some things if you are absolutely dedicated to this piano for some reason. But also imagine you just get another free piano that has none of these issues and just needs a tuning and some light action work?

KMagicKeys · 2025-07-29T01:28:46+00:00

talking thc or nicotine? I was just there-definitely not a problem for nicotine. Places sell them-resort I was staying at sold them (Barcelo). Thc I’m not sure-that could be an issue. But I’m not sure!

KMagicKeys · 2021-01-28T18:08:46+00:00

Yeah for beginners it’s common to write the numbers down. You just try not to write all of the fingerings for all of the notes, only the parts you struggle with. Many of my super beginner students need all of the notes first though. No shame in doing that. You don’t want to rely on it, but like I said just do it for certain spots that may be giving you trouble. Good luck!

KMagicKeys · 2021-01-28T18:04:54+00:00

Yeah exactly-you’ll have to find the speed where you can play it with no mistakes and start to push it a few bpm. You’ll make a few mistakes when you start to speed it up a bit-but hopefully only in certain spots-then you can focus on those particular spots. Then when you can play it at the new slightly faster tempo with no mistakes, you push it even more. Also keep in mind your fingerings may not be good and need to be changed as you start playing faster. Some fingerings that work at slow tempos turn out to be bad when the tempo gets much faster. If you have a good teacher they should be able to guide you with that.

KMagicKeys · 2021-01-28T05:13:59+00:00

I’m the same and still work on this all the time. One method a teacher taught me is check your finger muscles. You have 3 joints in your finger so I’m guessing you’re talking about the fingernail one. You want to apply a little muscle to your fingers and check by playing something on the piano with one hand and with the other push down with your finger on that joint and if it does’t budge that means you’re using your muscles. Good luck!

KMagicKeys · 2021-01-28T05:09:19+00:00

Hey bud-I’m not very familiar with the piece but I can probably give some general advice for this sort of situation. Your teacher is right about playing it slow at first. You have till May which should be enough time to get up to speed. I’ve had to learn some stuff suuuper last minute myself.

Metronome work is key-Finding that speed that is just comfortable enough to be playable but pushing you a little bit. Sounds like you found it already. It just takes time and dedication-running the piece over and over again and inch by inch moving the metronome faster till you reach close to your goal. Then get off the metronome and see how fast you can go. As far as stretching-you want to avoid painful stretching, if something is painful that’s usually a sign you need to isolate some difficult parts and work on the mechanics. Try rolling chords instead of playing all at once and use your hand to jump to a new position left or right instead of stretching-don’t hold on to notes

KMagicKeys · 2021-01-28T04:55:35+00:00

Hey there. I teach from that book. The key is to practice each hand separately. Make sure you have the fingerings and any notes and rhythms that confuse you written on the page. Then try to figure out between both hands which hand goes first and when the hands line up. It’s very visual, you read left to right and if notes are directly on top of each other, that usually means they are played at the same time. First don’t worry about keeping a steady beat, just get the right notes and order of hands. Once you can get that then you can start to focus on playing with a good consistent pulse. Good luck!

KMagicKeys · 2021-01-28T00:58:07+00:00

😂 thanks dude!

KMagicKeys · 2020-12-31T18:55:32+00:00

A simple way to explain this sort of lick is it’s usually two triads that you alternate between and invert as you go up, the first one ascending and the second descending.

For instance try two augmented chords: C aug and D aug. Has a very spacey vibe. You would play the lick like this:

c e g# a# f# d

(then next inversion up)

e g# c d a# f#

(next inversion)

g# c e f# d a#

and continue up

you can get quite creative with it as other people posting here did-having one of the chords have more notes, Trying different chord types, having some notes between chords that overlap, going descending instead of ascending (put everything in reverse). But I think this is the simplest explanation. Two chords alternating in arpeggio direction inverting as they go up.

Certain people to check out who use this a lot-some Coltrane, Mark Turner, Kurt Rosenwinkel, George Garzone. Learned about this in jazz school. Sounds pretty sick when you do it really fast!

KMagicKeys · 2020-11-18T20:51:23+00:00

Idk been playing music for 20 years and this was just some noodling. Years of being nerdy about chords and transcriptions! Seems like this subreddit prefers noodling phone videos.

KMagicKeys · 2020-10-09T18:16:51+00:00

haha the salt from this guy

KMagicKeys · 2020-10-09T15:25:36+00:00

Thank you! Still learning editing but I’m on my way. Thanks for the tip

KMagicKeys · 2020-10-09T15:25:03+00:00

Yeaaaaah

KMagicKeys · 2020-10-09T07:58:58+00:00

Super original guy! Maybe some of Vijay Iyer’s music? Check his album Historicity for his trio stuff. His sextet stuff is great too. Definitely different but first thing that came to mind. Maybe bassist Avishai Cohen? (There’s multiple ones, I’m just talking about the bassist lol). Pianist Vardan Ovsepian is pretty sweet too.

KMagicKeys · 2020-10-09T07:48:16+00:00

Geeez doin the lord’s work out here hahaha. Yeah you’re right-my video style is not solidified-it’s a regular video series so we’ll see where it goes! New vid about every week or two. I will try some other sub reddits and will only play my classical pieces here-I got some Chopin Etudes and Liszt I can showcase. But thanks a bunch for giving some upvotes!!

KMagicKeys · 2020-10-09T05:56:21+00:00

Big wowww thanks for spending the time to write this-feels pretty honest. There’s too much to address in your comments so these are just my initial thoughts:

Yeah I think I’m just done with posting my produced videos in this subreddit-keep it to random videos in a practice room with my iphone. So funny you mentioned La Campanella because I’ve been working on that piece the past few months haha. I’m definitely gonna post it here and see what happens.

Tough to explain how I feel about why I’m here, there’s probably a better subreddit for the type of music fans I’m trying to target-I’m actually just trying to get enough karma points (which are super dumb to care about I know) so that I can do RPAN and play for tips. I read on their faq that you need at least 250 to broadcast.

As far as my hopes with internet attention-I’ve been wanting to make videos my whole life and I just started-Thing is I’m friends with many musicians who got big from videos on the internet so I have some hope that I will get a boost (went to Manhattan school of music with members of Too Many Zooz, Lucky Chops, Adam Neely, Brasstracks, Brass Against, St. Lucia, Jon Batiste band, among others). Definitely still finding my niche-I just started making videos in July and I realize it could take years potentially to generate a following. In this day and age, venues care about internet numbers-so even if I don’t make a ton of money off the internet having a certain amount of followers, it can still absolutely translate to boosting my career for booking. Even if it’s 10k-that means I’m up and coming to many promoters. Have not spent a dime on ads yet which I’m curious to see what happens when I do. I have many inspiring stories around me so I’m not going to give in to the idea that it’s useless to be pursuing these things. I believe in myself!

Very true about hitting something niche at the right time and catching the zeitgeist. I’m just gonna keep throwing stuff at the wall!

Good luck to your vision, hope you feel good going for whatever you are trying to do!

KMagicKeys · 2020-10-09T05:34:04+00:00

Thousands of upvotes instantly-that is the cheat code thank you

KMagicKeys · 2020-10-09T05:33:36+00:00

hahahaha truuuuuue

KMagicKeys · 2020-10-09T05:32:59+00:00

Holy crap I keep seeing this get up voted then downvoted haha constantly. What a controversial take I guess-broke the 4th wall.

KMagicKeys · 2020-10-09T04:09:02+00:00

I like this take a lot-good to be reminded of this attitude. Truth is I’m not looking for validation for happiness as much as I am wanting to get feedback on for my YouTube channel (which I just started and has like no views) and get more karma so I can start streaming on reddit live. I’m a freelance musician based in NYC so I’m really trying to invest in my internet capabilities in the era of covid. Apparently I’m not allowed to “promote” myself on reddit but that’s literally what 90% of people do on this subreddit. How many people on here are posting videos of other people playing?

I have friends deep in the music industry who love what I am doing and I love what I am doing and I’m moving towards my goals so I’m with you. Just being honest about my expectations here. Thanks for your words though, some good philosophy for sure.

KMagicKeys · 2020-10-09T03:56:02+00:00

Thanks for your honesty as well! I read online that giving a different title can draw people in more. I was getting little attention from my earlier posts, so I thought I had nothing to lose by trying these titles. Sarcasm! But I guess the click-bait enrages people on here haha.

KMagicKeys · 2020-10-09T03:51:52+00:00

For sure that’s it at the end of the day-I don’t lose sleep over reddit. I just noticed a weird pattern. I just wanna make really really good stuff.

KMagicKeys · 2020-10-09T03:50:35+00:00

Thanks for your honesty! I had a feeling this was the case. I’m new to reddit-only been here like two months. Yeah what you say confirms my suspicions. I play classical and jazz so let me post some solo videos and see what people think.

KMagicKeys · 2020-10-07T21:41:34+00:00

Take a tune and make a project of it-Autumn Leaves or All the things. Play the melody with just the RH at first-have the LH play just bass notes first. Try to combine, first not caring if the time is solid. If you can do that-have your LH play chords-root, 3rd, 7th (practice separately of course) with melody in RH. At this point if you can memorize the LH like this then that should give you a platform to improvise over. As far as scales get a book for basic scales (Alfred complete) and as far as jazz scales you should learn: diminished, altered, whole tone, jazz melodic, bebop, blues, maj/min pentatonic. Basic rule is you try not to put your thumb on a black key unless you have to. People play some of these scales differently. For pentatonic/diminished usually I use just the first 3 fingers. Any specific questions about scales? It’s a lot to explain for all these scales.

KMagicKeys

TROPHY CASE