March 14, 2007

Wow!  That was my first reaction after the Stanwood Precision Touch Design was installed.  Suddenly I was able to play passages that had always eluded me, or demanding pieces like the Chopin etudes that previously I could only stumble through.  In the past I assumed the problem was with me.  What a revelation to discover that I had much greater potential as an amateur pianist than I ever imagined – as long as the piano was performing at its top capability.
 
David Stanwood selects his technicians carefully and trains them well.  My technician wanted to understand completely what I was looking for in a piano action, and exactly how I played the instrument (did I stroke the keys, or push down more heavily).  Everybody’s style of playing is somewhat different, and one of the great benefits of the Precision Touch Design is that it corresponds to your style of playing.  My technician also recommended an enhancement to the Precision Touch Design – adding magnets to the action to improve responsiveness and tonal control.  
 
I was nervous at first about installing the Precision Touch Design.  My instrument is an older model Fazioli F228, which is already an exquisite piano.  The Precision Touch Design improvements, however, were immediately discernible and very substantial.  They made playing a superb piano even more enjoyable.  Frankly, I wish I had done this a lot earlier.  I wasted years blaming myself and my technique, when all along it was the instrument that needed improvement.
 
I’ll leave you with just one example.  Beethoven’s last movement of his Waldstein sonata has some famous octave glissando passages.  I always played these glissandi with two hands, like the editors’ notes suggest “for the modern piano.”   Everybody knows the modern grand piano’s action is too heavy when compared to Beethoven’s instrument.  A few months after installing the Precision Touch Design I was playing through the Waldstein sonata and nearly fell off the piano stool when I discovered I could play these octave glissandi as written, with just the right hand.  Somehow David Stanwood has discovered a way to transform the modern grand piano into an instrument capable of performing with all the lightness of an early 19th century instrument, without sacrificing any of the depth of tone.  
 
Now that’s genius!
 
-Garrett Glass, Chicago Illinois
  Client of PTD installer David Graham