ABEL PIANO HAMMER 2012 TECHNICAL SEMINARS

[Barrie Heaton]

HECKSCHER/ABEL PIANO HAMMER/PTDAE 2012 TECHNICAL
SEMINARS

 

We are delighted to announce that Norbert Abel is returning to London in
early March to deliver some repeats of his acclaimed 2011 lecture. The
hammer is almost certainly the most important single component in a piano.
Norbert will be speaking about piano hammer history, development,
manufacturing & technology. He will explore the areas of wool selection & the
resulting hammer felt, and also the choice of wood material etc. Hammer
recovering will also be discussed in depth.

 

Norbert will speak in the morning sessions. In the afternoons, broadening the
technical content of these seminar days, we welcome Precision Touch
Design Academy Europe (PTDAE) to England (they are well known in
Europe and the USA). We asked PTDAE for a brief description of what they
do. This is what they said:

 

Precision Touch Design (PTD) is a technique to improve both touch and tone
of a grand piano.

PTD takes the weight of the hammer as a starting point to (re-)design an
action.

During the morning-program Norbert Abel has explained how hammers are
made and what the limitations are.

Frans Pietjouw and Wim Feldhaus will explain all the ins and outs of the
importance of the weight of the hammer and how one can deal with it.

We will explain how one can adapt an action to the weight of the hammer to
achieve a good touch.

We will bring a grand piano to demonstrate various possibilities of the use of
PTD.

And we will talk about our offer of courses that will teach you how to work
with PTD yourself.

.

Dates: Thursday, Friday, or Saturday, the 8th, 9th, & 10th of March.

 

Times: you are invited to assemble from 9.30 for a 10 o'clock start. There will
be a lunch break of about an hour before the afternoon session.

 

Venue:at 75 Bayham Street, Camden Town, London NW1 0AA.

 

Cost: £25 (£20.83+VAT) per head to include a light lunch, to be invoiced when
you confirm your booking.

 

Numbers: limited to about 25 per day.

 

Special offer: Order goods to the value of £250 + VAT on the day of your visit
& we will deduct the seminar charge from your bill.

 

Many technicians were unable to get to last year?s lectures, and Norbert has
agreed to come back to satisfy this demand. This year the technical interest is
substantially increased by our afternoon sessions. We are fairly confident
that the 2012 seminars will be over-subscribed. We urge you to book
early to avoid disappointment as bookings will be dealt with on a first
come first served basis. If there is sufficient demand we may be able to add
one or possibly two extra days.

 

We look forward to hearing from you, and hopefully seeing you in March.

 

Martin

 

Martin Heckscher
Heckscher & Co. Ltd.
75 Bayham Street,
London,
NW1 0AA.
T:020 7387 1735
F:020 7387 3043
E:martin@heckscher.co.uk
www.heckscherpianostools.co.uk