LeRoy Bowman

Ever wondered about that loud bright slightly off sound that shows itself in some honkytonk piano pieces? Here is an excellent article written by a piano technician.

The sound started up in the late 40s when artists were rediscovering ragtime, apparently they were also rediscovering the original neglected pianos.

Anyhow, somebody thought this might be a cool sound, and by the mid-1950’s, many record companies were producing albums played on pianos made to sound “honky-tonk.”

The author goes on to describe various acts of malice that can be carried out on a piano to give it the right “wrong” sound involving thumbtacks in the hammers, or multiple coats of laquer. The former is definitely not recommended.

There are three common techniques. One is to make the piano hammers harder. I have seen countless tragedies where somebody has inserted thumbtacks into the tips of the poor defenseless hammers. Since a hammer is essentially a piece of felt bent over wood at a tension of over 60 psi, the tack will likely split the felt in a short time, leaving only the wood exposed. Then, either the wood or the still-inserted tack will break the strings due to the hardness.

Use of a mandolin rail is a non-permanent method described in some detail as is a different than normal tuning.

This (alternative tuning) was most commonly used by artists such as Billy Rowland and Dick Hyman (both as “Knuckles” O’Toole), Winifred Atwell and Del Wood.

It should be stated that the author is not a fan of any of the above methods and likes his pianos normal.

There is much more to Ragtime than Scott Joplin’s “the Entertainer” , immortalized in the Robert Redford movie “The Sting” in 1973. The Entertainer rag dates back to 1902.

Introduction to the Wikipedia Ragtime page:

Ragtime (alternately spelled Rag-time) is an originally American musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1897 and 1918. Ragtime was the first truly American musical genre, predating jazz.It began as dance music in the red-light districts of American cities such as St. Louis and New Orleans years before being published as popular sheet music for piano.

In the 40s jazz bands started to include ragtime, leading to some ragtime versions on the old 78 RPM records. A bigger revival occurred in the 1950s.

The Wiki article conclusion:

Ragtime has been seen by some critics as an important influence on American music in the 20th Century.[5] Ragtime (with Joplin’s work in the forefront of the movement) has been compared to an American equivalent of minuets by Mozart, mazurkas by Chopin or waltzes by Brahms.[9] Ragtime influenced Classical composers including Claude Debussy, and Igor Stravinsky.[10]