There were also colleges and assisted living homes. During the busy season he said he could work on about three dozen a month. Mudge also tuned pianos on cruise ships in Boston and New York. “And do anywhere between five and seven pianos a day, six to seven days a week.” He could start at a high school – maybe in Wellesley or Brookline – then Mudge might head over to a private client, hit a recording studio, a church, maybe a hotel, “and then I'd usually end my day at one of the jazz clubs or both the jazz clubs,” he said. It would've been one of many stops in a typical work day for Mudge that often began at 6 a.m. Before the pandemic he made the trip from Hyde Park once or twice a week. Mudge hadn't tuned the gleaming Yamaha since December because there haven't been many sessions on Wellspring's books. She was on her way to record a video performance. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)Īt the studio Mudge worked to get the piano ready for Boston jazz pianist Yoko Miwa. Fred Mudge has tuned pianos everywhere from Fenway Park to local jazz clubs. His only performance tuning job was outdoors in October for a Wynton Marsalis show at the Yarmouth Drive-In. And if you get somebody that's really hitting hard it's going to throw the piano considerably out of tune.”īut Mudge hasn't set foot inside a music venue in more than a year. “They have four strings or six strings – I have 230. They're tuning in between pieces of music that they play,” he said. “The guitarist gets to tune in between songs. Mudge would hang back, at the ready, throughout Corea's performances – just in case. You can have a great piano not prepared well and it's a dog.” “You know the piano technician is like 80% of the piano. “I got a real nice piano, and a real good piano tuner, so we're good this week,” Corea told the audience. Since the early '90s he tuned for the late Chick Corea who praised Mudge during a show at Scullers Jazz Club. Over the years Mudge toted his tool kit to venues big, medium and small including TD Garden, Fenway Park, the House of Blues and the Berklee Performance Center. Also for piano legends like Billy Joel, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Emanuel Ax and Dave Brubeck. Mudge has prepared instruments for concerts with big name musicians including Paul Simon, Aretha Franklin, Peter Gabriel, James Taylor, Carole King and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. “You get it close and you can always make it better.” Fred Mudge uses a tuning hammer to tune a Yamaha C7 piano. “As you can see it's a circle of refinement,” he explained while slowly moving from the low keys on the board to the high. A long strip of soft red felt muted the other tightly wound wires inside a black Yamaha grand until it was their turn for Mudge's adjustments. On the day we spoke Mudge was meticulously tweaking strings with his tuning hammer at Wellspring Sound Studio in Acton. “Three things throw a piano out of tune,” he explained. His name is Fred Mudge and he's been a piano technician, fulltime, for about three decades. Today we meet someone who's something of a barometer for the battered live music industry in Boston. This month we've been asking them about their experiences for our series “The Creative Grind.” (Jesse Costa/WBUR) This article is more than 2 years old.įrom performers to painters, artists of all genres have endured an economic year like no other. Fred Mudge uses a tuning hammer to tune a Yamaha C7 piano at the Wellspring Studio in Acton.
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