I once performed on a piano in the basement of a church that had been through a flood. The damper was broken and the bass notes rang out like the sustain pedal was continually held down.
It was not possible to perform on this piano.
The lower third of the piano sounded like, "A sea of mud."
What to do? The concert was in half an hour and the piano was broken.
Solution:
Duct Tape! I got duct tape from my car and taped over the strings just above the dampers. This prevented the strings from "ringing out" and sounded very percussive -- perfect for boogie woogie. I performed on the modified piano and everything went as well as could be expected.
copyright(c)2015
William Schaeffer
This was in the early 1980's at the Red Herring coffee house in the basement of the Unitarian Universalist church in Urbana, Illinois.
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