Honky-tonk piano tuning

I recently got asked about honky-tonk piano tuning. Honky-tonk was a style that was extremely popular, on both sides of the Atlantic, from the early 1950s until the 1970s. Jim Hession gives a great explanation of it in this video from You Tube.

Popular exponents of this style in Britain included Winifred Atwell and Mrs Mills. The music was frequently played on pianos that had been specially tuned or treated in some way to give the impression of an old, out-of-tune upright.

The heyday of honky-tonk piano has long since passed so the question doesn't arise very much, but it is possible to achieve this effect using the following methods:

• What NOT to do: Sticking drawing pins in the hammers was a favourite old trick to give a tinny, metallic sound. This isn't a good idea for the future life expectancy of your piano - when the drawing pins are removed the holes soften the felt which will give a "cotton wool" effect to the tone of the hammers (rather like a very bad voicing), and if they're left in they can eventually end up splitting the felt so the hammer head falls apart.
• A few pianos were built with a "mandolin attachment" which consists of a piece of flexible material (normally felt) with metal tabs attached to the end of each one, which is inserted between the hammers and the strings (it would also be possible to install one of these manually if not already fitted). Although not as bad as drawing pins, this might still deform or damage the nose of the hammers in prolonged use, so at best should be employed sparingly.
• It's possible to treat the hammers with a hardening solution; this will give a brighter, harsher sound which is reminiscent of what happens when normal hammers become grooved through many years of use. This method won't cause any harm to the piano, but is irreversible unless you want to spend several hundred pounds having all the hammers replaced.
• Finally, the safest method is to ask a tuner to de-tune the unisons for you. Firstly a conventional tuning is carried out, then for all the bichords and trichords, one of the two or three strings is moved slightly out of tune (perhaps about one or two beats). "Subtle" is generally the better option here. This won't do any harm at all to your piano and is completely reversible at a later date (although you'll have to call the tuner again if you get fed up with it).

Personally I enjoy this type of music, although given the choice I prefer to hear it on a conventionally-tuned piano, or at least one where the honky-tonk effect is not too over the top.

To round off, here's a video of the wonderful Mrs Mills appearing with Eric & Ernie in 1971: