First he removed all the hammers, along with the wooden frame. The hammers of a piano are made of densely compacted woollen felt and should be neither too hard nor too soft in texture. Too hard and they produce a tinny tinkling sound; too soft and the sound is stifled. The final step in adjusting the voicing is to rub the hammers down with a fine file or adjust their elasticity by piercing them with a needle.

It’s a very precise operation and hard to get absolutely right. There are certain spots to file down or pierce, and you only learn these by feel. You file down or pierce with a needle, concentrating on the type of sound you’re aiming for – and each and every piano, each and every hammer, is different. It’s a laborious and time-consuming process. If your hand slips, you can ruin a hammer. It’s tense work, but as I watched Mr Yanagi’s deftness of touch, it looked enjoyable too. Satisfying. How wonderful it would be to create a sound like this myself one day. To discover the unique personality of a piano, take into consideration the individual qualities of the pianist, determine the sound they prefer, and then create that very sound.

The voicing Mr Yanagi found in the instrument was enchanting. Never one for gaudiness or show, he came up with a light and delicate tone.

‘Oh, how delightful that sounds!’ The tuning was finished, and the lady smiled sweetly at what she heard. ‘It’s perfect – look, the whole room is bright and cheery again.’

I was happy to see the old lady so pleased, even though I could take none of the credit. It’s a pure kind of happiness that a successful tuning brings – for the tuner as well as the client – not unlike the joy to be found in seeing wildflowers along the roadside in bloom.

‘You used the needle a lot, didn’t you?’ I asked this in the car on the way back to the shop. Mr Yanagi seemed a little exhausted, and had slumped down in his seat. ‘Is it because it hadn’t been tuned for so long?’

I knew I shouldn’t question him when he looked so weary, but I couldn’t help myself. I wished I could take notes, but of course had to keep my hands on the wheel, since I was always the one driving. There was so very much I needed to learn from Mr Yanagi.

‘You used the needle to get it back to the sound it had originally, I assume? What I mean is, were there lots of places in the hammers where they’d been pierced before? Even if you can’t see them, can you tell by touch?’