[CAUT] teaching piano tuning

[Mary Smith]

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Ed, Dorothy, and List,

Of course, North Bennett Street School offers a summer 2-week (I think 
that's the length) introductory class. I tend to agree with Dorothy - that 
Community Colleges are the place for introducing theoretical and practical 
piano tuning skills. And I like that PTG does have the beginnings of a 
fabulous program in the publications Ed mentions.

Also, I have just been introduced to the Guild of American Luthiers, a 
group not unlike ours, and I am happy to report that they have 
self-published into beautiful book format many of their technical bulletins 
from over the past 15 or so years. Many of the articles read like PTG 
articles. Very interesting.(info at <www.luth.org>)

The bottom line for me is that anyone who wants to pursue piano technology 
has a bit of a tricky road ahead of them, but the information IS AVAILABLE 
to those willing to seek it out.

Mary

At 09:56 PM 11/6/2004 -0500, you wrote:
>Well done, Dorothy!
>
>I think all of us extremist piano folks on this list can design such a 
>program; in fact your program hardly seems like more than a start.  What 
>about historic keyboard instruments, history of piano manufacture, 
>principles of conservation, piano performance and physiology, and the 
>psycho-physics of perception, psychology of human relations,etc.!!!!
>
>In practice, most of us are life-long learners in this field, and it would 
>take many years and thousands of dollars to create a curriculum that 
>equals our self-training.
>
>Which leads me to think that what is most needed is not a program that 
>finishes people, but rather one that gets folks off to a good start.
>
>For example, the PTG Field Repairs Guide, PACE Programs and RPT Exam 
>Guides would present a very good beginning curruculum, and the act of 
>learning this material and passing the RPT exams is a good introduction to 
>the skill of learning technical material.  It would be possible to turn 
>this material into a long distance learning course with summer residency 
>sessions, if one could find an institution willing invest in it.  If it 
>were heavily promoted through schools of music as a career option for 
>piano majors, the needed 12 or 15 students nationwide might sign up for 
>it.  A major problem would be that the teacher instituting the program 
>would be creating an amazing curriculum, and I'm not sure any school would 
>be willing to pay the start up costs.  (I am talking about something much 
>more intensive than a correspondence course.)
>
>Comments?
>
>Ed Sutton
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: <mailto:dabell58@earthlink.net>Dorothy Bell
>To: <mailto:caut@ptg.org>College and University Technicians
>Sent: 11/6/2004 5:40:22 PM
>Subject: RE: [CAUT] teaching piano tuning
>
>Dear Friends,
>
>I don't know a lot about technical colleges or community colleges, but I 
>do know a lot about 4-year colleges and universities. Yesterday I spend 
>some time starting to design a Bachelor of Sci/Arts program that I thought 
>I could get through a faculty committee.
>
>Here it is:
>     Joint program between Physics Department and Music Department 
> (requiring a vigorous liaison faculty member from each department)
>         Of the sixteen semester courses required for graduation,
>              the following five courses and one practicum are required:
>                 Physics, Introduction for Majors (with lab)
>                 Physics, Mechanics (with lab)
>                 Physics, Acoustics (with lab)
>                 Music, Elementary Theory
>                 Music, Literature of the Keyboard Instrument (two semesters)
>                 Piano Technician Program , practicum, (five semesters)
>             in addition, three courses chosen from the following:
>                 Music, Orchestral Literature
>                 Music, Chamber Literature
>                 Physics, Advanced Mechanics
>                 Chemistry, Introduction for General Science Majors
>                 Applied Mathematics
>                 Business, Introduction for Non-Majors
>             In addition, eight courses to meet college distribution 
> requirements and desired electives.
>
>So I finished with this and thought, I don't know all this stuff, I don't 
>think I need it in my piano buriness, but it would make a great major for 
>the two or three people in the US (world) who are interested. It would be 
>hard to push through the college because it would be tremendously 
>expensive (small courses, specialized instructors, lots of space 
>requirements), but I think that it is a viable academic program.
>
>But to get real, I don't think that the college level is the place for 
>piano tech as we now do it. We don't say things like, "In a study of four 
>different voicing techniques carried out on pianos otherwise identical, it 
>was found that . . . " unless we are Jim Ellis or some other thinker of 
>that ilk. We often say, "I tried such and so and it worked pretty well." 
>That's not the sort of experimental level that would fly for a four-year 
>major, in my opinion.
>
>But the tech college or community college might be a place for a more 
>applied program. My own piano training was at a trade school, so I'd be 
>curious to know what people from the community colleges think. (This same 
>argument has been going on for years concerning nursing programs: theory 
>or practical? Two-year or four-year or trade? It's a continual discussion 
>with, unfortunately, a lot of potential for hurt feelings.)
>
>So there you have it, pie in the sky from
>
>Dorrie Bell
>Boston, MA
>
>
>


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