On Mon, 15 Oct 2007 08:44:24 -0500 "rwest1 at unl.edu" <rwest1 at unl.edu> wrote: A >complete tuning, for example, sounds good as a goal for >a testing standard, but implementing that seems to hark >back to the good ole boy days. > > Richard West, retired (more or less) > Just to hone in on this particular remark, I guess that on the surface the draft caut tuning test may seem like the "bad old tuning test," but in reality it is a completely different animal. FOr one thing, it has very definite parameters and will have very definite objective scoring. Not a subjective "this sounds good/bad" but measurement of an objective kind. The focus is on unisons and stability. I remember starting, over 20 years ago, at the university, feeling pretty good about my tuning skills. Hadn't I passed the RPT test with flying colors? DIdn't I know every test and partial in existence? COuldn't I parse the difference of a gnats eyebrow in major third beat rate? I soon found out that this wasn't where my reputation would come from. Other piano techs might be dazzled by my supposed virtuosity, but anyone in the audience, or any of the musicians playing, would focus right in on that one or two strings I hadn't quite got nailed down, or those one or two unisons I had given up on, claiming they had a bad false beat and couldn't be improved. THere are plenty of ways for us to excuse ourselves from nailing every single string and unison in a piano, but none of them matter to our public. All they hear is "It sounds out of tune." Working as a caut also showed me how sloppy I was in everyday work tuning. What I thought was pretty darned good (considering the pitch changes I was doing and the time I was taking) didn't hold up that well over time. Following yourself the next month, the next week, the next day is a real eye-opener. I firmly believe that the current PTG test gets people worrying far too much about parsing those major third beat rates, and far, far too little about crystal clear unisons, and nailing down every string so they are rock solid, done on every single string of every single piano every single time. That is the true skill of piano tuning, IMO. Until you have that skill, the rest really doesn't much matter. Because it won't show up in the finished piano through the fog of messy and unstable unisons. Can you tell I am passionate about this? Yes I am. And I will continue to be as long as I am involved in this work and in this organization. I think we have the opportunity here to place the emphasis on unisons and stability that should have been there all along. The caut test can be a supplement to the current test, not a competitor, and one that fills an enormous gap. Regards, Fred Sturm University of New Mexico
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