[CAUT] Barbie tuner, 106 trumps Accutuner

[Jim Busby]

True, true.

Well, maybe not the part "This is obviously a major stressor for him." He seems to be major GIVER of stress. Yesterday his accompanyist had a major row with him, and the day before the Conductor of the orchestra was upset with him to the point of leaving. Both directors of the conference are ready to strangle him.

You're right. I need to have compassion... (I certainly like it from other towards me!) Maybe the guy is mental or something. (I know I am ;-)

Regards,
Jim

From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Kendall Ross Bean
Sent: Saturday, July 26, 2008 12:49 AM
To: 'College and University Technicians'
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Barbie tuner, 106 trumps Accutuner

Jim, Jim~

When will you learn? ;-)

All you have to do is tune one measly piano, -and you can take a couple of hours (or more) to do it.

This poor oboe player has to tune 106 different musicians, all with different instruments, all at the same time. And he has approximately 30 seconds to do it (if that).

And you can bet every one of those 106 musicians is going to be razzing him, at some point, about his pitch being off.

Providing a perfect A440 is his job description. -Look how many folks are depending on him. -Sure he takes it seriously. If he doesn't he may lose his job. (And most oboeists are "Aural" tuners - they know nothing about ETD's or Accutuners!)  Ever wonder how oboe players get their pitch? -These "barbie tuners" are a relatively recent innovation. What did oboeists do before that, ever wonder? Do they have...  Perfect Pitch...  uh oh, don't go there....

(Most of your pianists don't even know when their piano is off-pitch. They couldn't do anything about it anyway, even if they wanted to (except to call you!) But instrumentalists, they have to be really concerned with intonation, it's a major issue for them.)

(That trumps your Accutuner. -Any day of the week. Did you know that when a pianist performs a piano concerto with an orchestra, the orchestral musicians-- --reluctantly-- --grudgingly-- --have to adapt/bend their usual intonation to accomodate the equally tempered piano? No wonder the oboist gets upset! And a lot of other musicians as well!)

You don't tune a piano differently when you know it is going to be used with an orchestra, do you.  -No, I didn't think so. Pianists, and piano tuners, can be so oblivious...  ;-)

Have some compassion for the guy. This is obviously a major stressor for him.

;-)

~Kendall Ross Bean
Piano&OboeFinders
-Connecting pianos and oboes

________________________________
From: Jim Busby [mailto:jim_busby at byu.edu]
Sent: Friday, July 25, 2008 2:34 PM
To: College and University Technicians
Subject: [CAUT] Barbie tuner
List,

I won't name the fellow, but at the International Double Reed Society conference here at BYU there is this "oboist" who is running around with this tiny guitar tuner complaining that all the instruments are off. He confronted me before one of his performances saying that the pitch of the Shigeru was not A440 but was A442. He said the Hamburg D was also A442 (Was supposed to be at A443). I told him I was confident the pitch was where it was supposed to be on both instruments and that maybe his small tuner was off. BAD thing to say! Boy was he mad! After his performance, when most the people were gone, the head honcho watched me measure the pianos. Less than 4/10ths of one cent off... (Dang! Will I ever learn to keep my pitch dead on?)

Funny, but almost all his high notes were extremely flat. Or maybe I'm just dreaming...

Jim Busby

p.s. Other than this unfortunate experience everyone else is very nice and complimentary.
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