All of this boils down to two things, time and money. When students are allowed to practice on concert and studio pianos, the tech doesn't have the time, and the school doesn't have the money, to properly take care of the instruments. The best way to CYA, is to document, as much as possible, what you do, and how much it costs. Let the proper authorities, namely the chair, the piano faculty, and other influential profs, know what will happen when students are allowed to practice on concert and studio pianos, and what will happen when you have to spend more time keeping them playing properly, at the expense of neglecting the other instruments. Then, when you are doing the necessary repairs, etc. on these instruments, document how long it took, what parts were used, etc, etc. Send copies of your daily schedule every day to all the above named people. Most of them have no clue what you really do,and how much time you spend taking care of the pianos. No matter how trivial the repair, or little time you took, document. For instance. 8:00 AM to 8:15, touched up new string in practice room 201, including the time to walk there and back. 8:15 - 8:45, removed pencil from practice room 205, including walking back to the shop for the tools. 8:50 - 11:30 tuned, voiced and regulated concert hall piano, including 5 minute bathroom break. 11:30 - 12:00 (including walk to the shop for tools and parts), to repair broken hammer in studio 300. $1.50 for hammer shank. 12:00 - 1:00 lunch. etc. I didn't do this at Alabama. I wish I had. Wim -----Original Message----- From: Jim Busby <jim_busby at byu.edu> To: caut at ptg.org <caut at ptg.org> Sent: Fri, Dec 4, 2009 8:01 am Subject: Re: [CAUT] studio pianos Dennis, others, It just makes sense to me that there should be practice rooms, and teaching studios. Beat the heck out of the practice room pianos and I understand it, but studio pianos, and CONCERT HALL pianos (for goodness sakes!!) should be kept as pristine as possible to allow artists and teachers to shine. It makes my heart sink when I find out that a teacher had to teach on a piano with a broken string, or several new strings that had sunk 30 cents or more. Maybe all teachers should open up their rooms and loan out their violins, celli, bassoons etc. to the students to practice. How would that be? You’re absolutely right. To compromise on some things would be professional suicide. I’m seeing that. And this wanting students to have free rein with the concert hall pianos is about all I can bear. I still love being a CAUT, but this is pushing my mind elsewhere. The policies we had worked. Regards, Jim From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Dennis Johnson Sent: Friday, December 04, 2009 10:35 AM To: caut at ptg.org Subject: Re: [CAUT] FW: Concert hall pianos On Fri, Dec 4, 2009 at 11:18 AM, Laurence Libin <lelibin at optonline.net> wrote: Let's be grateful that the students want to practice, and do everything possible to encourage them. They could instead be doing lots more destructive things. Laurence Indeed, we are here for, and because of, the students. Unfortunately though it's never that easy. The only reason we hear this sort of statement is because we uphold the standard. To be tempted with compromise of that standard is seen by us as an offer of professional suicide. d. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20091204/04db422a/attachment-0001.htm>
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