Wim, Thanks for your question. You asked about the reasoning behind my asking for compensation to the piano shop for unusual tunings. In my original post, I tried to provide the context for this request. Unusual tunings had been an indulgence, freely done, at the expense of time that COULD have been spent doing the usual chores. That time away from normal duties cannot be replaced. Also, there weren't any constraints on people's requests for unusual tunings (and some of these projects would take ten to twenty hours!). Add to the mix the fact that we were trying to come up with ways to increase the piano shop's budget. I hit on this approach as a "two birds/one stone" remedy, and the boss said yes! There is added educational value in that now, whenever someone thinks about using an alternate tuning, they have to check their wallet (budget) first. Out beyond the hallowed walls of academia, this is the hard reality. (In fact, there are venues where alternative tunings are not possible, budget aside.) Our new policy gets the students into a practical mindset where alternative tunings are concerned. Make sense? Alan Eder -----Original Message----- From: wimblees at aol.com To: caut at ptg.org Sent: Mon, 2 Feb 2009 7:49 pm Subject: Re: [CAUT] HIstorical temperaments and compensation -----Original Message----- From: reggaepass at aol.com To: caut at ptg.org Sent: Mon, 2 Feb 2009 12:08 pm Subje ct: [CAUT] HIstorical temperaments and compensation List, This past summer I had a long meeting with my dean. We covered everything from what I like and don't like about working here (all matters large and small) to additional funding for the piano shop and the prospects for enhanced compensation for yours truly. He responded well to many of my suggestions along these lines. One was that the piano shop start being reimbursed for any unusual tunings. Until now, this has meant alternative, modern tunings (anywhere on the spectrum from simply tuning one piano down 50 cents for quarter tone music to realizing original tuning systems). This service had been freely provided as an indulgence to the students and faculty, creating more of a burden for me without any extra compensation--the bad scenario articulated by Jeff Tanner. My dean has since agreed to compensation for the piano shop in exchange for any unusual tuning work. Here is how we have structured the procedure: Someone requests a non-ET/440 tuning; I make a binding estimate for how much time it should take; we multiply that times a wholesale private rate (i. e., less than I would charge someone privately, but more than what my salaried rate at the school comes out to per hour); they determine if/how it will be paid for, and we go from there. It turns out that the composition department, for example, has funds for "programming" which can be used for paying for al ternate tunings. This has been a positive development in that i t is a source of income for the shop while also serving as a, er, "consciousness raiser" for those who dabble in alternate tunings as part of their work. Alan Eder Alan I don't understand why you feel the piano shop needs to be reimbursed for unusual tunings. It would seem to me that is akin to bank executives wanting to get a bonus for the work they are doing in the first place. If you are employed full time by the school, then all work you do for the school, regardless of what it is, is part of your "job". One of the job descriptions at many schools is working evenings and weekends, for which most of us usually get extra time off during the week. But why the extra pay for doing unusual tunings? Do you also get paid extra for weighing keys, or other "unusual" action work? I'm not faulting you for asking for, and getting the extra money. Hey,if the dean is willing, why not?But I don't understand the reasoning behind asking for it in the first place. Wim You can't always choose whom you love, but you can choose how to find them. Start with AOL Personals. Great Deals on Dell Laptops. Starting at $499. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut_ptg.org/attachments/20090203/1324e106/attachment.html>
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