Elwood, Aurally tuning 30 Hamiltons in practice rooms is drudgery. But knowing that you can start with A0, be through in less time and move on without the struggle and fight of that aural temperament just makes your day easier. And if it's easier for 30 Hamiltons that means its easier for every piano. Also, you know the times when you have 45 minutes to go through the concert piano because you broke a string in the piano you were working on just before that and it made you late getting in the hall? You know how no matter how many times you've tuned this concert grand this month, some days you can just get hung up on something that doesn't seem to work out right in the temperament, so the aural tuning takes a little longer? Well, that doesn't happen with the ETD. You've got the confidence to know that 45 minutes is a gracious plenty time to get through that tuning and do a thorough job and the recitalist will be confident in it as well. One day I had an appointment with a church in Columbia for two spinets - a 35 year old Baldwin 500, I think, in the sanctuary, and a 60 year old Wurlitzer in the choir room. About the time I got to the church I realized I'd left my tools on a piano bench at my store in Lexington -- 20 miles back to where I'd just come from. But I carry a back up tuning kit and decided to do the tunings aurally, rather than reschedule the appoinment. I'm a pretty darn good aural tuner. My exam scores support that. But after 45 minutes into this Baldwin tuning, I was still trying to make the temperament into something acceptable and getting frustrated, because I knew whatever tuning errors I left in the temperament would expand throughout the piano and nothing would sound decent. It was getting late in the day and the music director was waiting for me to finish to lock the church back up. I wound up having to reschedule the Wurlitzer because it had gotten late, and the Baldwin had me brain-drained. The next time I was back at that church, I made sure I had my tool bag with me, including my SAT. The tuning went smoothly because I've done who knows how many of these with the SAT and know that the temperament doesn't work, but the rest of the piano surely does. It just makes our work and our quality of life better. Jeff ________________________________ From: Elwood Doss <edoss at utm.edu> To: caut at ptg.org Sent: Sun, April 11, 2010 11:50:42 PM Subject: Re: [CAUT] [SPAM] Re: using as ETD, was Re: Too tall!!?? Hi Susan, I'm with you all the way. It amazes me how many technicians who use the ETDs try to convince us aural tuners how wonderful they are. I tune aurally because I want to. Not because I'm afraid of technology, Wim. Its because I am enthralled with being able to begin with one pitch and tune the whole piano just using my ears and my intellect. I very much enjoy setting a temperament, then tweaking it to make it sound the very best I can. I like your wording, "interplay of intervals." I like tuning octaves and unisons and the checks used in octave tuning. I like what the piano sounds like when I'm finished. I don't care whether it's a Steinway D used on a concert stage or a Henry F. Miller spinet that is to be played by a beginning piano student. I put just as much effort in tuning one as the other. I like to listen to the finished product and realize that, starting from a single pitch source, I tuned that. Me...just me. No ETD, just me. If I started tuning at A1 and tuned up the chromatic scales to C88 using an ETD, then this shear joy would become work...drudgery...I don't care how fast I could tune it or how "relaxed" I might be at the end of the day. I'm sure there are plenty of piano technicians out there just like us, Susan. May our tribe increase! Oh, and Wim, am I afraid of technology? Well, let's see, I use a Sanderson Accu-Fork to get my A=440 pitch and to check how sharp or flat the piano is. Keeps me from having to have 3 hands. Nice technology! Joy! Elwood Elwood Doss, Jr., M.Mus.Ed., RPT Piano Technician/Technical Director Department of Music 355 Clement Hall The University of Tennessee at Martin Martin, TN 38238 731/881-1852 FAX: 731/881-7415 HOME: 731/587-5700 -----Original Message----- From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Susan Kline Sent: Saturday, April 10, 2010 11:59 PM To: caut at ptg.org Subject: [SPAM] Re: [CAUT] using as ETD, was Re: Too tall!!?? Importance: Low To each his own, Wim. It's true I haven't tried using an ETD myself, but I've watched tuning with one. It didn't look tempting to me. And I hate blinky lights and twitching little readouts. I sometimes even turn off overhead fluorescent lights because they bother me. But mainly, I like the direct contact with the piano, and the interplay of intervals. I just like the sounds. Anyway, enjoy your SAT IV. Susan -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20100412/c1d5a5e4/attachment.htm>
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