Tuners who don't play

[Avery Todd]

Jim, William, others,

>William;
> You have addresed a seeming paradox here........
>"they will express wonderment that their last tuner (or
>one they have heard of) did not play the piano, and ask how one can tune and
>not play."

   I have found, both thru experience and the thread I had going on the
piano and pianotech lists a few months ago, that the primary advantage in a
tuner being able to play is to make it easier to understand when a customer
is trying to explain something he/she doesn't like about the way the
instrument sounds or feels. Of course, this is more important when you are
dealing with a customer who actually plays rather than just being the owner
whose children are studying. As I'm sure most of you can testify, customers
can sometimes come up with,
shall we say, unusual ways of describing a problem.
   Another advantage, IMHO, is in the beginning stages of learning to tune.
I know it made it a lot easier for me when I first began to learn.
   I have known excellent tuners who didn't play, except for what they
needed in order to tune. But all in all, I think that being able to play
some can be advantageous to most tuners.

>  When a tech, who plays, tunes and regulates who are they tuning and
>regulating for ? (The tech or their customer?)  Who should the work be for?
>Does the tuning, regulating and voicing of a tech who plays jazz primarily,
>match the tuning, regulating and voicing of a tech that plays Chopin
>primarily ?

   To me, this gets into the area of personal preference of the customer.
There are certain fairly well-accepted boundaries of what constitutes a
well-tuned, regulated and voiced piano (octave stretching, notwithstanding
:-) ). Beyond that, yes, within reason you should try to satisfy the
customers wishes, not
the tech's.

>Jim Bryant (FL)

   Just my $0.02.

Avery

_____________________________________
Avery Todd, RPT
Moores School of Music
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204-4893
713-743-3226
atodd@uh.edu
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