Tuners who don't play

[David ilvedson]

> Date:          Mon, 21 Oct 1996 10:42:31 -0500
> From:          ATodd@UH.EDU (Avery Todd)
> Subject:       Re: Tuners who don't play
> To:            pianotech@byu.edu
> Reply-to:      pianotech@byu.edu

> 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
> _____________________________________
>
>
>
William, JIm, Avery and List,

I usually have the other comment from customers, which is that
piano tuners usually seem to be good pianists.  My feeling is on
par with Avery, in that playing is an advantage when servicing
pianos.  To the customer, my relative expertice in playing the piano
seems to support, for them, that I know what I'm doing.  At the
end of a tuning, I can enjoy the tuning by playing a bit and that
draws the customer back to piano.  Often they haven't heard their
piano played that way and they invariably enjoy it.  I think the
communication aspect is another important factor.

There have been a lot of comments about for instance: "Would you
expect the lingeree salesman to wear lingeree?"  "Would you want
the airline mechanic to fly the plane?"  In my opinion the
answer is Yes!  Who is going to have a better understanding of women's
undergarments than a salesperson who wears them?  If I had the
choice I sure as hell would want my airplane mechanics to know
how to fly.  This is simply more information and understanding
of the machine/instrument.

Willem,

Your comment about after tuning 6 to 7 pianos not wanting to be
near one is pretty clear.  Your tuning to much!

If we ignore the music and the piano tuning then we are no more
than car mechanics



David ilvedson, RPT
Pacifica, CA