Hearing Aids and Voicing

[Tom Myler]

> From: Maxpiano@aol.com
> To: pianotech@byu.edu
> Subject: Re: Hearing Aids and Voicing
> Date: Tuesday, March 11, 1997 9:33 AM
>
> Danny,
>
> I appreciated your information about hearing loss and our dealing with
> customers.  On one occasion I had to "kill" the hammers unmercifully on a
> Story & Clark console to satisfy a customer who subsequently moved into a
> retirement home and is now no longer with us.  I could not hear what he
> objected to, but I satisfied him.
>
> One question:  how to deal tactfully with aging customers when it seems
> necessary to point out that their aging ears are the source of the
problem,
> not the piano?  I have some ideas but wonder how y'all do it.
>
> Bill Maxim, RPT
> Greer, SC

I think how we word things can help.  For example, rather than say "Your
hearing is going because of your age",  I'll say something like "We all
experience some hearing loss as we get older".
Usually, it's an elderly client, commenting on "not much tone up there"
(last several keys).  Keeping in mind that I'm a young-looking 46,   I'll
lie a little and say that even at my relatively young age, those top notes
are starting to sound a little different to me too.   The idea being to
make them feel that it's not just them, that we're all in it together.

I have no idea if this works to make them feel any better or be more
receptive to the "bad news", but at least I tried.

Myler, Tom

"Perhaps the greatest wisdom is the knowledge
of one's own ignorance"

                                 John Steinbeck