PTG Technical Exam action models

[Billbrpt@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 4/11/99 12:47:01 PM Central Daylight Time, 
kenrpt@mail.cvn.net writes:

<< My take on this is that regulating an action model well is no guarantee
 that you can do a good job on an entire piano, but not being able to
 regulate an action model well 'is' a guarantee that you 'cannot' do an
 entire piano well.
 Ken J.
   >>
That's about it.  The exam isn't perfect.  It's an exercise.  If the 
applicant had to use an actual piano, there would be too many factors to 
control.  It would be too difficult to provide each examinee with an equal 
and standardized challenge and disadvantage.

The tuning exam has similar pitfalls.  You'd virtually never find a piano 
which is naturally out of tune the way you fined the exam piano *detuned*.  
This perplexes some people but those with sufficient skills have no problem 
with it.  Also, your tuning is judged for accuracy and stability on only one 
string of each note.  Your unisons are only tested for 2 octaves in the 
middle and all that matters is their beatlessness, not their stability or at 
which pitch they eventually end up.

  Many people also complain that tuning the 7th octave in 2:1 octaves as 
required by the exam is actually inappropriate.  This portion of the exam is 
under scrutiny at present and may eventually be changed but all of the other 
aspects that make the exam circumstances quite unlike an actual tuning event 
will probably not be changed.

Yet, it is the very best system any piano technician's organization has ever 
come up with. 
Your observation about the technical exam could easily be applied to the 
tuning exam but there are still people who earn their living tuning pianos 
and who have attempted the exam, sometimes even a few times and fallen short. 
 Perhaps they find the exam circumstances intimidating and really don't end 
up with something as good as what they usually do.  Sometimes, their unisons, 
stability and octaves are above standard but there is enough variation in the 
temperament octave or the initial pitch that it causes them to not pass.

I've always encouraged people who have tried and not passed to not give up 
and have often seen them eventually pass.  Those individuals often go on to 
do very well, having been shown how there is much more to learn and no need 
to stop.

Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin