Ron Nossaman wrote: >=================== >> The question might be asked whether a different set of three techs doing >>the Master tuning on that piano would arrive at a different Master tuning ??? >=================== >>Jim Bryant (FL) > >Now THAT'S a fine question. A "tune off" between three different groups of >CTEs, recorded from the same piano (naturally) and the widest divergences >being scored like an RPT exam against a master tuning. Anonymity assured. >Oh, I like this. Any CTE volunteers for KC? Dale, can this be done???? > > Ron I don't know that there would be too many volunteers for doing master tunings that were not actually going to be used to give the exam. My attitude is that no piano tuner ever declared a tuning perfect unless he himself participated in it -- which means, of course, that there would be differences if two different teams tuned the same piano. Based on various ETSC records, master tunings on different pianos of the same model usually score in the 90's with each other. But it doesn't matter, and perhaps an experience we had at a convention exam center a few years ago will be a good example of why the differences don't matter. By the way, I _really_ wish that these tunings were called "reference" tunings, not master, because reference is the function they serve. Examinee tunings are scored against the reference tuning and notes that may have been mistakenly tuned by the examinee are recorded. Notes with possible mistakes are checked by the examiners and if the mistakes can be heard, then mistakes are scored as such. A few years ago we had unusually adverse climate in the convention exam rooms which were in regular hotel meeting rooms rather than the usual sleeping rooms. The temperature of these rooms was grossly unstable. We all did the best we could under the circumstances. My team did a master tuning that was somewhat more stretched than the team next door did on a piano of the same model. The differences were not insignificant. During the week an examinee came in and did a relatively widely stretched exam tuning on the piano next door that had been tuned relatively narrow for the master. When the exam was scored, _many_ mistakes were suggested by the raw scoring, but when the notes in question were actually checked, few mistakes were found, and the examinee scored highly, and deservedly so. The tuning exam may not be perfect, but it may be closer to perfect than it is often given credit for. Kent Swafford
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC