Sufficent light/was: The needed quiet... Ron N.

[Paul]

Ron

Well said!

Paul Chick
----- Original Message -----
From: Ron Nossaman <RNossaman@KSCABLE.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 05, 2000 7:53 AM
Subject: Re: Sufficent light/was: The needed quiet... Ron N.


> >As for cranking out tunings...  I know it's the piano technician's "bread
> >and butter".  But I've been thinking if that's what this business is all
> >about, I think it's time to find a new profession.  I grow to hate it
more
> >each and every tuning.   <now where did that come from? that wasn't what
we
> >were talking about!>
>
> Hi Brian,
> Yea, that's the JOB part of the job, along with the paperwork and other
> administrative junk. I get through it in a lot of different ways. Here are
> a few possible considerations toward your survival on tuning days.
>
> I regularly go into neighborhoods that normally wouldn't let me past the
> gate, into half-million dollar houses through the front door just like a
> real person, walk into a half-acre living room, sit down at a $60,000
> piano, and I'm on my turf. That's kind of cool, in a perverse sort of way.
> I get the occasional wonderful surprise of meeting extraordinary people in
> quite unexpected places and circumstances. Once in a while, I get to be a
> hero. Once in a while, what I do is truly appreciated (try that in a real
> job) and I get the occasional chance to both extend and receive a genuine,
> no strings, non politically motivated kindness or consideration (try that
> too, while you're at it). Rarely, but memorably, I'll get a short
> performance from a pianist that's better at this than I will ever be at
> ANYTHING. I've always admired capability first, and that sort of thing can
> make my whole week. During the actual tuning, I don't have to be entirely
> there. Auto pilot is a wonderful thing, and tuning is a sort of strange
> phantasy world in the first place, at least it is to me. In those
> accumulated seconds between tuning events that need conscious
intervention,
> I can look the piano over and play "what if". I've also designed a lot of
> jigs and shop processes during the course of some otherwise uneventful
> tuning, and I'll stop and make notes or a quick sketch for when I get back
> into the real physical world of the shop. I'll notice some unusual design
> feature of the piano and spend a few minutes investigating and wondering.
> What the heck causes that awful string noise? Does it go away if I touch
> here, or here? Hey, I didn't realize this worked that way! I'll spend a
> dollar's worth of time a hundred times through the year in hopes of
> learning something that will save me that much in frustration and despair
> in that one nightmare service call. You know the one, where the fix was so
> obvious after you stopped looking where you knew the problem had to be and
> started thinking? That's a major problem with tuning, in my opinion. We
> tend to quit thinking and just serve our time running the internal
program.
> It doesn't have to be a day lost to just installing tunings and generating
> income though, it's possible to learn something and still have those
> satisfied customers and a fist full of checks to deposit. The people and
> the exposure to multiple minor educational opportunities are the closest
> thing to a tuning antidote that I've got.
>
> Next time you find "Tuning Funk" woolying up your brain cells, consider
> that lost soul in an aircraft plant fabrication shop, pushing a drill all
> day - every day, for thirty years. What kind of on the job educational
> opportunities does he or she have?
>
> Now get back to work.  <G>
>
> Ron N
>