45 min tunings

[John M. Formsma]

Richard,

<<Doubtfull that most such tunings would pass the test, as for justifying
this... I have never met a tuner who doesnt assess and judge when to put
heart and soul into a tuning and when not to. Much depends on the quality
of the piano, how well its been kept (indirectly how much the customer
really cares about the instrument) and what the demands on the instrument
are likely to be. I wont go into this deeper but such tunings can still be
quite acceptable and indeed appropriate... and of course they can be the
opposite of these.>>

Thanks for your thoughts. I like what you said about putting "heart and soul
into a tuning." My personality is such that I want to do that with every
piano, but I know that it is not really practical. Since I have not yet
taken the test, I do not know what would pass. If I can arrange it, maybe I
can observe a master tuning at the convention.

<<Three years ago my tunings were quite uneven.. but these days I am getting
quite good indeed. I think the use of RCT and Tunelab has helped me quite a
bit, and subjecting myself to learning to tune to satisfy another tuner in
town has also been quite valuable.>>

I plan to get RCT this year. I have a SAT II, but think that the RCT is the
way of the future. One thing I have learned is that tunings can be
subjective--one person may do this, and another do that. Another thing I
have observed: don't criticize someone else's tunings! :-)) One great
benefit of RCT and SAT is that subjectivity comes into play less, and we are
able to objectively judge our own tunings by what is considered to be a
standard.

<<Stability has always been my strong point... a few pianos throw me from
time to time.. but for the most part they sit like a rock. I think this has
to do with the time I spend on usual tunings. I never use under an hour and
almost always am at about an hour and fifteen minutes for pianos that are
well out of tune to begin with. As I sell 1 & 1/2 hour time slots for piano
service instead of "tunings" this works well for me.>>

I typically take about 1 hr 20 min, but am trying to increase my speed. One
of the reasons I asked about stability was because I thought it difficult to
achieve good stability in 45 min or less. However, I am sure that it is
possible for those who have really worked on their technique. I have never
had any complaints about stability, so I guess I do OK.

John Formsma
Blue Mountain, MS