45 min tunings

[Ron Nossaman]

Hi John,
Though it sounds kind of backward, the going over a piano twice thing
really is a good way to get your tuning speed up, whether you ultimately do
single pass or double pass tunings in the field. I stumbled onto this all
by my lonesome back when I was staring at White's book and trying to figure
out what the heck a fifth was. Since then, I've suggested it to everyone
who complained about being too slow, and every single one of those who
actually tried it confirmed that it really helps. The problem I was having,
as do most other relatively new tuners and/or perfectionists, was in trying
to work out everything I could hear, at every level, down past the
subliminal, and into the realm of imagination. Beyond a certain point,
you're chasing phantoms. 

My suggestion was, and is, to make one pass over the piano as fast as you
can move. Don't stop to make that fourth perfect, or diddle that thirds
progression into ultra smoothness, or any such thing. Literally THROW a
tuning at the piano. Then check it out to see what you did. You'll be
surprised how close it is. Now, make another pass just as fast as you did
the first one, somewhat refining what you did the first time over. Check it
out again and touch up anything you find a problem with, if you can find a
problem. Apply the lessons learned to the next piano. Repeat as necessary.

The problem is what Conrad mentioned as the law of diminishing returns.
Whatever you do, you can't tune past the resolution of the instrument any
more than you can put five quarts of water into a gallon container, and
you're wasting time attempting to on every tuning. The once over roughly
approach is the approximate equivalent of pouring a little at a time into
your gallon container until you ascertain it's capacity without wasting
water. Once this concept soaks in (sorry <G>), you learn to anticipate the
requirements and capacity of the instrument up front, and begin the tuning
with a certain level of expectation as to the results. It's tuning triage.
Sometimes, a perceived dog will yield a prettier tuning than you ever
expected and you have to shift gears a bit and give it it's due. The
opposite is also true. Consider the number of posts on the List about
tuning problems with what are automatically presumed to be high quality
pianos because of the names on the fallboards. That problem is the result
of judging the instrument by some criteria other than the reality of that
particular instrument. I suspect that those who say they don't have these
problems with these pianos are simply adjusting their expectations to
reflect the capacities of the instruments, and meeting them half way in a
reasonable compromise. You have to judge and meet, but not waste any more
time than necessary trying to exceed, the requirements and capabilities of
each instrument you tune. There isn't a "one size fits all" approach, and
that's the hard part to make your peace with.

After you get this part out of the way and become comfortable with the
faster tuning, you can cheerfully beat yourself up as much as you like on
whatever infinite series of refinements you care to pursue (don't we all,
in one way or another). The thing is though, you'll probably be doing it in
under an hour. After that, you're on your own.

Ron N