"should I stay or should I go?"

[Kent Swafford]

On Nov 12, 2004, at 12:02 AM, David Skolnik wrote:

> The point is, SOMEONE has to teach these people.  If I (or you) don't 
> tell them, why SHOULD they know better?

You are right. My position is indefensible. But it is my position, 
nevertheless. I wonder how many of those people that you successfully 
shooed away will ever be faced with the same situation again. Next time 
it is likely to be different people making noise and needing to be 
educated. This is the piano tuner's existential dilemma, as far as I 
can see. We can suffer (the noise) in silence, or we can suffer the 
humiliation of having to ask for quiet. Suffering in silence involves 
no break in tuning, and doggedly continues the progress toward a 
finished tuning.

Last weekend I tuned for Olga Kern, the Cliburn gold medalist. I had 
prepared one piano in ideal conditions, but there was a last minute 
change of pianos. I had half an hour to bring the other piano up to 
pitch and tune it at the last minute while chaos reigned in the hall. 
Impossible. But as far as they know, I did it, and the reviews of the 
concert were raves. Maybe I was able to do that because of the 
experience I have tuning in adverse conditions. ?

Kent