---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment 'Chipping-up' has always been the bedrock of tuning training on the full-time courses here in UK. The first series of tests was the completion of a pitch raise in decreasing time scales. I really can't remember what the ultimate goal was, but it was probably something like 20minutes to raise the pitch a resonable amount using just a plectrum on a strung back. The guys who really perfected the technique were those who worked in piano factories and went through a phenomenal number of newly strung backs in a day. It was a very depressing sight to see a guy, often blind, sitting in often a smallish room with scores of strung backs stacked like library books beavering away non-stop. I would have thought that this has been the practice in USA in the past, before automated stringing in factories. However, there has always been a certain amount of controversy as to its real value to 'on the road' tuners. My own experience, and that of many tuners, is not having pefected a consistant and useful commercial speed using this technique. You have to be doing a lot of it for it to be time saving. I think most of us perfect our own way of action-in pitch raising. One of the initial values of 'chipping-up' in the college training system, however, is to quickly familiarise the new student with the geography of the strung back and to encourage a fast and confident initial approach to the whole business of tuning. It is acknowleged that this is an initial 'rough tuning' and there is no point in hanging about and getting neurotic about it being perfect. Just get on with it. Accuracy will develop with technique and experience. It really is an effective way of negating the over-cautious aspects in the personality of many beginner students. I wish I had appreciated this more when I did my own training. The previous post is right in saying that the PTA do not require a chipping test, and their standard test appears to be OK. My own experience of the PTA has been a mixed one, and although i have never been a member, I did attend some pretty good 3 day conventions in the 1980's. I would doubt though, that even now, their conventions have such a broad based character as the US ones. Ric ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/2d/05/c7/f3/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
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