I've been following the "Lookerson" thread with great interest because I'm ... one of them. As a youngster, I never missed a minute of the tuner's visit. I never said anything, but yes, I watched intently. My mother usually provided cookies and lemonade. After I left home, playing weekend gigs helped pay the way through college. My major was economics, not music, but I infiltrated the music school's practice rooms to work on my book. Later I switched focus to the guitar but as time went by I felt I needed a keyboard to help learn music theory. Because I moved frequently as a young man I needed something portable and contented myself with a Fender Rhodes (I talked a tuner friend into tuning it once during its 10 year history) and later with a Roland weighted midi-controller and a succession of synths; all selected for their approximate fidelity to a true piano sound. When my career matured and I could afford it, I bought a 6' Kawai Pramberger grand. I was never satisfied with it and went through a succession of tuners trying to get the sound I wanted out of it. One of those tuners is a distinguished contributor to this list. I would take time out from my professional work to sit quietly and read near the piano while it was being tuned. You see, I never caught on to the fact that y'all were listening to beats. It seemed like magic to me. Johnny Smith taught me to tune a guitar using harmonics but I never transferred that insight to piano tuning. I would listen very intently to each tuner trying to understand what made each one's tuning slightly different. In deference to a working professional, I didn't want to interrupt his work by asking questions. I wonder what they thought. Perhaps - "This guy doesn't have any life at all if he can sit there wasting time listening to me tune!" I've since significantly upgraded my piano because the sound I wanted just wasn't in it. It was a brave and honest tuner who broke the news to me. My curiosity began to overwhelm me to the point that I got serious about learning the craft well enough to tune my own instrument, (boy, that took longer than I expected). The more I learn, the more the craft intrigues me - I read these postings every day. The astounding generosity of certain members of PTG has provided me with steadily improving skill and a richly rewarding pastime. Of course, now the "magic" is gone but my respect for talented tuners has increased even more. I still haven't created a tuning that, as Ron Koval says "is right in the pocket." But one of these days ... Steve Lookerson -- "The masses have never thirsted after truth. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim." Gustave Le Bon from his 1896 book "The Crowd"
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