World Piano competition

[David Skolnik]

Shawn & Bruce -

Don't misconstrue anything I say here, as nothing 
is meant personally. It's all 
existential.  Exchanging war stories is fun, 
especially if it's not really war, and you 
survive.  Fortunately, I check for any recent 
posts before writing further and found Don 
Rose's, which, for the most part, concisely says 
what would have taken me much longer.
>Hi Bruce and Shaun,
>
>As long as technicians continue to accept vaguely impossible working
>conditions nothing will change. Just Say "NO".


But I think it's a little more 
complicated.  Clearly, there is some element of 
satisfaction gained by surviving.  As I said, war 
stories can be fun, in which case, the more 
challenging, the more suffering, the better the 
story.  The question is, what do you learn from 
the experience?  If the punch line of the story 
is about how much abuse you can endure without 
getting adequately remunerated, well OK, that's 
that story.  If you would do it again, that's 
another story.  What if, based upon your 
experience, you receive additional opportunities 
to experience similar abuse in ever new 
settings?  Well, at least you get to travel.

Just say NO has never been very satisfying to 
me.  Reality is usually much grayer than 
that.  If you hadn't accepted the job, someone 
else likely would have, and then they would have 
all the stories.  The frustrating irony is that, 
as we turn out better trained new technicians, 
and continue to maintain and upgrade our own 
skills, the value of that quality diminishes.  By 
embracing the challenge to do your best in, 
ultimately, arbitrarily negative circumstances, 
you are reinforcing the market dynamic in which 
the Competition is functioning.  If there are no 
complaints about the pianos, and if spending more 
(and making your conditions easier) would not 
garner them any tangible gains, then they are 
doing exactly what they're supposed to be doing, 
and they paid exactly what they should have.  So, 
next year, tell the story about what happened when you asked them to shape up.

On the other hand, as long as you are doing it, 
don't hold back if you have some good story 
material.  As I said, it's not at all personal.

Regards and good luck -

David Skolnik
Hastings on Hudson, NY




At 11:54 AM 7/10/2008, you wrote:
>
>Oh Bruce, Guess we just have to hang in with 
>them.  I think a lot of technicians are correct 
>when they tell us to "just say no"!  Guess I'm 
>to young and stupid for that!  I love concert 
>work to.  That don't help, and with concert work 
>a person is a glutton for punishment.  Any how, 
>thanks for being in the club with me!
>
>Shawn Brock, RPT
>----- Original Message -----
>From: <mailto:bppiano at aol.com>bppiano at aol.com
>To: <mailto:pianotech at ptg.org>pianotech at ptg.org
>Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2008 9:22 PM
>Subject: Re: World Piano competition
>
>Boy, do I hear you.  I've tuned for the recently 
>established Amatuer Pianist International here 
>in Colorado Springs for 5 years now.  We have a 
>nice Hamburg Steinway D for the stage.  However, the practice rooms
>are not scheduled for any attention this 
>summer.  I get about an hour prior to the first 
>event, and 15 minutes for lunch and other breaks 
>to touch up the piano.  Usually, a russian 
>pianist comes in for the final masterclass and 
>recital.  Usually, a few requests for regulation 
>adjustments.  Of course, everything must come 
>within their budgetary limits.  I guess misery 
>loves company.  Nice to know I'm not the only one doing this dance.
>
>Bruce Pennington
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Shawn Brock <shawnbrock at fuse.net>
>To: Pianotech List <pianotech at ptg.org>
>Sent: Wed, 9 Jul 2008 6:04 pm
>Subject: World Piano competition
>
>Yes, I said the World Piano Competition.  So for 
>anyone who might have been the technician at 
>this event in years past, you can laugh at me 
>this year!  I'm the sucker, OOPS, I mean 
>technician for this years competition.  I can't 
>say that no one warned me about how it has 
>played out in years past.  This year is much the 
>same, except I got paid for my first week of 
>work.  That's a step in the direction of 
>improvement I would say.  For those who are 
>lucky enough to have never come across this 
>event I will give you a short run down of what 
>its like.  Its a 2 week affair with the first 
>week being devoted to juniors under the age of 
>16.  They are all vary good and are thrilling to 
>listen to.  The next week is the more 
>competitive portion of this event, with everyone 
>battling it out on 1 S&S d.  Man can they pound 
>the hell out of a piano!  I have been lucky 
>enough to come in each morning and find the 
>piano in decent shape as far as the tuning 
>goes.  My time allotment is getting shorter how 
>ever.  When we started I could be in the hall at 
>7a.m, and they wanted me off the stage by 
>830.  Keep in mind that was for 2 pianos which 
>were in use for up to 10 hours.  This week I 
>only have 1 piano to worry about.  So with less 
>worries they decided to cut my time back.  I was 
>informed that I shouldn't inter the hall and 
>start before 9a.m.  "Oh, and could you be off 
>the stage by 930?"  What the hell are these 
>people thinking?  Don't get me wrong, often I 
>can clean up/tune a piano in 30 or 40 
>minutes.  I would not want said piano used for a 
>performance though.  If a piano is on pitch, I 
>like to have about 1 hour or 75 minutes to do 
>what I need to do, and that is not for a 10 hour 
>concert where the performers are possibly some 
>of the best new talent on the 
>planet.  So...  Guess I'l l just go and do what 
>I can do.  If the piano maintains its stability 
>as it has I should not have a problem.  Guess 
>I'm just complaining on principle here...  Not 
>to mention the fact that they cheated me out of 
>a tuning...  They don't want any of the practice 
>room pianos tuned.  Man, these things are so 
>badly out I don't see how anyone could stand to 
>play them.  I had to fix a sticking key for one 
>of the players, did that one for free as 
>well.  Well, he needed the note!  It should be 
>against the law for someone to bring these 
>people in and charge them all this money to 
>inter a contest where everything is so messed 
>up!  I hate the lack of accommodations for the 
>contestants.  That bothers me more than 
>anything.  Once I told someone that the reason I 
>chose to pick up the guitar as a kid was because 
>every piano I was around was out of tune and was 
>unplayable.  Oh, well, what do ya do?
>
>Shawn Brock, RPT
>
>----------
>The Famous, the Infamous, the Lame - in your 
>browser. 
><http://toolbar.aol.com/tmz/download.html?NCID=aolcmp00050000000014>Get 
>the TMZ Toolbar Now!
>
>No virus found in this incoming message.
>Checked by AVG.
>Version: 7.5.524 / Virus Database: 270.4.7/1543 
>- Release Date: 7/9/2008 6:32 PM

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20080710/5d3ce54b/attachment.html