[pianotech] Old can of worms (was Re: tunelab vs verituner)

[Duaine Hechler]

Not to deliberately belabor this point, but answer me this;

99.9% of my tunings involve MAJOR pitch raises. With aural tuning ONLY, how in the "sam hill" can you do a MAJOR pitch 
raise in less than 2 hours.

Now let's see - that involves setting the temperament, PRESUMABLY, at the same time, calculating stretch, tuning each 
note, tuning the unisons, etc Oh, yeah, do your "precious" aural tuning checks, but, wait, the piano is constantly 
moving because it was so out-of-tune, but some how you are still supposed to do them, how I will never know. Starting 
from the middle, tune up and tune down AND with the piano still moving along the way. So now you some sort of BASE 
tuning, so now you have to go back and "tweak" BUT, again, the piano is still moving, so you have to, maybe, tweak again 
and again and again, etc. Have I forgotten anything ?

Now, with an ETD (like, Cybertuner (because that is what I have)), you capture the "starting" point of the piano with 
all the A's; IT calculates the proper pitch of the note where it is supposed to be - factoring in, automajically, the 
stretch and you tune from note 1 to note 88. Now, do some MINOR checking, which you MIGHT need to make some MINOR 
tweaking. And, now you are DONE.

Stepping back out of your CURRENT life and as a NEW tech coming into the business, you would pick the ETD route. So did 
I, like millions of other techs.

So there - "put that in you pipe and smoke it"

Duaine

On 05/10/2012 07:57 AM, David Renaud wrote:
> I did not at all suggest I had an engineering degree, I have a music degree.
>
> I was addressing the comment previously made by someone else suggesting that having to take today's tuning Test was 
> like asking to take an engineering exam with only a slide rule and pencil.
>
> My hope was to point out that the apology is not good because:
>
> 1)Indeed, you actually can use technology for large parts of the tuning exam.
>
> 2)  The aural part is primary to demonstrate that a candidate actually does know some aural test.
> In this interest, The margins of error are very larg, and this part is not to produce a concert level tuning at all, 
> but a minimal standard. Most of the people I have seen fail this part knew practically no aural checks tests 
> whatsoever. Forget executing tests well ,the problem was so many do not have the information at all. It is a test of 
> demonstrating a minimal knowledge of aural tests.
>
> 3) the exam process does have a written part before qualifying to take the tuning exam. As you suggest should be, is 
> indeed, Questions Regarding partial, harmonics, and stretch are part of the written exam.
>
>     So my point was only that the analogy with the slide rule is not valid. And my discussion was intended to point 
> out that a fair comparison would be an exam where the candidate would be
> Expected at some point in the exam to demonstrate some minimal manual mental calculations and knowledge without 
> referring to the computer/devise.   In my opinion the aural component of the tuning tests does this minimal 
> demonstration of aural testing knowledge for it has generous margins of error, and anyone with basic knowledge and 
> practice of a 3 or 4 Interval tests can achieve passing at the 80% level. The problem I have seen so often in the exam 
> room with the aural part is mostly lack of knowledge of any aural tests. It is indeed a demonstration of a minimal 
> standard, not concert tuning.
>
>     I have mentored enough experienced tuners through assimilating basic aural skills to have an opinion. ALL of them 
> say it opened up a whole new world to them. All of them appreciated and valued the added techniques. You do know that 
> none of the examiners get remuneration for the
> Hundreds of hours they have spent training for and being in the exam room? To give that much
> Free time you have to have a spirit that really desires to give back. These people want others to succeed, and have 
> put their time and money behind their words giving thousands of dollars worth of time because they do care. One CTE I 
> respect very much asked me once."if we will not preserve Something of the aural tradition, who will? "
>         There is value there. There are people that care and give there.  The aural part
> Deserves respect.
>
>                                              Cheers
>                                                Dave Renaud
>
>


-- 
Duaine Hechler
Piano, Player Piano, Pump Organ
Tuning, Servicing&  Rebuilding
Reed Organ Society Member
Florissant, MO 63034
(314) 838-5587
dahechler at att.net
www.hechlerpianoandorgan.com
--
Home&  Business user of Linux - 11 years