Let's cut to the chase was Re: Guidelines comments

[David M. Porritt]

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I'll bet that having any certification beyond RPT will have to have
Council approval and a note from our mother.  The only other
certification that exists now is CTE and they aren't allowed to
advertise that fact.  

dave
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On 6/13/2003 at 11:30 AM Jim Busby wrote:
Bill,
 
Great comments. That=92s exactly what we need to discuss. 
 
My first experience with the new CAUT guidelines and an administrator
was less than positive. He took one look and said he would rather
have a recommendation from the music people who understand the issue
more and could study the guidelines.  (I think the number of pages
bothered him=85Didn=92t want to look at it, even though he asked me
to get him a copy.) They indeed have their minds on other things.
 
We definitely need more clout, recognition, or perceived
qualifications. It will be a long term effort. I especially like the
idea of some kind of CAUT organization and accredited specialist. 
 
Jim Busby 
BYU
 
-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces@ptg.org] On Behalf Of
Bdshull@aol.com
Sent: Friday, June 13, 2003 9:53 AM
To: caut@ptg.org
Subject: Re: Let's cut to the chase was Re: Guidelines comments
 
All,

It's hard to know where to start in the middle of this thread - 

We need to address some of the other big problems which, when
addressed, will give the subject relating maintenance to longevity
more punch with our administrators..

Right now we don't have the attention of school administrators - with
some exceptions, administrators don't seem to have sufficient reason
or motivation to properly fund and staff for piano service.

The fundamental problem is that across the board we face an
institutional inertia.  Beyond the classic, intrinsic difficulty of
obtaining funds for rebuilding which can't seem to fit into the
budget model of new purchasing and annual maintenance is an even more
fundamental issue:  School institutions do not have the motivation to
address these issues.  Institutions - i.e. school, NASM, etc.  And
there is an institutional inertia on our side too.  

This year NASM was very clear in its correspondence with us:
administrators have too many other problems than to begin a dialogue
with us on piano maintenance.  They don't want to be saddled with
pressure to spend more on pianos and piano maintenance.  If that is
the position of the dominant accreditor of schools of music in the
US, I think we need to recognize the enormity - and importance - of
our task.  It involves a long-term commitment to:

developing accredited specialists in university piano service (i.e. a
CAUT curriculum within the Annual Institute and a CAUT creditial);

Actively, persistently promoting the properly trained CAUT RPT to:

  university administrators
  piano faculty
  state officials overseeing the establishment of criteria for piano
service personnel
  piano manufacturers, whose retailers increasingly determine the
choice of piano 
         service personnel at universities.

Continuing to provide documents (such as the Guidelines and the
ensuing companion documents, and other publications), as well as
dialogue (such as the CAUT list, the annual CAUT forum, and state and
regional CAUT events) to establish and develop a body of CAUT
knowledge and practice.

This is why we need to figure out ways of working with our own (CAUT
and PTG) institutional inertia.  The PTG is only beginning to realize
that university piano service is at the forefront of the marketing
work of the PTG.  There is no annual budget for marketing the RPT to
the university administrators, but the home office found funds for a
one-time mailer to administrators this last year.  This is the kind
of thing that needs to get into the consciousness of the efforts
being made to do long-range planning.  It is not just a marketing
issue, it is a training issue, a credentialing issue, a fundamental
issue of identity, even.  

The driving force dictating the selection of piano technicians at
universities is often related to the success of the retail piano
establishment with its college sales.  The retail side needs our help
in defining acceptable university piano service.

Surveys and studies need to be conducted, but they cost money and
require human resources.  One fundamental issue is, How many pianos
does a university actually need?  Many schools may be overstocked,
sometimes with high maintenance pianos (old unstable ones, or new
unstable ones).  How does anyone know if there are too many pianos?
NASM has no recommendations about this.  

I hope that we will develop numbers relating maintenance to
longevity, so that when the time comes that we have made sufficient
impact to be heard, the numbers will be there to use.

Bill Shull



In a message dated 6/13/03 7:29:53 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
dm.porritt@verizon.net writes:




Hammers are different, players are different, acoustics are different
(this affects how hard people will play it), people's opinion of
what's worn out are different, sound boards efficiency are different,
hammer bushings are different,......

A piano is either suitable for a purpose or it's not.  The artists
know, the technicians know and that's the criteria for doing
maintenance.  What we seem to be trying to do is to objectify the
criteria enough to explain it to the non-artist who controls the
money.  I frankly don't think that can be done.  Either the artist
has credibility with the non-artist or he doesn't.  I don't think
this can be reduced to an auditable data stream.  Further, our
failure in this attempt will weaken our credibility.

dave
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

On 6/13/2003 at 3:53 PM Richard Brekne wrote:



I aggree with this Wim. These questions should have reasonable
answers, and they would be valuable to be able to put on the table
when dealing with admin folks. I just put a brand new set of hammers
on a Hamburg C in October. The instrument has been used on average 5
hours a week since then. Just two weeks ago I had no choice but to
file down a bit as the grooves were 2 mm deep already. These were 1/2
high Strike Weights. We all throw in data like this to a central data
base.. and those answers will reveal themselves. All we need is way
of archiving the information so it is easy to arrange in meaninful
ways. RicB Wimblees@aol.com wrote: 


IBean counters not withstanding, this is still a question I would
like to have answered. Airplanes fly a certain number of hours before
they are reconditioned and eventually put in the graveyard out in
Arizona. We get a maintenance schedule for our cars. But what are
some guidelines for pianos? How many "hours" of playing do a set of
hammers get before needing to be replaced? How many times can we
restring a piano in the original pin block. When does a soundboard
need replacing? How many times can a piano be rebuilt, with a new
soundboard and pin block and strings? Last year this subject was
talked about briefly, but I don't think we ever got a definitive
answer. I realize these are all questions with lots of answers, based
on usage, climate control, budgets, etc. But this is the kind of
information that would be useful, even to techs out in the field. Any
one want to give some answers? Wim 
  




-- 
Richard Brekne 
RPT, N.P.T.F. 
UiB, Bergen, Norway 
mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no 
http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html 
http://www.hf.uib..no/grieg/personer/cv_RB.html 

**************** END MESSAGE FROM Richard Brekne
********************* _____________________________
David M. Porritt
dporritt@mail.smu.edu
Meadows School of the Arts
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, TX 75275
_____________________________
 
**************** END MESSAGE FROM Jim Busby ********************* 
_____________________________
David M. Porritt
dporritt@mail.smu.edu
Meadows School of the Arts
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, TX 75275
_____________________________


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