Clearly some of us do see a reason for why a Department Head of Piano Technology at a large university should have a working knowledge of music roughly corresponding to an associates degree... and some of the reasons give are quire well reasoned and argued. And I certainly will not accept what I think your analogy of a top-level commercial electrician is meant to say. First of such a technician IS required to know quite a lot. Electrical engineers I think they are referred to. As far as piano instructors needing to be RPT's. At the university level I'd go a long ways down that road. Certainly and by far the best pianists I have to work with are those who have made an effort to reach out to gain an understanding of OUR vocabulary. So yes... I think the road goes both ways. And tho I wouldnt say they need to be RPT's... I would most certainly recommend any music education curriculum to include some degree of music instrument technology knowledge if asked. Finally.. I seriously hope you didnt mean in your ending that anything about this discussion one way or the other should be chuckled at. To my mind there is far too much reliance on that kind of discussion technique in these kinds of discussions on this list or in any other forums as it is. Tho I do not agree with some of what Jeff Tanner has had to say, I have no doubt he is a very serious minded fellow and would not dream of reducing any of his argumentation to something deserving of any form of ridicule. Cheers RicB I don't see the need for a college degree for a CAUT, any more than for a top-level commercial electrician. And why would a CAUT need a music degree? Shouldn't piano instructors be RPT's, then? Yes, knowledge of music is helpful, moreso in specific situations, but you can regulate without knowing the structure of a sonata. Say this pithier and funnier for me, Ron N....
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