[CAUT] CAUT Endorsement (was Re: Job Opening, U. of Michigan, Ann Arbor)

[johnsond]

Hi-

Since we're just talking and having some fun imaging the 
possibilities-   I think it's appropriate to make at least one addition 
to that list.  One would be hard pressed to think of any profession 
where a member might be consider a "master"- and yet have experience 
with only one way of doing things.  So it is with piano tuning.  In 
addition to other skills as mentioned, a qualified CAUT not only should 
have adequate knowledge and of tuning theory, history and various 
styles- but also have the presentation skills to present these topics as 
requested, occasionally, to interested students or even faculty.  This 
small duty is actually listed in my job description. There were another 
2 students who came in yesterday asking about it.  That's all.......

thanks,

Dennis Johnson
St. Olaf College
_____________

Fred Sturm wrote:
> ...........
> To give a concrete example of where this may be heading, the skills 
> testing sub-committee, consisting for now of Don McKechnie, Ken 
> Eschete and myself, has developed the concept of a caut tuning test. 
> I'll quote here from our working document:
>
> "Our consensus is that we should test for the skill level appropriate 
> for a concert tuner. What does this mean? In simplest terms:
>
> 1) Concert tuners stretch octaves quite a bit (even to the extreme), 
> doing so in a very consistent way, demonstrating complete control. 
>
> 2) They can tune extremely stable unisons that are absolutely pure 
> with all three strings sounding.  
>
> 3) They can produce a concert tuning efficiently and rapidly, 
> generally in less than an hour (assuming a reasonable starting point).
>
>             "In addition, we believe that we should focus on the 
> concrete ability of being able to produce a full, quality tuning in 
> conditions as close to real life as possible. Does the candidate 
> actually have the chops to complete a full tuning and meet these 
> criteria? That is the question we want to answer before we can tell 
> academia that this person is capable."
>
> With that as the premise for a tuning test, our initial design is as 
> follows: 
>
>             "The candidate will tune a concert piano (7' to 9'), 
> complete, with a time limit of 90 minutes at a maximum. The piano will 
> then be checked for adequate and consistent stretch, stability, and 
> unisons."  
>
> The stretch component is a little complex to describe here, but it 
> involves measuring enough partials of enough notes to examine 4:1 and 
> 8:1 matches over the top and bottom octave or so of the piano, 
> flagging inconsistencies, and aurally verifying them. (It involves 
> Excel spreadsheet, and if anyone with knowledge and experience in 
> Excel would like to volunteer to help, we'd love to have some 
> assistance). The unisons/stability component involves 
> pounding/slamming the piano (all notes) in some way, and then checking 
> unisons. Samples of "suspect" (or obvious) unison deficiencies would 
> be flagged aurally, and then measured. The working notion is that the 
> spread of pitch within notes of a unison should be within 0.5 cents, 
> though that would have to be beta-tested.
>
> So there you have at least a taste of what we are up to. Hey, it keeps 
> us busy and out of other trouble <G>.
>
>
> Regards,
> Fred Sturm
> University of New Mexico
> fssturm at unm.edu <mailto:fssturm at unm.edu>
>
>
>