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

[Fred S Sturm]

On Mon, 15 Oct 2007 08:44:24 -0500
  "rwest1 at unl.edu" <rwest1 at unl.edu> wrote:
   A
>complete tuning, for  example, sounds good as a goal for 
>a testing standard, but  implementing that seems to hark 
>back to the good ole boy days.
> 
> Richard West, retired (more or less)
> 
Just to hone in on this particular remark, I guess that on 
the surface the draft caut tuning test may seem like the 
"bad old tuning test," but in reality it is a completely 
different animal. FOr one thing, it has very definite 
parameters and will have very definite objective scoring. 
Not a subjective "this sounds good/bad" but measurement of 
an objective kind.

The focus is on unisons and stability. I remember 
starting, over 20 years ago, at the university, feeling 
pretty good about my tuning skills. Hadn't I passed the 
RPT test with flying colors? DIdn't I know every test and 
partial in existence? COuldn't I parse the difference of a 
gnats eyebrow in major third beat rate?

I soon found out that this wasn't where my reputation 
would come from. Other piano techs might be dazzled by my 
supposed virtuosity, but anyone in the audience, or any of 
the musicians playing, would focus right in on that one or 
two strings I hadn't quite got nailed down, or those one 
or two unisons I had given up on, claiming they had a bad 
false beat and couldn't be improved. THere are plenty of 
ways for us to excuse ourselves from nailing every single 
string and unison in a piano, but none of them matter to 
our public. All they hear is "It sounds out of tune."

Working as a caut also showed me how sloppy I was in 
everyday work tuning. What I thought was pretty darned 
good (considering the pitch changes I was doing and the 
time I was taking) didn't hold up that well over time. 
Following yourself the next month, the next week, the next 
day is a real eye-opener.

I firmly believe that the current PTG test gets people 
worrying far too much about parsing those major third beat 
rates, and far, far too little about crystal clear 
unisons, and nailing down every string so they are rock 
solid, done on every single string of every single piano 
every single time. That is the true skill of piano tuning, 
IMO. Until you have that skill, the rest really doesn't 
much matter. Because it won't show up in the finished 
piano through the fog of messy and unstable unisons.

Can you tell I am passionate about this? Yes I am. And I 
will continue to be as long as I am involved in this work 
and in this organization. I think we have the opportunity 
here to place the emphasis on unisons and stability that 
should have been there all along. The caut test can be a 
supplement to the current test, not a competitor, and one 
that fills an enormous gap.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico