[CAUT] Uniform Formal Education

[Carl Root]

It's hard for me to imagine how a piano technician's formal  
educational curriculum would be determined.  In 1972, I learned on  
the job, doing dealer prep.  Some things I was taught were truly  
bizarre - turn the capstans a quarter turn on all the new Acrosonics  
(no kidding).  Other things sort of worked but were grossly  
inefficient - F-F temperament: circle of fourths from A.  There were  
two things, however, that had positive long term benefits:  the  
hammer technique I was taught, and the opportunity (make that a  
requirement) to tune four pianos a day almost from day one.  I've  
seen technicians use a variety of grips and push/pull techniques that  
I can't imagine working efficiently for me.  Which one would we  
teach?  Doing four a day teaches speed first, assuming that accuracy  
will come with daily practice, worked for me, but can you set up a  
formal teaching environment that provides that kind of time and  
number of pianos for all students?

We've all been to classes where the instructor constantly tells us  
that "this technique works for me."  Are we hoping to get every  
technician to conform to one way of doing things, or is there a way  
to design this curriculum that allows each of us to try ten ways to  
approach a given task before we find the one that works best for us?   
The latter seems grossly inefficient, but most of us learned that  
way, I suspect, and wouldn't have wanted it to be any different.   
After all, this profession seems to attract a lot of independent lone  
wolves.

Carl D. Root, RPT

contract CAUT at a 35-piano school.