[CAUT] CAUT Endorsement

[Ted Sambell]

Re: [CAUT]  CAUT EndorsementFifty years ago I worked closely with a piano duo. They eventually signed with Colombia Artists and toured, giving Community Concert performances. They told me they were lucky to have good tunings more than once in four times. This is no longer true; one rarely hears poor tuning on the radio, and standards are far higher now. If one reads old Journals from those days, the articles are far less sophisticated than today. This is indeed a career which has pulled itself up by its own efforts and can largely be credited to PTG. Even those good technicians who choose not to join have benefitted, if they are honest enough to admit it, as equipment , sevices, resources of many kinds, which would never have developed without PTG, have filtered out into the field. The RPT exam represents a goal, and without goals there is no progress. It may not be perfect, but improvement is attained by building on what went before, not by discarding the past. It is true that having a qualification is no garauntee that someone is performing at a high leve, which might be more due to a character flaw; (there is a saying that  "a turkey with a PhD is still a turkey"). but  it is a step on the way and a prime motivator. It doens't matter how experienced or capable one is, one should never rest on their laurels. Lifetime learning is truly one of the joys. As many of you know, I taught the Piano Technician Program at George Brown College in Toronto. All new instructors were required to take teacher training, at the end of which  each person had to give a videotaped teaching practicum, which was then givien a very humbling critique. I learned at least a few pratical teaching techniques which could probably be formed into a pamphlet or booklet for prospective instructors at Convention classes. Teaching in school is not quite the same, but there is a lot of common ground. My teaching style was much like that which Cy described of Dave Betts, that is, to expose students to as wide a range of methods as possible. But one has to make a decision on what is to be taught, and how. For instance, there are so many ways of tuning the temperament, all valid, so the choice of what to teach comes down to one which meets the criterion of proven methodology. Students learn at a different pace, and it is vertually impossible to keep them all in lockstep too. I found teaching took an enormous amount of energy, but very rewarding. Some of my graduates told me later that even more than the technology they learned was the attitude they gained. Methodology changes, good attitudes are constant.

Ted Sambell


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Porritt, David 
  To: College and University Technicians 
  Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 10:44 AM
  Subject: Re: [CAUT] CAUT Endorsement


  Eric:

   

  I agree with about all that you’ve said below.  I’m just not sure how a test can be created that will truly test the skills that a successful CAUT will need.  This is especially true since so many jobs are so varied.  I wish you success in your efforts to create a test.  Perhaps I’m just not creative enough to see how it’s going to happen.  I can envision a test for minimum skills – i.e. a person who can’t pass this test has no chance at a successful CAUT career.  But moving to the other end of the success ladder is far more difficult.

   

  In many cases the high school football coach might have the exact same training and background (played college/pro ball etc.) as the successful NFL coach but the differences are un-testable, un-quantifiable personal qualities.  The qualities that make the successful CAUT are difficult to even describe let alone test.  Possibly the first step should be to describe in words what makes a successful CAUT then try to determine how to test for those skills and qualities.  I don’t know.  I do know that you have been given a really tough job to come up with a test that will actually do what you want it to do!!

   

  dave

   

  David M. Porritt, RPT

  dporritt at smu.edu

   

  From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Wolfley, Eric (wolfleel)
  Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 8:56 AM
  To: College and University Technicians
  Subject: Re: [CAUT] CAUT Endorsement

   

  Dave,

   

  I guess I’ll be the “angel’s advocate” here and change the scenario a bit. Say you had two candidates with fairly equal qualifications, experience, references, etc., but one had taken the time and effort to be an active member of the PTG and had passed the “CAUT test” (whatever form that may take), which one would you choose? Showing a commitment towards gaining and improving skills is a definite plus in my book and would tip the scales for me, credit history and personal grooming issues aside. (Do they really check credit history when reviewing a job applicant’s application?) There will also be quite a bit of material specific to CAUT work included in the curriculum which will help a CAUT- trained candidate be prepared to suggest possible improvements to the institution’s piano maintenance program in an interview situation.

   

  It sounds like you have an excellent relationship with your faculty which tells me you are doing a great job at SMU and a candidate for your position would probably be able to slip in, “get with the program” 

  and continue your good work. Your 21 years experience has a lot to do with that. There are many programs out there however which are in desperate need of somebody either with a whole lot of experience in an institutional setting or some good training. This is the issue we are trying to address with the CAUT curriculum and the CAUT endorsement.

   

  Eric

  Eric Wolfley, RPT 
  Director of Piano Services 
  Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music 
  University of Cincinnati 


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  From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Porritt, David
  Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 7:51 AM
  To: College and University Technicians
  Subject: Re: [CAUT] CAUT Endorsement

   

  Of course all of our experience comes from a fairly small segment of the world.  Even if one has had a job a 2 or 3 music schools, that’s not universal knowledge of academia.  My experience in that regard is pretty limited. Here our head of the Keyboard Studies area is a quite knowledgeable pianist whose father was a piano technician.  The other three of the piano faculty have had or still have their performing careers and have worked with piano technicians a lot to get what they each want in a piano.  I really think they could work together to find a replacement for me.  I’d love to think that they did that job well 21 years ago but having read the interesting article on incompetence I’m reluctant to say anything!  

   

  In other words, the committee has to find a warm body that seems to have the qualifications, references, documented education and character to do the job.  Even if a test were conceived that actually could measure a person’s aptitude for this work, how much weight should it have in the hiring decision?  Candidate A has passed the CAUT test but has a poor credit history.  Candidate B has a good work record and good references (happy musician customers) but never bothered to take the CAUT test.  I’d bet credit history would trump CAUT test.

   

  dave

   

  David M. Porritt, RPT

  dporritt at smu.edu

   

  From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Fred Sturm
  Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2007 7:50 PM
  To: caut
  Subject: Re: [CAUT] CAUT Endorsement

   

  On 10/23/07 3:12 PM, "David M. Porritt" <dporritt at smu.edu> wrote:

  I think college administrators have to interview, check backgrounds, do their do-diligence but I really have my doubts that any testing PTG could do would do as well as a good college football scout can do and they miss a lot.  


  Hi David,
      The problem is that there is no animal in the music department who is the equivalent of the college football scout. Who in your music department do you think qualifies as a good scout for piano technicians? And even if they actually know what to look for, where is the opportunity for them to witness a game or two in a real life analogy? (Okay, the candidate can come and do a tuning or something, but that doesn't say a lot, even if the “scout” can evaluate it reasonably well). Not to say that the administrator doesn’t need to do the normal due diligence in any case, checking recommendations, etc. But one of the problems we face is that the person usually doing the hiring has no concept of the skills needed, and has to rely almost entirely on a best guess of what references and experience set might mean. Probably doesn’t really even know what questions to ask.
  Regards,
  Fred Sturm
  University of New Mexico 
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