[CAUT] aaaaaa!

[Michael Magness]

On 10/25/07, Geoffrey Arnold <welltemperedtuning at yahoo.com > wrote:
>
>  Sorry everyone, hit send on that last post when I meant to hit save as
> draft!
>
> It was about three separate e-mails.... wade through if you dare... the
> conclusion I was going for was:
>
> While none among us may be such a god, it is the striving for this
> unobtainable clarity which guides every action. Herein the apprentice's
> pithy question of "Yes sensei, but what is *the* process for seating this
> string", is not one of laziness, or ostentation, it is a natural and nearly
> religious question. What is the point of performing the task if not to
> perform the perfect task? Is not the most efficient repair also the repair
> which best illuminates the underlying phenomena involved in the effected
> aspects of piano function/malfunction?
>
> On top of mutually raising our salaries and respect in the industry let us
> comfort one another in our areas of misunderstanding and move to ever
> greater understanding of our physical world and the great mechanism that is
> the piano.
>
>
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Hi Geoffrey,
I believe you have hit upon the conundrum of piano work, if you have been
following the list closely I would have thought you'd have realized it.
There is no *THE way of doing nearly anything on a piano. Almost everything
that can be done to a piano has several methods, approaches and         .
Also for every method there will be those for and those against, frequently
it will be up to you to decide which of those methods works best for your
particular skills. The pros and cons of a particular method are in most
cases the writer's prejudice towards what works best for him/her, not an
intentional prejudice, mind you but just the natural habit of a person to
prefer their methodology over a stranger's. *

*I read your first post and would suggest, if the other 2 techs in your area
are PTG members that you resist the inclination to see them as competitors
and instead as colleagues. If you haven't gone to them and introduced
yourself as the new man in the area, do so, * perhaps one or both would be
willing to mentor you when you have a question or problem you are unable to
solve on your own. I had such a person who always had time for my questions,
told me upfront that there were no dumb questions only dumb answers and I
have been forever grateful for his many years of help. If they are not open
to you as a newcomer willing to learn, find someone in you vicinity that is.


The college pianos you speak of can be a wonderful training ground for a
beginning tech. You will find more real-life problems due to wear, use,
humidity, dryness, lack of care, abuse and of course poor manufacturing than
you would find in several years of home tuning. You speak in you longer
letter of discounting to the college and considering doing so at an even
more drastic rate. Since you are one of 2 techs servicing the college, I
believe you said, you would be effectively cutting into the other tech's
business considerably which would not do well for your relationship with
him/her. My suggestion would be to choose your victim so to speak find a
needy piano at the college that you are certain you can improve for a
certain amount and approach them about that one. Use it as provenance of
your skills, if that goes well then find another, I'm suggesting baby steps
instead of wholesale improvements of the whole fleet of pianos. For a school
that has allowed their instruments to fall into such dis-repair this sounds
more realistic to me.

 I tell all of the newbies in our chapter the same thing I'm going to tell
you, observation is how you learn on the job, how you learn to do seat of
the pants repairs. If you have a malfunctioning key or several of them, find
one that isn't, analyze it then compare it to those that are malfunctioning.
You will find your answer! It's the same with a click or buzz, whatever the
problem, experimentation and observation. The realization that you are the
one that is being depended on to find that problem, that you can't leave
until you have solved it, that you won't get paid until you have solved it.
All of those are great motivators, especially the last! <grin>

Finally accept the fact that you will never know it all about your chosen
profession, I have been at this for 38 years, my mentor for 49 years, my
step-dad who has worked with Jim Coleman and who gave me the idea to get
into this in the first place for 66 years. Ask any of us and we'll all tell
you we have things to learn, plenty of things. I am a lifelong learner of
many things, I believe those who stop learning, who believe they know it all
are very dangerous people. So pursue knowledge about pianos, about life,
about business but don't forget to stop and have some fun along the way. By
the way, you write one H___ of a letter!
Good Luck,
Mike

-- 
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing
is to not stop questioning.-- Albert Einstein



Michael Magness
Magness Piano Service
608-786-4404
www.IFixPianos.com <http://www.ifixpianos.com/>
email mike at ifixpianos.com
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