[CAUT] CAUT Endorsement

[Fred S Sturm]

On Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:33:03 -0600
  terryb <t46xd8jb at xplornet.com> wrote:
> I wonder if there should be a definition of CAUT 
>technician?
> 
> I am listed on the CAUT website and I do work part time 
>at a university, but I am not a concert technician and I 
>do not aspire to become one. I tune mainly practice room 
>and studio uprights and grands. I do some of the 
>regulating on these pianos. There is a "Concert" 
>technician at the university and he looks after the high 
>quality pianos.
> 
> Should my name be removed from the CAUT website?
> 
> Terry Beckingham RPT

Hi Terry,
I would say that you are definitely a caut. Not the lead 
caut at your institution, but a caut nonetheless. In 
working on a "caut endorsement" I think we are aiming at 
qualifications for "lead technician," someone who has the 
skills to manage and carry out the work that needs to be 
done at the level required. And, of course, we have to set 
some sort of standard which may not apply to every 
circumstance, but which should nonetheless be meaningful. 
You may or may not choose to pursue the endorsement.

I find it interesting to see the focus in this discussion 
on a single little word: "Concert." (Far more discussion 
of that word and its connotations than on the actual meat 
of the draft tuning test). Obviously this word is 
emotionally charged and has a lot of connotations for 
many. For me, it is a far more prosaic word. In my more 
cynical moods, I say that a concert technician is one who 
is willing to work nights and weekend, under often 
appalling conditions (of noise, lighting, etc), doesn't 
mind at least some last minute calls even if they aren't 
really an emergency (the person in charge just forgot), 
has a thick enough skin to be willing to put work on 
public display, is willing to make the best of not enough 
time, and can get along with the stage and technical crew 
of the hall.

And then when I am feeling more idealistic, I remember a 
short term mentor who made a big point of saying as we 
parted, "Never forget how important and special concert 
work is." And he was so right. The concert you are 
preparing for may be the culmination of years and years of 
preparation by a degree candidate. It is almost always 
recorded in a university environment and listened to 
later, possibly used as a demo, and copied and sent to 
family and friends. Or it is a faculty or guest artist, 
who has spent a lifetime preparing to produce excellence. 
I feel privileged to be a part of that (when I'm not 
exhausted and grouchy), and those words remind me that 
every single string matters.

But it should be made plain to everyone that whatever word 
we put on our test for caut tuning, it is just a test of a 
level of skill, call it what you will. Call it "production 
tuning with an emphasis on unisons and stability," for 
instance. Can you produce it or not? It should be a 
significant level of skill, and must be something that can 
be evaluated fairly objectively. The draft ideas I 
presented a couple weeks or so back are just that, a 
draft. They were posted mostly to let give the caut 
community a peek at what we were up to. But this is just 
what two members of the caut committee, working with a 
volunteer whose arm we twisted, have come up with and 
submitted to the full committee. After the caut committee 
makes its changes, it will go to ETSC, to the board, to 
various other folks for reactions, and will no doubt be 
revised a great deal during the process. And finally 
something will be presented to council, quite possibly 
this coming summer in Anaheim.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico