[CAUT] CAUT testing model

[Ed Sutton]

Glad somebody got the hint!

This story can inspire many possible tests based on the pattern "more than anyone could diagnose in the time limit, but not so much that real improvement is impossible."

-Start with a regulated piano, randomly distribute 20 subtle regulation errors over the piano.  Add a few voicing errors as well. The examinee has 20 minutes to diagnose and correct as many errors as possible.

-Detune a piano in the pattern of a "humidity struck" piano, and the examinee has 20 minutes to get the octaves and unisons back in shape.

In my ideal world these exams would be fairly easy to set up and administer, interesting to take and of value to anyone interested in monitoring and improving their skills past the RPT exams.

I also wonder if something more broad than a pass/fail category like RPT might be of value.  By taking classes and passing exams on a range of topics, a person could gradually build a "transcript" of advanced learning and competency demonstration.  Eager folks who got a "C" score might like to come back and retake when they have higher skills.

Ed Sutton
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Israel Stein 
  To: caut at ptg.org 
  Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2007 1:08 PM
  Subject: [CAUT] CAUT testing model


  At 08:01 AM 10/24/2007, Ed Sutton wrote:

    Just for fun, here's a college interview I was told about:

    The candidate was given a choice of a half-dozen weary studio grand pianos
    and told "Pick a piano and show us how much you can improve it in 3 hours."

    I think that was a pretty clever idea!  I wish more school administrators 
    were that clever.

  The more I think about it, the more it seems that this is the model on which at least a part of a CAUT tuning exam could be based. Why is this such a clever idea? Because it realistically simulates the conditions under which a CAUT technician typically operates. There is never enough time to do any job, one always has to make choices, do triage, set priorities, make the best possible assessment of what one can "get away" with. This interview is clever because it addresses the candidate's ability to function under those conditions.

  I am wondering if a test could be structured along the same lines. Give the candidate a tuning assignment and a time frame way too short to do the job "perfectly". Devise a scoring system rating the results in terms of priorities and score the candidate in terms of how well he or she met those priorities. That might be a better assessment of a candidate's chops than a "concert tuning" in 90 minutes. Yes, this would be very complicated and involve a lot of trial and error real-time experimenting. But it might lead to some sort of realistic test of "chops". 

  Hell, I can't remember the last time I had 90 minutes to do a concert tuning during concert season - I'm always struggling to do what I can in the time I can scrounge with the three concert hall pianos and sometimes the results have to be good enough to last over several performances and rehearsals...  And sometimes, when the heating system is screwy (which is quite often) the work includes a pitch raise or drop. And the voicing always requires attention. And I hear the same thing from other CAUTs. A "concert tuning in 90 minutes" doesn't begin to test the chops - or the judgment abilities - required to deal with this. Something like the above might...

  A CAUT requires some very specialized abilities and skills - not just "higher order tuning skills". This is one reason why I feel that the CAUT credential should be an endorsement on top of the RPT - and not a stand alone "supertuner" credential. For this reason (and several others which are political and organizational in nature) the RPT status should be a prerequisite for the CAUT exam and the CAUT exam should narrowly focused on skills and abilities required of the CAUT - and not deal with broad overall assessments of general skills that in many ways would duplicate what has already been assessed on the RPT exam (albeit on the basic level). Thus the CAUT test should focus on specific areas - the ability to tune specific types of octaves, the ability to tune across a scale break, the ability to achieve a stable tuning in pitch raise situations, the ability to tune adequately under "pressure" conditions. This can be done more effectively by the use of "sample" testing techniques focusing on specific areas through specific assignments on parts of the piano rather than through a generalized test that simply requires tuning a piano. 

  Israel Stein 



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