Yesterday I had to tune as many practice room pianos as possible in a specified time frame. They had to be stable, something I have been struggling with for a year now. (I now have one year's data on humidity inside the pianos and proof positive that they are not being properly controlled. In addition, they are new pianos with too few initial tunings.) I had just enough time before leaving for the job to speed read "How Fast is Fast?" by Alan Zajicek, RPT and Ed Sutton, RPT. I noted down their sequence and tried it--throughout the treble of the piano, not just the mid-range. It was an amazing experience. I didn't speed tune, but tuned with a LOT LESS STRESS! The biggest effect it had was to change something inside me. Concentrating on following their sequence, I didn't even notice until after the fact, that I tuned all the unisons aurally--including C-88. Then there was the sound disconnect inside me, when I skipped unisons whie tuning ascending, skipping every other note. At first, it sounded like all my unisons were dramatically sharp :-) Of course! Then I realized I had to listen differently, not in the automatic way to which I had become accustomed. Unisons suddenly started popping into place--I couldn't even tell how it was happening. I had to do pitch raises and tunings on each of the pianos. There was less work to do on the final tunings. I can't wait until next month! THANK YOU, ALAN AND ED! Diane Hofstetter
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