sore back and changing positions

[Wimblees@aol.com]

To the list:

Several of you gave suggestions on how to deal with the sore back. One
suggestion was to change hands. I have tried that in the past, but only tune
the last octave when the piano was against a wall, but never did much more
than that. And when I did it, I found the most difficult part to be playing
the notes.

Over the last couple of days I did some left handed tuning in the middle of
the piano.  What a different feeling. It is a lot more difficult than I
realized. Not only did I have a hard time getting the string in tune, it was
very hard on my left arm, and my little finger on my right hand. My left
shoulder was sore after only 5 minutes of tuning.

The one thing it did give me, was a lot of respect for the beginner tuners. I
guess I had forgotten how hard it is to control the tuning lever. After
tuning one way for almost 20 years, I have taken for granted the experience I
have in my arm to know just how much to move the tuning hammer to get that
unison just perfect.

I think all of us "old timers", who have always tuned with one hand, should
try to do this once in a while, just to keep us humble. Like I said, I am
going to have a lot more patience with the newer tuners, when they seem to
take forever to get a string in tune.


Willem Blees  RPT
St. Louis