Dear Friends, I really appreciate your help on the list! I am doing some part-time tuning for our local College, Missouri Southern State College. I am under the impression by the music secretary that I am the only technician doing any work at the college now, as one of the other tuners in our area quit tuning. There are about 20 pianos at MSSC, but so far I have seen only about 9 or 10 of them since last January. We have two wonderful Steinway D's, one in a small recital hall (used more frequently), and one in a large concert hall (about 1200 seats, piano used much less frequently). I have tuned one of the Steinway D's (in the small recital hall) frequently, about every month or more often, as it is used for recitals and concerts. However, to my knowledge, the practice room pianos and many of the professor's studio pianos have not been tuned since January as far as I can tell. Our piano professor has approached me several times about how terrible the tunings on the practice room pianos sound, and won't I please do some tunings on the practice room pianos. Well, the department head has to approve every tuning or other repair, and I don't have approval to tune the pianos yet. If I don't get approval, I don't get paid! (I am beginning to see why the pianos are in such bad shape.) So, I haven't done those tunings yet, and now I feel as if I am in a tug of war between the piano professor and the department head. Here is an exercise in logic for you... I was told to wait until after the weather change in late October/early November to do the practice room tunings, so the weather change wouldn't knock the tunings out. November rolled around, and I prompted the music department about the practice room pianos. I was told to wait a few weeks. Now I am told that there is no sense in tuning the pianos now, because there are only two or three weeks of school left before the break. Not only that, but the heat is turned way down in all the buildings since there aren't any classes. So now I am told to wait until January to do any tunings, after they turn the heat back up in the buildings. I gave you the clues... did you find them? 1. Recital Hall piano is the only one being tuned 2. Other pianos not being tuned Guess which piano is being used the most? Because the practice room pianos are not being tuned, the teachers use the recital hall to practice, and are also letting their best students practice in the recital hall. I am not doing anything other than tuning there, because I do not have approval to do anything other than tuning. So now, I am noticing a discernible decrease in the tone of the piano, probably from heavy use and low maintenance. (There are also some dampers that are not working properly on the concert D - the piano professor has complained about them, but I do not get paid if I fix them without approval!) I am sure you are all in the same boat with budget constraints and getting approval for every little repair or adjustment. What do you do to get the attention of the music department that the pianos are all going down hill quickly? So far I have been taking extensive notes on the condition of each piano, and giving these notes to the music secretary. How do you get approval to do the work that the pianos need? I am willing to be patient, at least I don't have to practice in the practice rooms! Thanks for any help you can offer. Sincerely, David David A. Vanderhoofven Joplin, Missouri, USA Associate Member, Piano Technicians Guild e-mail: dkvander@clandjop.com web page: http://www.clandjop.com/~dkvander/ #pianotech page: http://www.clandjop.com/~dkvander/ircpiano.html
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