working for a university

[Yardbird47@aol.com]

David A. Vanderhoofven rote, 1/3:
<<The problem is that the man who tunes the concert pianos (the retired man
with lots of experience) charges only $40.00 for his tunings.  The man who
tunes the rest of the pianos charges only $35.00 for his tunings.  In order
to be allowed to tune for the college, I need to compete in price with
$35.00.  The head of the music department said that the school has money to
pay more for the tunings and realizes that the price is currently low, but
until the price they are currently paying increases, I need to compete with
$35.00.>>

Keep your eyes on the prize, son. Yes, do take the PTG exam which is an
excellent way of finding where you're weak and where you're strong. And if
you need help, I'm sure that one of the chapter's test comm members will be
glad to recommend excerizes (and even let you tune the piano in his living
room).

Remember, also that an adminsitrator will know mainly dollar and cents, but
it's the pianist(s) who have to know that you know how to make a piano
something they want to toch and hear. Find the friendliest one, confide in
him/her your long range plan and show them that a first class techician is
ready to emerge, given the right opportunity. This is your grass roots
support, and by keeping the pianists happy, you will learn and grow.

I would also divide and conquer. The concert tuner charges $40 because he's
paid off his mortgage, his kids now have their own kids, Social Security
specs require him to keep his income low, and/or $40 was good enough for him
back in 1970 and it'll do these kids today good to learn that lesson. The
routine tuner charges $35 because tuning is all he is concerned with. (Look
in the Aug/Sept archives for talk of bulk tunings, or "twangs" as I call
them.)

The bulk tuner you definitely want to replace. Come in, do a year's worth of
$35 twangs, put in a few extra hours to see how your tunings last (especially
the pianists' teaching pianos), get to know the pianos, and at the end of
that year, you'll be able to show the dept head the sad results of defining
maintenance as 3 twangs a year and now repairs and regulation. (The pianists
will be glad to make up a background chorus for you. This is why you
cultivated the working relationship with them.) At this point you'll also be
able to put together a maintenance program and budget to bring the pianos
back to respectable condition. (Barb Richardson recently wrote the book on
converting a music dept's maintenance from outside contractor to staff
postion.) The bulk tuner you definitely want to replace, because right now
you can probably do his job better than he now is (face it, you care more
about it!). Not only that, but you're prepared to do much more than he ever
did on these pianos. (Remember, you want to prove you worth starting from the
non-critical pianos at the bottom and working upwards.)

The concert tuner you need to talk to. First, in no way are you ready to go
after his work. And second, you need to cultivate a relationship with him,
for many reasons. He's the one you'll learn concert preparation (notice I
didn't say tuning) from. He's also the one who can critique your work ing the
studios and rehearsal rooms. If he's had this account for a few decades,
he'll have valuable insight on the pianos and pianists, from long experience.
Go to him (as you did the pianists) and explain to him that you'll be taking
care of the routine at the college, and some day *when he's ready to hand it
off* you'd love to do the fancier work. If you're as thoughtful and dedicated
as your writing suggests, he'll be delighted to have a worthy apprentice (you
know how sentimental the old farts can be.)

Think of it, he's the one from whom you'll learn the fancy work. He's the one
who'll give the first recommendation when it comes time for the dept to
replace him. And nothing will make you position more solid than having the
faculty watch him groom you over the next few years.

A word about tuning stability.  Test blows are useful, but you'll find much
more about how those string tensions lie by giving a quick bump sharp and
flat to the wire this side of the speaking length. Of course whatever the
pinblock torque is the string friction has to be below it. If the
relationship between pin and string friction is right, a quick bump up and
down at the tuning pin and quick observation of how the speaking length
changes for the bump in either direction will tell you how well balanced the
tension diferential across the friction barriers (duplexes ridges, capos,
etc.) with respect to those friction barriers. If the bump sharp produces a
greater change in the speaking length than the bump flat, the saftey margin
on the sharp side is slimmer than on the flat side, and the pin needs to be
rotated one degree and 15 seconds flat (leaving it of course torsion-free).
You'll know you're centered when the change is the same in either direction.

Now if it was my neighborhood you were horning in on, I'd tell you to go get
a real job, tell the faculty not to tryst with the well-meaning but
inexperienced, and drop my bulk rate to $28. <g>

Bill Ballard RPT
NH Chapt.

"You'll make more money selling my advice than following it" Steve Forbes,
quoting his father, Malcom.