"Old School Teachings"

[Farrell]

What did they teach piano tuners decades ago?

Now before I flamed too bad, I have all the respect in the world for anyone of advanced age, er, a lots of experience. But for those who have chosen to not keep up with advancements in tuning, I have a question.

I tuned a 1970 (or so) "Kincade" spinet today. Seemed to be a lot like a "Grand" spinet. Nuff said. The piano was a full half-step flat. The folks just moved here from Texas. I asked how long had it been since the last tuning (expecting her to say about 1971), she said about a year ago and that she had it tuned every six months. I was dumbfounded. They are the original owners of the piano.

This piano is played by two of her daughters, one has been taking lessons for four years, and the other for two years. There is no rust on the strings. There are no cracks in the plate. There is no significant defects in the plywood soundboard (unless you want to count the whole board as a defect). This piano should be tuned to A440. This woman was happy as a clam to pay for two pitch raises and a tuning and thanked my about 100 times for getting it up to pitch. The older daughter had always complained about the piano "sounding off".

Now here is the flame Terry part. I asked her if it was an elderly gentleman that had been tuning the piano. Of course, she said "yes, how did you know?"

My question: Why is it that many "old school" piano tuners "tune it where it lies". I can understand the old upright worries (although I find they are usually not justified), but not a 30 year old piano. I don't think human intelligence has gone up much since 50 years ago (I can think of many examples - but this is not a political list!) - I can only assume they were taught that way. Is that correct?

Terry Farrell