"Old School Teachings"

[Dave Nereson]

----- Original Message -----
From: Farrell <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, April 23, 2002 4:18 PM
Subject: "Old School Teachings"


> What did they teach piano tuners decades ago?
>
> Now before I flamed too bad, [you mean, "Before you GET flamed to badLY] I
have all the respect in the world for anyone of advanced age, er, a [uh],
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" [nope, Kincaid] spinet today. Seemed to
be a lot like a "Grand" spinet. [That's because Kincaid was made by the
Grand Co.  Kincaid was the vice president.] Nuff said. [Right.  They are
quite inferior instruments, but they can be made to serve a beginner or
intermediate student for a while.]  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), [semicolon or period and new
sentence] 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, [same here; either semicolon
or period and new sentence] 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 [there ARE no
significant defects] in the plywood soundboard (unless you want to count the
whole board as a defect). [I'm not rooting for Kincaid; they are terrible
pianos.  But there are other brands with laminated ("plywood") boards that
are decent, for what they are.]  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 [thanked ME] about 100 times for getting it up to pitch. The
older daughter had always complained about the piano "sounding off". [No,
she complained about the piano sounding "off".  'The piano "sounding off"'
makes it sound like the piano periodically exclaimed something, like "Yeah,
I'm here." or "Just leave me flat, dang it!"].
>
> 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
>

No, I don't think they were taught that way.  I also don't think age has
anything to do with it.  As others have replied, I think the main factor was
laziness or just thinking pitch wasn't that important an issue on a low-end
piano used by non-professionals.      --David Nereson, RPT, Denver