Yesterday I tuned three pianos for a local school. Two were in the High School and one in the Elementary. I did the HS pianos first and only had to ask a couple of wandering guitar players to please practice elsewhere. Otherwise all was relatively quiet. Then I got to the Elementary School. The piano was in a cafeteria/auditorium. As I entered the room the custodian was just finishing up polishing the floor. What luck, I thought. For once I've timed things just right. Ha!! I got about halfway through the first pass-it was a major pitch raise-when I noticed a woman setting out games and such on two of the tables. I began to move a little more quickly as I had a feeling my quiet environment was about to change. Sure enough, about ten minutes later 15 5th and 6th graders poured noisily into the room. It was some kind of after school between the bus runs babysitting program. By then I was working unisons so the noise was really interfering. I glanced up at the adult monitor a couple of times hoping she would do something but---- Then she went out of the room for a minute so I took my chance. I spoke to the children saying, "It would help be a great deal if you would be as quiet as possible." To my amazement the noise dropped off considerably and the children were actually telling each other to be quiet!! They remained relatively quiet for the next 30 minutes while I tested, corrected, etc. When I left I thanked the children for being so helpful. The monitor responded that the children had NEVER been so quiet before and she'd like to have me come tune the piano every day!! Yeah--Right!! I giggled about it all the way home.
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