Whistle while you work, was, Re: Professional identity

[David Skolnik]

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
Wim & Alan -

In a theater setting, you expect a certain level of ambient noise, but you 
expect, or need to teach theater techs that we need to hear what we're 
doing (unless using ETD). We need them to incorporate that awareness into 
their behavior.  Necessary talking is OK, but behavior which communicates 
the message, either that they don't understand what's involved in what 
we're doing, or worse, don't care, is NOT OK.  So, behavior that's 
oblivious to your presence...loud, unnecessary talking (or yelling), 
laughter, jingling keys, and whistling, especially mimicking the note 
you're tuning, needs to be confronted, at some point.  Whistling is a 
special case behavior, its perceived offensiveness greatly exceeding the 
issue of tuning, as illustrated by Wim's experience.  The crew probably 
would have felt the way they did, even if the gut was a good whistler. My 
sister-in-law is one of those who goes ballistic if anyone is whistling 
around her.  Maybe it's a hearing hypersensitivity, but the underlying 
message communicated by a whistler is the nonexistence of those around 
them.  Who wants to be told that?

David Skolnik
Hastings-On-Hudson


At 08:50 AM 3/20/2003 -0600, you (Alan Barnard) wrote:
>A whistle, like a flute or piccolo, is a fairly pure sine wave that really 
>punches through other sounds.
>
>That's why you only need one piccolo in a huge marching band outdoors and 
>everyone can still hear it, unlike say a clarinet which has a complex 
>sound and you have to have dozens of them before you even notice they are 
>playing.
>
>That's my theory, anyway, because I have also noticed that whistling is 
>one of the hardest sounds to tune through. Also crying babies, shrieking 
>children, and &$%#* chiming clocks.
>
>Alan Barnard
>Salem, MO
>-----Original Message-----
>From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org]On 
>Behalf Of Wimblees@aol.com
>Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2003 5:52 AM
>To: pianotech@ptg.org
>Subject: Whistle while you work, was, Re: Professional identity
>
>In a message dated 3/20/03 10:35:44 AM !!!First Boot!!!, wmaxim@sc.rr.com 
>writes:
>
>>I miss the organist (now retired) whose habit was to whistle as he busied
>>himself in the choir room.  With me tuning the piano.  "I whistle while you
>>work" motto?
>
>
>I was tuning for a theater while the crew was still working on the set. I 
>was able to deal with the general noise, including some hammering, but I 
>was really bother by one guy who was whistling. He was very loud, but he 
>wasn't very good. I finally asked him to stop, so I could tune. When I did 
>this, the other crew members let out a cheer. I found out that they had 
>been asking this guy to stop whistling for years, but the guy just had a 
>habit of whistling, and he couldn't stop. The crew was ready to pay me 
>extra to stay longer, just to not hear the whistling.
>
>Wim

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/2c/a9/15/61/attachment.htm

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--