At 11:00 AM 6/2/2007, Annie Grieshop wrote: >When I received Michael Spreeman's email, I was just about to sit down and >write an addendum to my previous posting because I never meant to imply that >non-playing technicians are inferior (and I was pretty sure somebody was >going to take it that way). Obviously, I should've been more clear the >first time around. <g> > >My question referred to the recognition of non-tuning issues by those who >don't play the piano. I know wonderful technicians who have a very limited >repertoire on the piano, so I certainly know it's possible. Observant, >careful, and conscientious craftspeople can diagnose and correct problems >without being pianists (sort of like male gynecologists <g>). > >And what I meant was that the difference between a piano technician and a >piano tooner is exactly that ability to reach beyond personal experience and >do extra-ordinatry work. > >I do wonder what it's like to work on an instrument you don't play. I >wonder how that changes the relationship. Guess I should try repairing some >band instruments, as the whole blow-air-to-play-tunes thing (without reeds) >just bamboozles me. > >Annie Grieshop Annie, Let me put a bit of a different perspective on this. Even if you play the piano, there are times that your technical limitations as a player will cause you to miss problems that you would pick up if you were to rely on your technical knowledge as a technician (and other skills - see below). To illustrate: years ago in Boston I did a concert tuning for an up-and-coming pianist who was (atypically) quite aware of the inner workings of the piano. He asked me to check over the sostenuto - it was catching dampers it shouldn't have been. I adjusted the sostenuto to the point that it was working fine when I tested it (with what I thought were some pretty firm blows). He sat down to test it - and sure enough, some damper tabs were driven past the sostenuto knife by his much harder blows and stuck. I learned an important lesson then - my limited technique as a pianist will not reveal all problems and I should rather depend on my technical skills (and interviewing skills) to diagnose problems and check results. Israel Stein
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