CAUT in KC: Pianotechnology classes in colleges

[A440A@aol.com]

Ed wrote
>From my viewpoint, a class on the topic "Teaching a class on 'how your
>piano works'" would be valuable.
>	At this point I yield the floor to those who know more...
 
Greetings, 
  I don't know more, but I know different!  
    I originally pitched the idea of a piano familiarization course at
Vanderbilt.  It would be for piano majors, and any others, and would teach the
instruments design and adjustment.  Forget it, it was deemed too close to a
trade school course, not quite fit for the music school.  So, I let it change.

 I had to rewrite it to get it accepted, and now it is a course that lightly
covers the basic physics of sound, the history of intonation from Pythagoras
to today, and the construction of intervals via the harmonic series.  Plus
covering the construction of a piano and how to tune a unison.   (few students
today have any idea of what ratios actually describe, and the idea of
intonation is still left as a black art in most schools.) 
   Now, I am being asked to write courses more focussed on the instrument, and
that is what I would like to hear more about from those that are doing it.  I
would like to think that a student could regulate their own instrument.  It
would take several semesters, but instrument maintenance can be taught.  Or am
I walking off a cliff here?
Regards,
Ed Foote