Piano technology class

[Richard Brekne]

Hi Ed... I have been asked by our University to plan and put forward a course to
cover one semester...perhaps eventually one whole school year. The course is
thought of as sort of a combination "Intro to Piano technology" and "Everything a
Pianist should know about their instrument".

I did a 3 hour long lecture earlier on this spring on those lines and it was a
big hit. They want more, and more detail. If you have an outline for a whole
class I would love to take a good look at it for ideas. I know much about what I
want to convey... but need to think through how to most effectively do so.

You will be in Reno this year wont you ?.. if so I hope we can converse on this
subject a bit... if time permits.



A440A@aol.com wrote:

> Greetings,  I apologize for the lengthy delay in this discourse, but I got
> detoured around here for a while:
>
> Bob writes:
> << I've
> been asked to give a introductory piano tuning/technology class at one
> of the local state uni. music depts. here in New Jersey.
> I wonder if you might be willing to share some of your curriculum with
> me or can you suggest other sources for such material. I don't relish
> the thought of starting from scratch. >>
>
> This is a good career move, it will change the way people regard you.  The
> Vanderbilt course was originally conceived as a pure technology course, but
> the committee required it to be broadened beyond where I was comfortable
> teaching.  They wanted it to be a "physics of sound" course, too.  Which is
> important, but forces a fourteen class couse to move everything else into the
> "survey" mode.
>     These classes tried to cover, each week, the physical instrument and the
> resulting sound it produced.  I believe my next course will be a little more
> focussed on one or the other, with the tuning and sound portion first.  With
> no background, learning the instrument and its tuning  presents massive
> amounts of new info, and I think I swamped the first course with too much.
>       Another course would be needed to really do what I want.  That is to
> see if students couldn't learn to regulate their piano, themselves.  It would
> be an interesting, but soon forgotten bit of education for most, but for
> those that spend the rest of their lives around a piano, it would be their
> own personal toolkit, and perhaps when one of them finds a poorly regulated
> instrument supplied for a performance, they can discuss its shortcomings with
> more than "that note doesn't feel right".
>       Also, remember that you will lose one of these days to something,and
> once you begin it becomes almost as important to follow the classes
> direction,(which they steer by the questions they ask), as it is to follow
> your preconceived plan of action.  Teaching a class cannot completely obey
> preset rules and still produce that magic of investigation.  The desire to
> learn is more important than the information itself, and I believe the real
> art of teaching is to create that desire in the students.
>
> These are the classes in our program,(currently on hold while we record
> stuff). I also have a deeper outline of the individual classes, but will save
> the bandwidth until someone needs it.   The serious digressions began around
> class 6 when we got to intervals, and we sorta wandered our way through the
> rest of the material.
> Good luck,
> Ed Foote
> Vanderbilt
>
>  Piano Technology 101
> 14 classes
>
> Text: White,William Braid.  Piano Tuning and the Allied Arts. Tuners Supply,
> (Chicago, 1942)
> Instructor: Edward Foote
>
> 1.    Course introduction, nomenclature, action removal, cautions
> 2.    Soundboard and case construction, grands and uprights
>        {read chapt. VI}
> 3.    Pinblock,  plates, pins and strings  {read pg. 130-149}
> 4.    String behavior, tuning hammer introduction, unison tuning {chapt II,
>        tuning drill in ear training lab}
> 5.    Action theory & construction,  The harmonic series {pg-150-163}
> 6.    Action theory & construction,  intervals    {pg. 163-183}
> 7.   Action regulation, listening to intervals       {chapt V}
> 8.    Action regulation, action response  MID TERM TEST  (written & lab)
> 9.    Tempering, ear recognition training, hammer technique {chapt IV}
> 10.  The equal temperament, explanation and analysis  {pg. 74-86}
> 11.  Testing the tuning of a piano    {practise room unison tuning}
> 12.  The history of temperaments    { Jorgenson, Owen.  Tuning .  Michigan
>        State University Press, (Ann Arbor 1987), reserve?)
> 13.  History of the pianos development, review of tuning skills
> 14  General care and maintainance,  review of action regulation

--
Richard Brekne
RPT, N.P.T.F.
Bergen, Norway
mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no