[CAUT] they stayed :o

[Susan Kline]

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At 04:11 PM 9/2/2005 -0400, Eric wrote:

>My least favorite early-career related story is about a client who let me 
>in and then left to go to the grocery. Unfortunately she had left her 
>macaw (a very large parrot-like bird) out of the cage. The macaw landed 
>atop a chair on the other side of the room and watched me get my tools 
>out. I thought, well this is OK as long as he (she) stayed over there so I 
>began to tune the large old Steinway upright. The only problem was that 
>every time I hit a note, the macaw let out a (very) loud screech. It would 
>sit there looking at me remaining perfectly quiet until I played a note 
>and then, Bwraaaawk! .  The tuning wasn t the best but I wasn t going to 
>mess with this bird they crack Brazil nuts in their beaks for breakfast!


Then there was the voice teacher I tuned for in Stockton, CA. She had a 
cockatiel. First, it gave me one side of a telephone conversation (with a 
student, probably), complete with pauses, concerned comments, and ahhs, and 
ohhhs. Then it started to solfege and sing arpeggios. Darned thing sang in 
tune.

Have you noticed that parakeets and canaries will make a huge racket, but 
only when you're tuning the treble? I would stop tuning the treble and move 
to the bass because of the noise -- and it would stop. A couple of treble 
notes -- they'd start up again. I guess they had been waiting with such 
longing for another bird to shout down that even a few repeated piano notes 
would get them all excited.

Susan 
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