[CAUT] CAUT credential vs. academic program?

[David Love]

While knowing how to play the piano certainly can't hurt a piano technician,
it's not clear that it necessarily helps.  Certainly being a pianist doesn't
make you a piano technician: how many pianists can't tell you the difference
between a hammer and a damper?  Piano technicians will have different skill
sets and levels of understanding the mechanics of a piano and you will find
just as often excellent piano technicians who don't play as you will piano
technicians who play who aren't very skilled technicians.  The same is true
for communicating.  A skilled technician is in part, by my definition, one
who is able to communicate effectively with the pianist whether it is about
the difficulties of executing a rapid passage, the subtleties of voicing, or
the quality of tone.  Where a piano technician who doesn't play is at
somewhat of a disadvantage is that they can't necessarily test out the
performance aspect themselves.  But how many piano technicians, even those
who do play, really can push the piano to its limit.  Playing the piano and
working on the piano are not always the most compatible, especially in terms
of the stresses put on the hands.  

 

David Love
davidlovepianos at comcast.net
www.davidlovepianos.com 

-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Paul T
Williams
Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2007 3:12 PM
To: College and University Technicians
Subject: Re: [CAUT] CAUT credential vs. academic program?

 


Jeff, 

Since we don't have a time machine to test that, then yes, it is "impossible
to measure"  How do you know what to do if the pianist says " it's difficult
to control the pedaling during the pianissimo section of the development in
the second movement" or "the presto section of so and so's piece is nearly
impossible to acheive"? This kind of musical knowledge is crucial to make
the artist happy. Some musicians attempt to put things in layman's terms,
but many don't. They do a lot of assuming that we understand their speak. On
the other side, some musicians try to understand our lingo and many do, but
most don't.  The more education on both sides of the coin, the better the
end result will be. 

At the very least, we should understand musical nomenclature even if we can
only play chopsticks. Diversity of learning involves both education and life
experiences. Where do you/we draw the line?  There is no "formula" to do
this...  Do you want a clear-cut solution? That too, is "impossible". What
is your "perfect solution" , then?  There is none, but we have to start with
something. If an RPT/ CAUT is to be something "more desireable" than an RPT
status, then different standards should be established. So, how would you
determine what that is? Or, should we just go with the status-quo for
universities to mearly know that RPT's have reached a great level of piano
technology and leave the education learned elsewhere by the wayside? 
Paul 






Jeff Tanner <jtanner at mozart.sc.edu> 
Sent by: caut-bounces at ptg.org 

10/31/2007 01:11 PM 


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