[CAUT] CAUT credential vs. academic program?

[Richard Brekne]

The main point here is simply whether or not the curriculum for a 
certification meant for a Head of Piano Technology Department should  
include some level of formal music education. Reducing this education in 
one way another to something far more worthless then it in actuality is 
doesn't really work well as an argumentation. This time you boil it down 
to Music Theory 101.  I understand you are trying to sharpen your 
point... but we just all end up off on a meaningless tangent debating 
what education is or isnt.

It is in my mind untenable to suppose that two otherwise equally 
technicians in any field are going to be equally effective if one of 
these can relate to the pianists, car driver, whathaveyou, reality 
significantly better then the other.  The only question is whether an 
associates degree in music with piano as the instrument can do that or 
not in our particular case. I'll grant that its an unproven 
postulate.... but I will also stand on the likelihood of its validity. 

Whether one is self taught, had Mr Mozart Senior exercising extremes of 
discipline on a 3 year old, or one going through a school system is not 
as important as how much one learns to be sure... but thats a very 
complicated issue beyond the scope of what can be simply debated in this 
type of forum.  To generalize an imply that the college system is not a 
superior system of instruction is really meaningless... because for some 
students it is exactly that... for other it isnt.  We do not all learn 
the same way.  As to the other composers... Liszt for example learned 
initially from his father true... did education stints with Czerny, 
Salieri and Chopin later in his youth... and .... ended up being a 
teacher at the Budapest Conservatory of Music. Hardly a good example of 
someone not a product of structured education.

In any case all this is basically off the point.  The whole point of a 
CAUT certification is to provide administrators with a very solid handle 
to hold onto when evaluating a Head of Piano Technology Department 
applicant, with the main goal from our side to improve awareness of how 
important our contribution is, how high we should be valued.

I find it not surprising at all that the <<piano guy>> in the modern 
world is generally speaking an undervalued, little understood person... 
and the work he/she does even less valued or understood given 
argumentations by our own folks that reduce us to mere mechanics who 
need to know little or nothing about the users perspective of the 
product we work on.  We are not refrigerator repairmen... and the piano 
doesn't have a simple off and on switch.  It is an instrument of 
creative expression, and to service it to the degree a Head CAUT should 
be able to... one needs to be well down that same creative road both as 
a technician and as a musician.

As with all things... the better start from a pure educational point of 
view one has... the shorter the learning path experience yeilds. 

Cheers
RicB


 


    The main point I was debating, though, is that there are other  
    alternatives which, for our purposes, are just as effective at  
    teaching what we need to know to be good piano technicians and  
    communicate with pianists.  For our purposes, a college degree is a  
    resume filler.  What I want to know about a piano technician is  
    something completely unrelated to what he learned in Music Theory 101.

    But I would completely disagree with anyone who thinks that the  
    college system is the superior system of instruction of the study of  
    music.  It is a system and it is a generally accepted system.  But  
    neither Mozart nor Beethoven nor Liszt nor Tchaikovsky learned music  
    this way.  They could have taught our instructors by they time they  
    were teenagers.  And I bet if you polled a few of your instructors,  
    you'd see they would rather teach music via a different system.

    But that wouldn't provide a steady income and a benefit package.

    Best Regards,
    Jeff

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