[CAUT] Uniform Formal Education

[Richard Brekne]

Hi Carl.

I think really the job of determining a basic journeyman's curriculum 
should not be a real big problem.  Actually most of that information is 
already out there in several texts.  You could more or less just pick 
one and go with it and it would do an acceptable job.  The problem would 
be more the more general matter of getting humans to agree on anything  :)

Tho, if one stops to think of it... basic tuning, basic regulation, 
basic repair work, and basic voicing.... both theory and practical 
knowledge is well... pretty basic.  And if the curriculum stuck to the 
basics a young tech could easily have every bit of a busy time of it 
over a 3 years schooling.

Like Richard West,  I think that the usual learn it yourself route ends 
up most often putting a tech way too many years down the line before 
they actually learn what should be taught in such a school... and if all 
techs had started off in their 20's or so with such a schooling... we'd 
be collectively well further down the road to excellence then we are 
now. It goes without saying that experience is in the end the best 
teacher... but this assumes one has a clue about what one is attempting 
to experience to begin with.... :)

Cheers
RicB
 


    It's hard for me to imagine how a piano technician's formal  
    educational curriculum would be determined.  In 1972, I learned on  
    the job, doing dealer prep.  Some things I was taught were truly  
    bizarre - turn the capstans a quarter turn on all the new Acrosonics  
    (no kidding).  Other things sort of worked but were grossly  
    inefficient - F-F temperament: circle of fourths from A.  There were  
    two things, however, that had positive long term benefits:  the  
    hammer technique I was taught, and the opportunity (make that a  
    requirement) to tune four pianos a day almost from day one.  I've  
    seen technicians use a variety of grips and push/pull techniques that  
    I can't imagine working efficiently for me.  Which one would we  
    teach?  Doing four a day teaches speed first, assuming that accuracy  
    will come with daily practice, worked for me, but can you set up a  
    formal teaching environment that provides that kind of time and  
    number of pianos for all students?

    We've all been to classes where the instructor constantly tells us  
    that "this technique works for me."  Are we hoping to get every  
    technician to conform to one way of doing things, or is there a way  
    to design this curriculum that allows each of us to try ten ways to  
    approach a given task before we find the one that works best for us?   
    The latter seems grossly inefficient, but most of us learned that  
    way, I suspect, and wouldn't have wanted it to be any different.   
    After all, this profession seems to attract a lot of independent lone  
    wolves.

    Carl D. Root, RPT