<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1491" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: = Arial" bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7><FONT id=rol= e_document face=Arial color=#000000 size=2> <DIV>In a message dated 2/28/05 3:31:57 P.M. Central Standard Time, jtanner@mozart.sc.edu writes:</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><= FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size= =2>Others haven't been tuned since <BR>last semester (hey, I'm not saying they're in= tune - I'm saying the <BR>profs ain't fussing. One professor came back aft= er the Christmas break <BR>and said, "what did you do to my pianos? they're sounding great after <BR>the break!"  I smiled broadly and just thoug= ht to myself, "Nothing. <BR>That's just how bad your ears are.")</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV>I am teaching a class, "The care and feeding of pianos", and one of my students, a clarinet player, had to tell her professor his piano was out of tune. He couldn't hear it. I've only tuned the oboe teacher's piano once sin= ce I've been here. A couple of weeks ago, one of the theory professors asked me= to check his piano, because it sounded funny. It was 25 cents flat at the break= . </DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><= FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2><BR></FONT> </BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV></DIV> <DIV>Your professors should understand that different buildings have <BR>different climate control capability, and not to mention, different <BR>climates will have varying levels of change.  If they don't underst= and <BR>this, make them all a copy of Walter Deptula's article from the January <BR>2000 Journal on "Deep Cycling of Humidity".  That article alone can= <BR>answer LOTS of questions and support your position.  Add in a copy = of <BR>that Steinway article on climate control, get you a couple of those <BR>Dampp-Chaser digital hygro units and record and reset the high/low <BR>e= very week inside a couple of their pianos and you should have some <BR>pretty convincing support.  Everything you give them, give a copy to <BR>your supervising administrator.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>One of the things I want to be careful of is that I don't want to sound= too superior to my profs. I want to make sure they don't feel like they are wron= g. The last thing I want to do is make them feel I know more than they do. Although your idea is great, (someone else mentioned the digital hy= dro units), if I put them in there, they will realize it is not my fault. Somehow I need to have them think of the idea. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>One of the pianos is going out of tune because the professor has a= space heater sitting 3 feet in front of the piano, next to his bench. (He co= mes in at 6 AM, before the heating system is up and running). When I asked him a= bout it on Sunday, and he said he uses it only under his desk. When I got there t= his morning, it was sitting next to the bench. Now he has to know he didn't= tell me the truth. But he is so determined to prove that the piano goin= g out of tune is my fault, that initially he didn't want to admit maybe it was= his fault. I hope that when he sees the thing sitting there tomorrow mornin= g, (he doesn't come in on Mondays), maybe he'll think about what he said.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The basic problem here is lack of communication. These professors don't= want to talk to me. They have taken the attitude that the pianos are my responsibility, and anything that goes wrong with them is my fault. Not only= that, but they don't think it is their responsibility to tell me when something goes wrong. On Saturday I spent 6 hours tuning and voicing one of = the other professors' two B's. I wrote her a note asking if she likes the tuning= s. I have not heard from her yet. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>In case you haven't guessed, the honeymoon here at UA is over. Now have= to work for a living.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Wim </DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>