leftie vs. rightie

[Kenneth W. Burton]

	Owen,

	Probably every tuner has gone through the agonies of establishing
hammer technique are you are doing. There are many, many ways of handling
the hammer and all of them will work well, once you have learned the
subtle ways of moving and the angles required.
	This is another shamless promotion but worthwhile, I believe. I
have written a book on Hammer Techniques, titled DIFFERENT STROKES. In it
there are examples of tuners who tune left-handed for grands and
right-handed on uprights. One many uses the long tip and head you
mentioned so that he can work with the hammer over the stretcher. One
left-handed tuner uses his fingers on the top of an upright to lever up
the handle and uses his fingers on the struts of a grand.
	This is why the title is DIFFERENT STROKES--there is such a
variety of techniques being used. I believe that it is important to have a
variety of approaches because we face a variety of pianos, tuning pins,
pinblocks. One section of the book contains over twenty techniques which
can be used to cope with different piano conditions.
	The price of the book is $13.95  If you are interested, send a
cheque to          Ken Burton
		   3715 7 Ave NW
		   Calgary, Alberta
		   T2N 4J1
	We have a postal strike in Canada just now so you'll have to wait
a week or so before the US Postal Service will accept mail that is Canada
bound.
	Happy tuning!         Ken Burton	

On Thu, 27 Nov 1997, Owen J Greyling, RPT wrote:

> 
> >Date: Thu, 27 Nov 1997 14:40:15
> >To: Pianotech
> >From: "Owen J Greyling, RPT" <greyco@adan.kingston.net>
> >Subject: leftie vs. rightie
> >
> >Dear List, I write this post with some apprehension, not wanting to open a
> can of worms, or bore many seasoned professionals with a topic that may be
> better handled elsewhere. Kindly use your delete button or trash can if this
> subject is of no interest to you...
> >       I have been tuning for over twenty years and consider myself to be a
> decent tuner, not the best around high pressure work, but given a
> serviceable instrument, enough time and enough tunings I have found it
> possible to produce accurate and stable pianos. I, like you, do this day in
> and day out with many satisfied and regular customers...BUT...most of my
> customers own vertical pianos, at least ninety percent of them do. 
> >       When learning to tune I was taught by a man who gave me Dr. Stevens
> book(no flames please!),an old tube strobe,a few tools, an hour's
> instuction, and the advice to use my left hand on the tuning thingy. He
> pointed me towards some old decrepid, pin-doped vertical hunk of land fill
> and left (with His book and newer Conn strobe), to go tune a piana. Don't
> get me wrong here, My teacher was a wonderful man who gave me the
> opportunity to follow my dreams..He just never mastered the art of
> temperament or tuning stability. Tuning consisted of a strobe generated
> middle section and octaves, no tests, checks or anything else..time
> needed-usually two and a half hours.
> >       In my first few years as a student of piano technology, the only
> grand pianos that I saw, were the worn out, untuneable, sometimes unplayable
> treasures in the huge waterside homes down on King St. I could'nt understand
> why on earth these homes with so much money around had such horrible big
> flat pianos in them. Why did'nt they just get good old upright pianos that I
> could (I thought at the time) at least tune? My teacher answered my honest
> questions with...Oh it takes years of experience to master the tuning of
> grand pianos. I very quickly learned to dread trying to do anything with
> those pianos that the better musicians and teachers had.
> >       By the time I was rescued from this situation by the formation of a
> new chapter of the Piano Technician's Guild, about two hours drive away, I
> was about ready to throw in the towel. You can not imagine how good it was
> to finally be in a room, with warm friendly gentlemen piano technicians, who
> practically bent over backwards to help me. Bob Smit, a former treasurer of
> the Guild, took the time to show me tuning checks, where to listen, and
> different size octaves. What a revelation...NOTHING was going to keep me
> from attending chapter meetings. I can count on one hand the chapter
> meetings I have missed in the last seventeen years, all because these guys,
> with knowlege were willing to share with me. As you can probably tell, I am
> thankful for The Piano Technician's Guild and for this list and am a firm
> believer in the brotherhood & sisterhood of like minded piano people.
> >      Wow..enough history already, I did'nt know I had all that lurking in
> the corners of my shop, never mind the shadows of my mind...Sorry.
> >      Finally.....The Question. During the last few months I've decided to
> upgrade my skills on the dreaded grand piano, and have come across a bit of
> a conundrum. When tuning a vertical piano I tune with my left hand on the
> tuning hammer.I have developed the ability to usually be able to feel
> exactly what the pin is doing and at what stage I am at, when it comes to
> setting the pin. I work with the hammer at a 12:00-1:00 o'clock position,
> using a slight downward pressure on the hammer to seat the pin in the bottom
> of the hole. Once the pin is solidly against the fibres of the bottom of the
> hole I usually use a slight impact motion to move the string slighly above
> where the pitch will end up. A slight backwards (towards 11;00 o'clock)and
> downwards pressure produces for me, a properly tuned and stable note. I have
> become very comfortable with this way of tuning. It makes sense to me to
> always keep the pin towards the bottom of the hole keeping in mind that the
> string is also pulling in this direction. Now when I try to apply the skill
> and feel developed with vertical pianos to grand pianos, I just can't
> contort my body into a comfortable postion to enable me to use these very
> same principals. What I have done for years is to tune left-handed using as
> long a tip as necessary to clear the stretcher, with the hammer at 5:00-6:00
> o'clock. To truly have the hammer in what I feel is the best position the
> hammer should be at 6:00-7:00 o'clock, but that puts way to much pressure on
> the wrist, and the comfortable familiar contol of the hammer just isn't there.
> >      For the past couple of weeks I have been using my right hand on the
> hammer when tuning grand pianos, placed on the pin at from 12:30-3:00
> position (hammer pointing to tail of piano).This I can only do for the first
> time through, then I finish up with my left hand (tuning complaints dont
> seem like a good idea). I do find that raising the pitch of a string with my
> right hand seems to take the pin off of the fibres of the back of the hole,
> thus causing a greater change in pitch when I push the hammer toward the
> tail of the piano to set the pin. I see many other very fine tuners working
> this way and they seem to produce good results.SO DOES WORKING WITH THE
> RIGHT HAND ON THE TUNING HAMMER DEMAND THAT THERE MUST ALWAYS BE MORE
> FLAGPOLLING OF THE PIN IN A GRAND PIANO THEN WORKING WITH THE LEFT HAND ON A
> VERTICAL PIANO. Or do I need a few more years of practice to get used to
> this different feel? Is this a good idea?
> >      To finish this very long and possibly silly post, Please don't be
> offended by my rightie vs. leftie question, I don't wish to insult or
> question anybodys ability, my desire is to truly become a better piano
> technician. Any and all return posts, gratefully accepted.
> >
> 
>                      Owen J. Greyling, RPT
> 
>