leftie vs. rightie

[Robert S. Bussell]

At 04:28 AM 11/28/97 -0700, you wrote:
>
>	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
>> 

Owen and list,

I highly recommend The Ken Burton book "Different Strokes".  While teaching
at the PTG convention this year I insisted that all my tuning tutoring
students purchase the book.  I found it terrific at creating dialog about
this subject.  I hope to use it for a chapter meeting technical sometime in
the future.  By the way,  My teacher Barbara Martin insisted that I "being
Left handed" would learn to tune left handed on verticals and right handed
on grands.  I still do to this day.  No sign of carpal tunnel syndrome yet!
 I wonder if this switching technique has helped?  

Bob
Robert S. Bussell
Registered Piano Technician, PTG
Indianapolis, Indiana,
rbussell@iquest.net