In a message dated 8/18/00 10:19:55 PM Central Daylight Time, btrout@desupernet.net (Brian Trout) writes: << And although the tunings were not what I would have liked them to have been, (anything less than concert level bothers me), they were quite good all things considered. I just wondered if anyone else uses or has used a similar method.? >> This was actually good technique under the circumstances, Brian. When I first heard this idea described many years ago, it was called "blind tuning". I am impressed with your statement that anything less than concert level bothers you, otherwise I might not think very highly of this idea. It is, after all, taking a risk. You could very easily end up even more out of tune than you were to begin with, then where would you be? Having offered that caveat, this technique can save you time when you need it most. I use it sometimes on an ordinary household tuning when, after my initial rough tuning, I find that the overshoot I did was inadequate. If I am running out of time to do another whole pitch raise tuning of the entire treble section, for example, I may do what you described. Sometimes, I do this on individual notes which for whatever reason, end up way flat after the initial pitch raise. I always adhere to the idea that you can't really tune a piano with a fine and stable tuning unless the piano is already reasonably well in tune, at pitch and already good enough to play on. Where I live, the humidity always runs in a continuous cycle from very high to very low, year after year. The climate is much the same where you live and is for much of the US and Canada. Those pianos you tuned in August (so that they could have something workable to start the scholastic year) will start going out of tune by October. They'll really need tuning again by Christmastime (the end of the semester). If left alone, they will be just as out of tune as they were when you saw them by January, only in the opposite direction. It's a fact of life. In order to cope with such unstoppable forces, you have to accept the idea that just about every tuning you do will be a pitch change tuning. Whichever methods you use to get the piano into a state that is ready to accept a fine tuning is not as important as accepting the fact that you must do it to be a successful technician. I learned this some 21 years ago at the Annual Convention in Minneapolis from the late George Defebaugh RPT who taught a class along with Jim Coleman RPT. Part of the presentation was called "Speed and Accuracy". He showed how to do a 20 cent pitch raise on a Yamaha console in well under 10 minutes. After that initial rough tuning, the piano was ready to accept a fine tuning which would hold. I hear less experienced technicians complain all the time about how the piano "just does not stay where I put it". I'm afraid that most of the time, it's not the technician's fault. That person is simply expecting the piano do what it will never do. George emphasized when he taught, "You can tune a piano a lot quicker and easier twice than you can fight with it once". When I see someone who writes that an SAT was programmed and the tuning was begun on note A0 and it took 3 hours to get to the other end, I can only shake my head and pity the poor person who is going about tuning in completely the wrong way. Brian, learn from your own experience. Practice doing your rough tunings the way you did your "blind tuning". Try to get the string on pitch with just one stroke of the tuning hammer. Of course you will not always succeed but one big stroke followed by one or two more quick, correcting strokes will mean that you will have literally only spent a few seconds on the string. It doesn't take long to get through the entire piano when you only spend a few seconds on each string. During this period of the year when I have to do a lot of pitch lowering, I often can get the string to jump down to the pitch I want just by placing the tuning hammer on the pin. With a motion that has some counterclockwise momentum, I fling the hammer onto the pin and often I get my pitch just like that. I'm already on the next pin before an entire second has elapsed. You can go up to any piano that I tune anywhere at anytime, play it hard, give it random test blows and check intervals and octaves for correctness and you'll find that each and every one meets very high standards. I usually spend less than an hour tuning, the usual time is 45 minutes and I can often be done in about 30 minutes on a good piano which is well kept. I never expect the piano to be on pitch and it usually isn't. I always tune the piano at least twice through completely, I would say 99.9% of the time (yes, 999 out of 1000 pianos). It just wouldn't meet my own personal standards if I didn't. Bill Bremmer RPT Madison, Wisconsin
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