45 min tunings

[John M. Formsma]

Willem,

Thanks for the reply.

<<You ask a lot of questions. Why are you so interested in knowing about my
45
minute tuning?  Are you going to try to do this yourself?>>

There are a couple of reasons. 1) I have been encouraged by our chapter
president, who routinely does 45 min tunings. (He says that we associates
need to tune more quickly so that the lady of the piano will not say, "Are
you done already? The last guy that was here took an hour and a half." <g>)
2) I would rather make $XX in 45 min rather than double that time. Yes, I
will try to do this myself, but it will probably be another couple of years
before I can consistently achieve this.

<<I try very hard to give my best on every tuning. Most of my 45 minute
tunings
are regular customers, and the piano is tuned at least once a year. Being an
CTE, I think I can honestly say that my tunings would pass the tuning exam,
Whether some of the pianos would qualify for the same is another question.>>

Glad to hear this. Since you are a CTE, you know what will pass, and what
won't. I have not taken the tuning exam, so I am unsure of just how "good"
it needs to be to pass. I want to do more than pass--I want to excel. So I
asked these questions to see what kind of quality tuning can be done in a
very short time.

<<For me there really is no difference between a concert and an in home
tuning.
I give both the same attention. The difference is that a concert usually has
a much better instrument to work on, and in that case I guess you can say
the
"lower end" tunings can get done a little faster.>>

Good points. Maybe I should have asked the question differently. I should
have asked, "Can you tune as well in 45 minutes or an hour and a half?" Yes,
it does make a great difference having a better piano to work on.
Yesterday's Whitney spinet was an example--uggh!

<<When I was doing aural tunings, I would spend about 10 minutes on the
temperament, 10-15 minutes on the octaves, and the rest of the time on
unisons, and rechecking octaves and intervals.>>

Maybe one of the things that is slowing me down some is that I am still
working on lever technique. Is the 45 min tuning usually attainable only
after some years of experience on all types of pianos?

<<By nature I am a pounder, so the piano is very stable. On a side not on
this.
My wife also tunes. (I taught her) The first time a customer requested her,
I
was a little put back. The customer said she liked Jan's tuning over mine.
At
first I thought my temperament, etc., was not as good as hers. But then it
was explained that while I pound on the piano, Jan plays it, and that is
what
the customer liked.>>

I bet this made for some interesting dinner conversation. The teacher is
bested by the student. :-)) I understand what the customer liked. A lot of
people that I tune for do not play all that much, and they really like to
hear someone who can play well. Sadly, I do not have time to play much, so
they don't hear all that much from me, although I do play what I can when I
am finished.

I appreciate the thoughts.

John Formsma
Blue Mountain, MS