Tuning for Tomatoes

[LHSBAND440@AOL.COM]

Tonight I had the rare occasion to tune for a wonderfully elderly couple.  
They had a Steinway and Sons that there daughter had played for years and 
since had moved out of the house and the piano hadn't been tuned since 1984.  
Even though it was in a finished basement the instrument was only 14 cents 
flat on an average.  I spent time learning about tuning and the art of being 
human.  As the elderly gentlemen stood over me and watched everything I did, 
his wife continually offered me and coke and a sandwich.  I ended up 
journeying away from the piano for five minutes to look at pictures when 
their daughter won piano competitions practicing on this instrument and for 
an instant there lives were brought back to those happy days when music 
filled their house.  I was asked to do this tuning because they are selling 
the piano since their daughter has moved on and has no interest in playing 
the piano.  As I returned to the piano these two wonderful people just 
continued to live those years over again as I played the piano to check 
intervals and beat rates.  Finally, I put the magnetic pickup on the 
accu-tuner and let them talk and relive to their hearts delight.  When It 
came time for me to leave the gentlemen took back his check and then came 
back with another that was 20% more than what a normally charge.  As I took 
the check his wife came back with a bag full of tomatoes.  She said that 
these were the best from her garden and she wanted me to take them home to my 
family since I had spent almost 3 hours with them tuning their piano rather 
than being home with my family.  As I drove home I thought that his night was 
just the kind of night that they needed and so did I.  It had very little to 
do with beat rates, unisons, or the SAT.  But it had everything to do with 
how music can draw people together who have never met before and who have a 
common interest, desire or just memories of times gone bye.  Now I don't tune 
for a living but rather for the fun of it, so I can do this.  Those of you 
who tune for a living, I understand that this is probably something that you 
can't do.  I kept the tomatoes but the check I put in an envelope and sent it 
back with a letter saying that they were the winners of the free monthly 
tuning (which no such thing exists).  Am I richer for the evening? ....... 
More than I have felt in a long time.


Leonard (Leo) H. Silverman 
Watertown, NY