Aural?

[Billbrpt@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 9/28/00 10:50:01 PM Central Daylight Time, 
ramsey@extremezone.com (Kevin E. Ramsey RPT) writes:

<< Hi, I have an unusual history. I first started tuning (snip, snip) I'm 
still humble, although I seem to have an answer for everything. And by the 
way, I do use my ear every time I tune, but mostly it's to check the results 
I'm getting, which are quite good. Tuning's not hard, voicing a piano is what 
counts. >>

My own experiece is so similar to Kevin's that I can hardly believe I didn't 
write what he did.  I am basically an aural tuner and was for some 21 years 
before I tried to use the SAT and it took me two years before the SAT was 
anything more than an encumberence to what I always felt I could do "faster, 
better and cheaper", as they say, by ear.

I have no need at all for the FAC type calculation.  I, in fact don't even 
know how to do it and don't even want to learn.  To me, it is useless.  *I* 
and *I* alone determine the intervals and the stretch.  I still do the wound 
strings on most pianos entirely by ear and when I reach the 7th octave on 
many pianos, I stop looking at the SAT.  I do not "count" beats.  I may make 
a couple of initial estimates but after that, everything is done by 
comparison of either exactly the same, slower or faster but without there 
ever being a precise, numerical rate of beating affixed to any particular 
interval.

I wear ear plugs always.  The piano is so loud, I can hear all the beats I 
need to hear right through them.

I have often noticed that some of PTG's very best tuners learned all by 
themselves.  In my opinion, it takes that kind of personality to be in this 
business: a self-starter, musical talent, experience, perception and a desire 
to work very hard at very small details that seem insignificant to others.

I have often been confronted with the "how dare you?" admonition regarding 
the way I tune and the fact that I most often use a temperament and octave 
system that I designed myself.  I laugh to myself the number of times that 
someone has looked me up and down and said, "You?, YOU?, ***YOU***?  You 
think ***YOU*** know better than all of the people who contributed to the 
volumes of HT's and the conventional wisdom of today?   ****YOU****!!!???

The answer, is yes, I do.  There wasn't a single method in all of the books I 
ever read that was good enough for me, so I came up with my own.  My methods 
however are the synthesis of all of the many things I have learned along the 
way by the many great PTG technicians, most of them Golden Hammer Award 
winners who each has had his own style and perspective.  I've always believed 
that a good student does not simply regurgitate the knowledge that has been 
acquired but makes something new and evolutionary from it.

Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin