Aural versus ETD tuning training

[Farrell]

Well put Ed. You wrote:

"Obscure occupations such as ours,(not everyone walks around every day 
thinking about pianos),  view our knowledge as something of value, and in the 
past, tended to keep it close, lest someone else begin stealing our 
customers, grabbing our grands, whatever.  The machines make that possible, 
as Jim's story of a newbie stepping and acquiring a veteran tuner's business 
for himself."

I have followed behind several local aural-only older techs and ended up with their client. I'm a machine (SAT/Verituner) kinda guy. After listening to these pianos (some only a day or two after being tuned by other tuner) I quickly realized that I got the job, not because a machine is better than aural, but rather because either their skills are fading, were never there, or they just don't care. The aural tuner in the other post that tunes perfectly for the dealer, may also have just slacked off a bit in some of those concert situations.

Now, how many local aural-only tuners have followed behind me getting some of my client???? Not all of them have called back...............

IMHO however you can produce a fine tuning and make the customer happy is the way to a long and happy career.

Terry Farrell
  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <A440A@aol.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, December 26, 2002 6:43 AM
Subject: Re: Aural versus ETD tuning training


> Ric writes: 
> > I debate the
> 
> whole validity of this continuing "value debate" about ETDs and Aural
> 
> tunings. I certainly debate the value of the so called Tuneoffs in
> 
> providing us with any fundemental insights relative to the question they
> 
> were to address   <snip>  Why it should wake such
> 
> fervour, aggravation, and conflict amoung so many really puzzles me. I
> 
> mean... whats the point of that ? Or perhaps one subscribes to the idea
> 
> that there is nothing more to learn ??
> 
> Greetings, 
>    There is always more to learn. sometimes history. Today, the fervor, 
> acrimony, and negative vibes in the Machine/Ear contention only affect a 
> small minority in either camp.  Vocal, yes, but not totally representative of 
> our trade-group at large.  Among those most strongly affected are the 
> fearful, and  usually, where the fear is strongest,the anger hottest. 
>    The history of competition may have begun when a skilled ear could 
> "out-tune" the Conn Strobo-tuner, so near the beginning, the machine earned a 
> reputation of signaling a tuner only capable of second-rate work.  The tuner 
> who had worked his way up by their ears, (knowledge was harder to come by 50 
> years ago), might be forgiven his resentment of a high school band teacher, 
> who knew nothing but the names of the notes and the dials, knocking off four 
> or five customers a week with "box" tuning.  I remember it happening. 
>       However, I know that many tuners who toted those brown boxes around, 
> enjoyed a career of happy customers, even though some established tuners 
> feared that if everybody had one of those boxes, they would be out of a job.  
> Since tuning was the income producer for most, it was $urvival!!   Lotta heat.
>     Things have changed.  Today, we have machines that meet what seems to be 
> all expectations,  and we have denigrating comments.  The purists among us, 
> (and I seem to suffer at least a streak of it), want to feel that if the 
> machine can replace the ear, then the art of tuning dies.  We feel compelled 
> to protect "ART" as though it is our sacred mission.  Curse the machines, 
> down with Machina!   Anyhow, we resist accepting that art is not simply 
> replicating it every closer to perfection.  I suppose the pertinent question 
> to be debated here is "Can craftsmanship be taken to the level of art?"  Most 
> of us think so, but in the commercial world, the difference between a merely 
> Guild test-passing result and the master tuning it is compared to are lost to 
> 99% of the customers.  So, the contention between machine/ear camps is now 
> about how close to perfection can one or the other gets. Today, the debate is 
> about aesthetics, not survival.   
>       For starters, "perfect" isn't available.  We all make the moral 
> decision on "how close is close enough" several hundred times each tuning and 
> every one of them may not be totally optimum.  Does it matter? And if so, 
> then to whom?  That is what the ET tune-offs tried to decide.  What was shown 
> was not that techs couldn't hear the difference, but that preferences were 
> about evenly distributed between aural and machine.  From this we may decide 
> that for practical purposes, on good scales, there is no difference. 
>       Obscure occupations such as ours,(not everyone walks around every day 
> thinking about pianos),  view our knowledge as something of value, and in the 
> past, tended to keep it close, lest someone else begin stealing our 
> customers, grabbing our grands, whatever.  The machines make that possible, 
> as Jim's story of a newbie stepping and acquiring a veteran tuner's business 
> for himself.  The aural tuner may protest that his tuning is more artistic, 
> but the paying customer is actually where reality sits. ( In this case, since 
> no price was mentioned, I am assuming that the machine tuning sounded better) 
>   This could happen to any of us, but it is the natural way of competition 
> and results in better quality work. I think the machines will be the reason 
> that poor aural tuning just won't be accepted, anymore.  I hope so.   
>      I have tried it both ways, I can get near equal results by either ear or 
> machine, but there is no comparison in how much work would be involved 
> without the technology.  The improvement I can make by ear to most of my 
> machine tunings is not noticeable to anyone else, so what, me worry?  Do I 
> feel shortchanged by allowing the machine to lead the way, not at all.  You 
> can dig a very fine grave with a shovel, but a back-hoe can be a beautiful 
> thing.  
>    
>  
> Ed Foote RPT 
> www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/
> www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html
>  
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