Aural versus ETD tuning training

[Avery Todd]

David,

Over the years, it's never ceased to amaze me how much pianists DON'T
know about their instruments!!!

Avery

At 01:19 PM 12/26/02 -0800, you wrote:
>Here's an interesting story that relates to this somewhat.  I went to tune a
>piano for a woman I have been working for for 15 years.  The piano hadn't
>been tuned for over a year and when I got to it (Yamaha C7) I could find
>only a small handful of unisons that weren't tight, just barely moving.  The
>rest of the piano was dead on.  I went through the entire piano in about
>10 - 15 minutes.  The tuning was so close that I asked her if she'd had it
>tuned since I was there last.  She assured me that she hadn't.  I told her
>that I couldn't find much that was out of tune, that the tuning had held up
>surprisingly well.  I spent a bit of time touching up the voicing, told her
>it really didn't need much, charged her my minimum fee (much less than my
>standard tuning fee), thought I was doing her a favor by being honest about
>it and left.  A year passes by and she doesn't respond to my reminder card,
>so I call her up.  She says that the last time I was there she didn't
>believe that the piano could not have been out of tune after that much time
>(she's the sort who can't really tell though she plays well) and so she
>called up someone else after I left to be sure.  That person is now working
>for her.  Gee, I wonder what he told her?  Go figure.  No good deed goes
>unpunished.  I think next time I'll just find something wrong whether it's
>there or not.
>
>David Love
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Ron Nossaman" <RNossaman@cox.net>
>To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
>Sent: December 26, 2002 12:39 PM
>Subject: Re: Aural versus ETD tuning training
>
>
><snip>
>
>  How long doesthat "perfect" tuning last anyway?  Couple hours?  Couple
>days?
>
> >David I.
>
>I have - a couple of days. She called the evening of the afternoon it was
>tuned, and I got her in as soon as I could. This has happened with both
>aural, and ETD tuners. I can often tell who the last tuner was a year after
>the last tuning by what remains. It's easier to do that with an aural
>tuning, naturally.
>
>I always found it much easier tuning when I follow (but not stalk) myself.
>Otherwise, I have to re-train the darn thing.
>
>Ron N
>
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