An Awesome Moment

[Farrell]

Awesome indeed! And I'll bet you will learn to tie an awesome knot in a piano wire in the future! Congrats!

Terry Farrell
  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Carol R. Beigel" <crbrpt@bellatlantic.net>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2002 11:02 PM
Subject: An Awesome Moment


> I sometimes think that if I was a piano salesperson, and someone came into
> my store looking to spend a few hundred dollars on a used instrument, that I
> would show them the finest, most magnificent piano in the store, first.  I
> would want them to hear the magnificence and beauty of this unique
> instrument, and let them decide for themselves how much they want to
> compromise.  How can someone be taught quality if they never see or hear it?
> 
> We tell people who want to join our profession to acquire an old upright and
> practice repair and regulation.  Then we ask them to practice tuning on it!
> Perhaps if we took this aspiring piano technician to the symphony and had
> them listen to a piano concerto played by someone who could really play the
> piano, they would see what an awesome profession this can be.  They would
> know from the beginning what the top skill level could produce.  Maybe they
> would not settle for less than RPT.
> 
> For the past 24 years, I have been trying to learn to be a competent piano
> technician.  The mechanical part of our profession, with the exception of
> tying a knot is piano wire, has seemed to come fairly easily to me, but
> learning to tune a piano has been the hardest thing I ever learned to do.
> It is the only endeavor that I ever failed at - flunking the tuning exam at
> least four times during my first 6 years in the business.  I have never
> forgotten those failed exams, and they have always been in the back of my
> mind - creating a lingering doubt that I might not be up to standard when it
> really counted.
> 
> This weekend I attended the first full symphony orchestra concert in my
> adult life.  I heard my first piano concerto.  I met my first professional
> pianist.  I heard my tuning on a concert hall stage for the first time.  It
> was an awesome moment in my life.  I guess I better learn to tie a knot in
> piano wire!
> 
> Carol Beigel, RPT
> 
> 
> 
> 
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