tuning exam in US

[Keith McGavern]

Joe, Richard,

>From: Joseph Garrett <joegarrett@earthlink.net>
>The Test Piano is tuned by an aural tuner.
>Then it is reviewed and tweaked by, at least, two
>other Aural tuners, until they agree on all aspects
>of the tuning. THEN, the tuning is Measured and Recorded
>via an ETD, (or Measured by ETD and Recorded on a
>"hard copy".).

The wording here, while in essence is correct, might have caused you 
to misinterpret the actual procedure, and therefore resulted in the 
response you gave. Hopefully, what follows will detail just a little 
more the process as I recall.

One person does not tune the entire piano, and then two others come 
along and review that tuning. There is a Certified Tuning Examiner, 
who is a Registered Piano Technician, and two Registered Piano 
Technicians that tune a test piano as a team. They must be in 
agreement every step of the tuning process.

Having arrived at consensus throughout various phases of setting up 
the test piano, an Electronic Tuning Device (ETD), that is sanctioned 
by a special testing committee of the Piano Technicians Guild (PTG) 
used to record that consensus. It can be quite an exhaustive process. 
The ETD in an invaluable aid to the process!

It is quite a time saver to record the information, so subsequent 
tunings done by testees don't have to be aurally agreed upon over and 
over, especially when there are several candidates to be tested. The 
set-up process determines the goal for the candidates to attempt to 
achieve on the test piano.

It only takes participation as a test candidate, or as one of the 
examiniers to grasp the significance of the time involved to make 
such a activity happen. What I have posted only scratches the surface 
of the commitment given by those dedicated persons.

This input is what I recall from having taken the PTG tuning 
examination, having witnessed the PTG tuning examination piano being 
set-up and in having participated as one of the three persons in 
administering the PTG tuning examination.

If any of the information I have presented is not accurately 
described in good faith, please don't hesitate to correct it.

Respectfully,

Keith McGavern
Registered Piano Technician
Oklahoma Chapter 731
Piano Technicians Guild
USA

At 10:55 PM -0500 6/25/03, Richard Moody wrote:
>
>Before the candidate tunes the piano,
>why does the piano need to be "recorded" by an ETD?  Why can't the
>candidate's tuning simply be "reviewed by {the same} "two other
>Aural
>>  tuners, until they agree on all aspects of the tuning."   What
>does recording their agreement onto a machine accomplish?  If they
>agreed without a machine on the "master tuning" why can't they do
>the same for the candidate tuning?
>
>It makes sense to evaluate a machine tuning with or by a machine.
>But to evaluate an aural tuning,
>logically it should be done by aural tuners.
>That the Guild doesn't issue "aural certificates" or "machine
>certificates" I think is missing out on a significant issue of
>interest
>to many in the Music Industry and the private sector as
>well. ----rm
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives