Maybe they should all try to tune their own pianos....

[David Love]

Whenever someone expresses interest, I encourage them to get a tuning
hammer to try and clean up a unison here and there if it starts to drift. 
I think most serious pianists ought to be able to do a couple of things,
adjust a pedal, take off the fall board to retrieve a pencil, clean up a
unison.  Many of the conservatories have a mandatory piano technology class
that piano majors must take.  Many seem to find ways to avoid it.  My
experience is that once they try to tune a unison, they appreciate much
more what you do.  

BTW, I had the great misfortune of scheduling a number of appointments in
the south bay today.  Was it only 105?  I almost stopped at the local
hardware and bought myself a mini fan.  Had I thought of it earlier in the
day, I would have.    

David Love
davidlovepianos@earthlink.net


----- Original Message ----- 
From: 
To: pianotech@ptg.org
Sent: 6/26/2003 5:18:37 PM 
Subject: Maybe they should all try to tune their own pianos....


Hi all, 

I sent a post a couple of weeks ago about going out to tune a piano for a
gentleman who had attempted to tune his own instrument.  He was actually a
very nice guy, and played the piano quite well, and because he had a pretty
muusical ear, he thought it would be a piece o' cake. 

I got a call back from him yesterday telling me what a great job I did, and
how "in tune" the piano sounds.  That kind of phone call is always nice to
get.  But it got me to thinking...was it because he had attempted to
achieve a good tuning on his own that he appreciated the work of a
professional tuner?   

Maybe some of our less appreciative customers should be given a tuning
hammer and allowed to try their luck.  Anybody else ever have this
experience? 

Dave Stahl