In need of some encouragement - another possibility

[David Ilvedson]

That's we did for the first 3 months at Western Iowa Tech...1 hour a day of unison tuning...

David Ilvedson, RPT
Pacifica, CA  94044


----- Original message ----------------------------------------
From: Avery <avery1 at houston.rr.com>
To: "Pianotech List" <pianotech at ptg.org>
Received: 9/9/2006 11:50:48 PM
Subject: Re: In need of some encouragement - another possibility


>Hi Israel,

>When I had my first "trainee" a few years ago, I had no real clue 
>about how to do it. I asked Jim Coleman, Sr.
>for some suggestions and the main one he mentioned was to make them 
>tune unisons until they could do it as well
>as I can. THEN start teaching them to tune a temperament! It worked 
>pretty well, even though they didn't really
>"enjoy" it! :-D But it paid off!

>Avery


>>Another feature of our training was extensive practice tuning 
>>unisons and octaves for a long time, before attempting temperaments. 
>>This developed both our sensitivity to beats and our "aural 
>>endurance" so that by the time we were working on temperaments, we 
>>could actually maintain our acute hearing ability long enough to 
>>tune a rudimentary temperament. It takes beginners a long time to 
>>tune a temperament - speed comes with practice. If your ear "shuts 
>>down" before you can complete your temperament - you suddenly stop 
>>hearing those fifths and fourths beats that were so clear before... 
>>I suspect that many self-taught beginner tuners can avoid a lot of 
>>frustration with temperament tuning if they have the patience to do 
>>sufficient unison and octave practice before attempting 
>>temperaments. And with ETDs supplying an adequate temperament on 
>>which to base octaves, this should be fairly easy.