In need of some encouragement - proof

[Diane Hofstetter]

We spent six weeks one summer, studying with Jim Coleman at ASU in Tempe, 
AZ.  Our friend, Antonio, who WAS ALREADY an RPT, went with us.

After the third week of daily unison tuning, Antonio started lamenting "I'm 
afraid I've made a terrible mistake.  My business, wife and son are 
languishing at home in California, while I am here tuning unisons!  I want 
to learn how to do a better temperament!"  That week Jim switched him to 
tuning ocatves.

In the middle of the fifth week, Antonio started lamenting, "my wife! my 
son! my business! and I'm only tuning octaves!"

On Friday, Jim sent him up to the Steinway D with a printed out temperament 
sequence.  When Antonio came downstairs, Jim went upstairs together with him 
and with the Phoenix chapter master tuning exam and scored his temperament 
on what turned out to be the exam piano.

Antonio achieved a CTE score!  He went home the next day.

In subsequent years he became the tuner for the Sacramento Symphony.







Diane Hofstetter




----Original Message Follows----
From: "David Ilvedson" <ilvey at sbcglobal.net>
Reply-To: ilvey at sbcglobal.net, Pianotech List <pianotech at ptg.org>
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: In need of some encouragement - another possibility
Date: Sun, 10 Sep 2006 11:18:15 -0700

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.