And that is exactly what the ETD is, a tool. It doesn't do the work for you nor does it absolve you of the responsibility of checking your work. Aural skills are still necessary. What I don't understand is why someone would not want one. Even if you prefer to tune aurally there are so many instances where they are a benefit: quick and accurate pitch raises, multiple pianos tuned together, noisy environments, to prevent fatigue in high volume situations. Those who eschew the use of them probably don't hesitate to use various computer programs for book keeping, the making of forms, scale calculations, etc., when they could certainly do this the old fashioned way, by hand. There seems to be a certain stubbornness from the "con" side that baffles me. I suppose if I were doing this as a hobby, maybe I'd stick to pure aural tuning, maybe. But since it's a business and I'm looking for the best use of the available tools to insure under all circumstances that I can produce the tuning that I will feel the most confident about and in a consistent and timely manner (we-most of us-do this for a living, after all), having an ETD in one's arsenal I consider simply too advantageous to ignore. David Love www.davidlovepianos.com From: Gary Doudna [mailto:doudna440 at gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, January 26, 2011 2:20 PM To: davidlovepianos at comcast.net; pianotech at ptg.org Cc: dmporritt at gmail.com Subject: Re: [pianotech] advertising I was trained to tune aurally back in the '70s, and was proud of of being an aural tuner. This continued for a few years, on in to my tenure as a university tech. Eventually, I gave in to using an ETD because I was battling a soprano in the adjacent practice room on one side, and a saxophone on my other side, causing headaches by mid afternoon. I did have one country customer with a low end grand who would not let me tune with a machine. A neighbor, down the road a piece, told her that tuning with a machine would ruin the piano. No attempt at explaining the "machine" tuning did any good, so I had one aural tuning each year. Good experience to tune aurally, occasionally. Last spring, a water bottle that I used to carry in my case leaked, rendering my SAT useless...since fixed...so I had to tune entirely by ear. While I tune using an ETD, I use it as a guide, always checking the temperament, octaves, etc. by ear. The ETD is not infallible due to scale imperfections. Those who tune with ETD's, should tune a piano aurally, now and then, to check out one's ability to do an aural tuning. Gary Doudna440 at gmail.com On Wed, Jan 26, 2011 at 3:33 PM, David Love <davidlovepianos at comcast.net> wrote: I tuned for 20 years aurally and now 15 years with a machine. Never had a client comment one way or the other except as an interested inquiry. It's amazing the mythology that are fabricated. David Love www.davidlovepianos.com <http://www.davidlovepianos.com/> (sent from bb) _____ From: "David M. Porritt" <dmporritt at gmail.com> Sender: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2011 17:00:23 +0000 To: <pianotech at ptg.org> ReplyTo: dmporritt at gmail.com, pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] advertising Ryan: Do you have any experience with an ETD or are your conclusions just speculation? dp Sent from my BlackBerryR _____ From: Ryan Sowers <tunerryan at gmail.com> Sender: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2011 08:37:48 -0800 To: <pianotech at ptg.org> ReplyTo: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] advertising One thing I can say for certain is that I would have lost several key clients if I had showed up with one of "those machines" as clients sometime put it. These are the types of clients who give prestige to your business and lead to other work. So ETD dependency definitely can limit you from a strictly business standpoint. You may not know which clients are not calling you back because they don't trust that you really know what you're doing. Those who become high-level aural tuners an extra measure of respect not only from the musical community, but also their peers. I think of it like "bench regulators" vs "In the piano regulators". If all your regulation is done on the bench, you are never going to satisfy a certain class of client, and you will never know what a really sweet regulation feels like. I find my vacuum cleaner a much more useful tool than an ETD. :) Ryan On Wed, Jan 26, 2011 at 1:11 AM, Susan Kline <skline at peak.org> wrote: On 1/26/2011 12:22 AM, Duaine Hechler wrote: So, lets agree to disagree and for the fossils to accept this change and move on and allow each of us to tune pianos, make our customers happy and make some money. I certainly have never interfered with anyone tuning pianos using devices, or badmouthed the devices to my customers. While the ETD at present seems to be the fashion, I think it's wise to remember that the old way of tuning is still quite viable, and enjoyable. I don't think any piano tuner is worse off from being ABLE to tune without a device. I've watched a few people using ETDs to tune, and never felt tempted. It didn't look like all that much fun. If you could stop feeling inferior and threatened by aural tuning, I think you might enjoy learning it. It has considerable musical rewards, hearing all the different intervals in their variety, and enjoying the architecture of the whole thing. It's what one might call an enriching experience. All this without any thought for the day your batteries run low unexpectedly, or you drop your ETD and the screen shatters ... Susan Kline -- Ryan Sowers, RPT Puget Sound Chapter Olympia, WA www.pianova.net <http://www.pianova.net/> -- Doudnas PO Box 68 Baileys Harbor, WI 54202 Doudna440 at gmail.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20110126/323ac07b/attachment.htm>
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