One thing I want to emphasize and repeat: at the end of the day, I need to have fun and be challenged. The beauty of our craft is that there are so many things to learn how to do, and so many ways to keep myself learning and keep things fresh. I have a huge drive to get better at things I'm good at; tuning, voicing, regulation, diagnostics, and rebuilding are deep oceans of opportunity to get better, to achieve mastery. It's my belief that humans function in a much healthier, more positive way if they are working toward mastery of something---and then get there. The word I've heard so many tuners use about their tunings---acceptable----literally repels me. My tunings, my piano work, is consistently excellent because that's the way I feel the best: to see myself, and have others see me, as excellent. Excellence breeds peer and self- respect, collegiality, and access to a better class of clients/pianos. Acceptability breeds rationalization and excuses, and, at least for me, a loss of self-regard. Tools don't mean squat, ultimately, in terms of who does better work. My wife the sculptor uses simple, inexpensive clay tools and bypasses the newer, "better," more efficient implements. Take a look at her work, which all originates in clay, then is transferred to other media: www.tanyaragir.com Do you think her decision to use tools that make her feel good, old tools, "dinosaur" tools, subtracts from the quality of her work? My favorite tuner in the world, Barbara Pease Renner, uses 3 or 4 temperament strips, the oldest, bulkiest Sanderson machine, and an impact tuning hammer that weighs as much as a boat anchor. Her tunings are magnificent, musical, soaring things of beauty. My tunings aren't as good as hers, but they're pretty damn close. I use open strings, one felt mute, ears only, and a nine-ounce hammer from Charlie Faulk. Radically different tools, same result, in the same time frame. Do you actually think I give a sh**t what she uses to get there? Absolutely not. What I love, and respect, and honor, is inside Barbara; it has nothing to do with tools. The quality of my work comes from my heart, and gut, and gonads. I love the attitude of the vast majority of people on this list, because we're most of us making a huge effort to be excellent. Part of that is praising each other, and seeing the incredible commonality among all the diversity---being NICE to each other, as possibly cheesy at that sounds. If your heart and passion is no longer in your work, it's time to move on. If you choose not to move on, please don't complain to me about how boring or repetitive or "no big deal" the work has become. Work without love and fun involved becomes quickly toxic. End of rant. Is the sun past the yardarm? May I have an adult beverage, please? From freezing, gray, miserable southern California--- :--) David Andersen www.davidandersenpianos.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20110127/bcedc1f1/attachment-0001.htm>
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