First, a BIG sigh. This argument about aural tuning vs. the ETD has been going on ... in our craft, since at least the 70s ... in our culture, for at least 2500 years. It's about technology. There is, as always, merit on both sides of the argument, but the only real value comes from embracing both sides at once. Bear with me, y'all, please. Here's a quote from Plato's "Phaedrus" dialog, and then I'll paraphrase a piece of it. Socrates is speaking, recounting an Egyptian legend about the invention of writing: "Among the ancient gods of Naucratis in Egypt there was one to whom the bird called the ibis is sacred. The name of that divinity was Theuth, and it was he who first discovered number and calculation, geometry and astronomy, as well as the games of checkers and dice, and, above all else, writing. "Now the king of all Egypt at that time was Thamus, who lived in the great city in the upper region that the Greeks call Egyptian Thebes … . Theuth came to exhibit his arts to him and urged him to disseminate them to all the Egyptians. Thamus asked him about the usefulness of each art, and while Theuth was explaining it, Thamus praised him for whatever he thought was right in his explanations and criticized him for whatever he thought was wrong. "The story goes that Thamus said much to Theuth, both for and against each art, which it would take too long to repeat. But when they came to writing, Theuth said: 'O King, here is something that, once learned, will make the Egyptians wiser and will improve their memory; I have discovered a potion for memory and for wisdom.' Thamus, however, replied: 'O most expert Theuth, one man can give birth to the elements of an art, but only another can judge how they can benefit or harm those who will use them. And now, since you are the father of writing, your affection for it has made you describe its effects as the opposite of what they really are. In fact, it will introduce forgetfulness into the soul of those who learn it: they will not practice using their memory because they will put their trust in writing, which is external and depends on signs that belong to others, instead of trying to remember from the inside, completely on their own. You have not discovered a potion for remembering, but for reminding; you provide your students with the appearance of wisdom, not with its reality. Your invention will enable them to hear many things without being properly taught, and they will imagine that they have come to know much while for the most part they will know nothing. And they will be difficult to get along with, since they will merely appear to be wise instead of really being so.' And here's my paraphrase: "...But when they came to the ETD, Theuth said: 'O King, here is something that, once learned, will make the tuners wiser and will improve their tunings; I have discovered a potion for temperament, speed, and accuracy.' Thamus, however, replied: 'O most expert Theuth, one man can give birth to the elements of an art, but only another can judge how they can benefit or harm those who will use them. And now, since you are the father of the ETD, your affection for it has made you describe its effects as the opposite of what they really are. In fact, it will introduce loss of accurate hearing into the soul of those who learn it: they will not practice using their ears because they will put their trust in the display, which is external and depends on machine programming, instead of trying to hear the actual intervals from the inside, completely on their own. You have not discovered a potion for temperament, speed, and accuracy, but for reading a display; you provide your students with the appearance of tuning, not with its reality. Your invention will enable them to tune many pianos without really hearing them, and they will imagine that they have become good tuners while for the most part they will know nothing about the true art of tuning. And they will be difficult to get along with, since they will merely appear to be wise instead of really being so.' My point? Every technological advance is subject to this kind of argument. Every advance does subtract from the human experience, and at the very same time, every advance also benefits us in new ways. We drive in cars and forget how to walk. We watch TV and forget how to enjoy the passage of time. We email and forget how to engage in face-to-face conversation. In every case we could get into pitched battles, arguments available on both sides. Yet each side can benefit so much by incorporating the other's viewpoint. Judge for yourself which of the voices above are open to both sides, and which are entrenched. Jason <snip> -- | || ||| || ||| || ||| || ||| || ||| || ||| || ||| jason's cell 425 830 1561 | || ||| || ||| || ||| || ||| || ||| || ||| || ||| -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20110130/952dd08a/attachment-0001.htm>
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