David, BINGO - again David, you hit the nail squarely on the head. Somehow, you have mastered the way of saying what I've been trying to say since the beginning. Duaine On 01/31/2011 07:38 PM, David Love wrote: > > All I can say is I’m glad I didn’t bring up the man/woman thing. I’m > sure I’d be hearing all kinds of MCP accusations by now. > > No, I have not bought into the tuning test as the ultimate reality for > tuning quality. Please don’t be insulting, I’d like to think it’s > beneath you. I bring up the PTG tuning test because we hold that as a > standard by which we measure some level of aural skill and base the > highest level of classification we have on passing that test. If it > has no meaning in terms of quality or if tuning quality is simply a > matter of personal taste then why bother to try and set a standard? > Anybody could simply argue that their own tunings are quite musical. > Your other recent comment about the unimportance of temperament > accuracy also flies in the face of this standard. If such variation in > temperament tuning is common and to you acceptable, then why is that > the most critically judged part and, in fact, the part that prevents > most people from attempting or passing the test to begin with. Perhaps > a note to the examining committee suggesting a reevaluation of these > standards is in order. (Something tells me you’ll be hearing from > Duaine on this soon.) > > Why would you presume that **any** etd users would lose their sense of > the voice of the piano. And if you consider the RPT exam to be > meaningless, why would you think that any aural tuner would have any > sense of the “voice” of the piano. What someone uses to tune the piano > simply has no bearing on this particular ability if it’s even a > relevant description. > > Regarding your “poor silly”, if he can’t tune clean unisons how would > you even know what his sense of stretch is? Which one of those > unstable unisons might represent his best judgment. I come to pianos > not infrequently where someone’s sense of stretch has the last octave > stretched way beyond reason, a personal choice. That doesn’t make it > right. And as far as Mr Sambell’s experience with one customer, we’ve > all had similar experiences of quirky requests. But as the French > would say, une hirondelle ne fait pas le printemps. Or for those of > you who don’t speak French (myself included, it’s just one of my > favorite sayings) , one swallow does not make the spring. > > I often do need to get through 5 pianos in a day btw. Once in a great > while six. When that happens I want to be sure that the last piano of > the day is tuned with as much care and attention to detail as the > first. Not just “acceptable” but to a high standard. If I tune those > pianos aurally, after the fourth piano I’ve spend some 6 hours, > typically, and I can almost assure you that the next one will suffer > some. Using an etd, I’ve spent 4 hours at that point and have no doubt > that the quality of that 5^th tuning will be as good as the first. > That counts, especially to the customer who is 5^th in line that day. > > I have no interest in trying to fight the public illusion about etds. > What does concern me, however, is the myth being perpetuated by those > in the trade. They should know better by now. > > David Love > > www.davidlovepianos.com > -- Duaine Hechler Piano, Player Piano, Pump Organ Tuning, Servicing & Rebuilding Reed Organ Society Member Florissant, MO 63034 (314) 838-5587 dahechler at att.net www.hechlerpianoandorgan.com -- Home & Business user of Linux - 11 years
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