<html> <body> Avery,                    The advice from Jim is right on the money.  The number one complaint that customers can, and will pick up on, is unisons.   Never in 30 plus years has a customer complained. " your contiguous thirds do no progress." The teaching of unisons is the bed rock, period. At the same time secure hammer technique is of equal importance. Until good unisons, and good pin setting is achieved, very little progress can be made. Hammer technique, and firm test blows., is every bit as difficult to learn, as hearing the unisons. The student is learning several things simultaneously.  Once moving on to Octaves, the student is able to focus on one thing without second guessing themselves. Regards Roger <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Marshall, Actually, I was primarily referring to someone just learning how to tune. Can't even set a temperament yet. I try to keep them on unisons until they can do a stable job of that. Before I started with my first "trainee", I asked Jim Coleman for any advice he might have. His comment was to "keep them on unisons until they can tune them as well as you. Then start with the other things." Without that stability, one is basically just spinning his/her wheels. Avery </blockquote></body> </html>