<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><BR><DIV><DIV>On Mar 17, 2006, at 11:19 PM, RON MAY, RPT wrote:</DIV><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: AGaramond Bold; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; ">I received my second hearing aid about 6 months ago. I am a 69 year old Aural tuner who sees absolutely no benefit in ever owning an Tunlab or whatever. I am a concert tuner and to this day will put my tuning up against any of you. </SPAN></FONT></SPAN></BLOCKQUOTE><BR></DIV><DIV>Unfortunately, Ron's opening paragraph sent the discussion flying off on a tangent, leaving a very good point behind. That is, the natural loss of hearing as we age, and how easily hearing aids can fit into the practice of tuning pianos. And his final paragraph gave it another kick.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><DIV><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;">For God Sake---go get your ears checked people. Your ETDs don't hear this stuff. Half of you can't hear and don't know it. Piano tuners are probably among the absolutely worst hearing people in the world.</SPAN></FONT><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "></SPAN> </DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE><BR></DIV><DIV>What he is saying is that, ETD users or not, we'll all reach the point where the critical sounds in a piano simply don't register in our hearing. And I'm not just talking about What we need to tune a piano.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Come summer I love to swim, and better yet, dive off of high rock ledges into deep pools. At least three times in the last twenty years, I've surfaced after a 10-12' plunge and found my ears plugged with my own ear wax, pushed there by the sudden spike in water pressure. Each time, I got myself to the local RN for an irrigation of the ear canals. But in each case, not before having to do a weekend concert tuning.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>I found quite quickly that all my favorite partials for tuning were still readily available through the muddiness of my hearing. What I could not do was voice. The nuances of attack, bloom and whine were bearing in the mud. As were any of the ticks, scrapes and whines which they hire us to clean up.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>The moral? For all of us, the ability to hear what goes on during a tuning will be the last thing to go. Long before that will be the ability distinguish, say the subtle differences in brightness among three strings on a note, which allows us not to waste our voicing techniques where they are not needed.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Ron is spot on when he says our ETDs don't hear this stuff, namely loose pinning and loose backcheck heads. They weren't designed to.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Plenty more to discuss on this, but let's see if we can get the discussion back on track, say on something we all have in common, the sunset years of aural accuity.</DIV><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>BillBallard RPT</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">NH Chapter, P.T.G.</DIV><DIV><A href="mailto:wbps@vermontel.net">wbps@vermontel.net</A></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">"Can you check out this middle C?. It "whangs' - (or twangs?)</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> Thanks so much, Ginger"</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> ...........Service Request</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">+++++++++++++++++++++</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV><BR></BODY></HTML>