<div dir="ltr"><br><br> <div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Jul 17, 2008 at 9:43 PM, Ron Nossaman <<a href="mailto:rnossaman@cox.net">rnossaman@cox.net</a>> wrote:<br> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid"> <div class="Ih2E3d"><br> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">IMHO Israel Stein's letter on how people learn or don't learn and why was rather illuminating and apropos to this discussion.<br> </blockquote><br></div>That would be the one in where I was personally condemned for not accepting the status quo of the Steinway sostenuto system, and presuming to change it rather than just learning to deal with it?<br> <br>And being ignorant of the give and take of the formal educational process, having acquired my apparently sub standard education outside an institutional setting?<br><br>And being myopic in my inability to understand the value of knowledge acquired from others in a give and take instructor/student setting?<br> <br>And screwing up pianos for years as a result of lacking competent instruction, again, presumably in an institutional setting?<br><br>And one of the worst among the "self taught" in suffering from the lack of varied perspective of others, universalizing my own miserable experience, as a result of being unwilling to listen to anyone else?<br> <br>You mean that illuminating missive, with the comments of both parties being attributed to Mr Stein by virtue of lack of differentiation within the text, and the absence of my own signature and credit for my own comments?<br> <br>Ron N<br></blockquote></div> <div><br> </div> <div>Sorry Ron I copied and pasted it directly from the list, I had retained it in my g-mail file for future reference. I in no way meant to open old wounds or re-start old battles.</div> <div> </div> <div>It was the general message I found to be of much greater import than the messengers. </div> <div> </div> <div>Particularly the point that a one size fits all way of teaching isn't the best learning atmosphere for everyone. Israel's point that exposure to a variety of knowledge was the part of the letter that stuck with me. </div> <div> </div> <div>I have often said if you put 5 techs in a room with 5 pianos and asked them all to do the same repair, most certainly all could but how they arrived at the finished repair would be very different. </div> <div> </div> <div>From your comments to Ed about the Pianopedia Format, I got the impression you were trying to convey some of that sensibility or feeling about it. Who would decide what went in and what didn't and most importantly WHY or WHY NOT? Obviously objectivity would be a very difficult thing to maintain, we all tend to favor the familiar and reject the unfamiliar, again IMHO this was the point you were making, as I read it at least.</div> <div> </div> <div>My mistake, and this too brings out some points about the archives and picking choosing the parts of threads we read instead of reading the whole thing, was that I remembered Israels point about teaching things in a variety of ways but not the complete thread in which you and he were apparantly having a heated discussion.</div> <div> </div> <div>Again my aim was to illuminate the subject at hand with, what I felt were some sensible words that I recalled having shed some light on my understanding of the learning process.</div> <div> </div> <div>If those words have injured or embarassed you in any way Ron I apologize!</div> <div> </div> <div>Mike<br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence. <br>Vince Lombardi<br><br>Michael Magness<br>Magness Piano Service<br>608-786-4404<br><a href="http://www.IFixPianos.com">www.IFixPianos.com</a><br> email <a href="mailto:mike@ifixpianos.com">mike@ifixpianos.com</a> </div></div>