<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16674" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I had a customer who was a Scott Joplin afficianado.  She said she didn't play very well and was interested in Joplin from an historical and archival point of view.  I arrived early one time and could hear her playing from the driveway.  She was better than good.  I never complimented her on her playing for fear of  embarrassing her, but I arrived early from then on to sit on her stairs and listen.  She always played for half an hour before the service appointment.</FONT></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=wimblees@aol.com href="mailto:wimblees@aol.com">Willem Blees</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=pianotech@ptg.org href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, July 22, 2008 12:22 PM</DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: Getting to know your clients</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV><WBR>Then there are clients who don't want to play in front of the tuner. I had one customer who, according to the music on the piano, was an advanced player, and even told me she was. She tried to tell me the problems with one of the notes, so I asked her to show me. She said she would never play for anyone except her husband and her teacher. I tried to explain that like a doctor, who need to examine her by putting his hands on her body to find out a problem, I needed to have her play. But even that didn't help. I tuned for her for 10 years, but she never played. <BR><BR> <DIV style="CLEAR: both">Willem (Wim) Blees, RPT<BR>Piano Tuner/Technician<BR>Honolulu, HI<BR>808-349-2943<BR>www.bleespiano.com<BR>Author of <BR>The Business of Piano Tuning<BR>available from Potter Press<BR>www.pianotuning.com</DIV><BR><BR>-----Original Message-----<BR>From: Michael Kurta <mkurta@roadrunner.com><BR>To: Pianotech List <pianotech@ptg.org><BR>Sent: Tue, 22 Jul 2008 2:50 am<BR>Subject: Re: Getting to know your clients<BR><BR> <DIV id=AOLMsgPart_2_bc369846-b27e-4e49-ace8-91aec7395169> <DIV><FONT face=Tahoma size=2>    The problem with half (or more) of my customers is that either 1. the primary player is not at home.  Whether a student or a spouse, they're not there when I am.  And 2. they are often too shy or embarassed to play in front of someone outside their family.  It may be helpful to take a clue from the music in the bench or near the piano.  But the concept is good and worth working with.  </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Tahoma size=2>    Mike Kurta</FONT></DIV></DIV> <DIV class=aol_ad_footer id=u8CABA2E4B80A965-139C-26A><FONT style="FONT: 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF; COLOR: black"> <HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px"> The Famous, the Infamous, the Lame - in your browser. <A title=http://toolbar.aol.com/tmz/download.html?NCID=aolcmp00050000000014 href="http://toolbar.aol.com/tmz/download.html?NCID=aolcmp00050000000014" target=_blank>Get the TMZ Toolbar Now</A>!</FONT> </DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>