<html> <head> <meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> </head> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"> On 5/11/2012 12:01 PM, Duaine Hechler wrote: <blockquote cite="mid:4FAD61FB.5070206@att.net" type="cite"> YES, you are using your ears and maybe stress was a poor choice of words. Maybe, "over worked", tired, taxing or equivalent thereof. </blockquote> I think that you are having a little problem with terminology, Duaine. It is not your "ears" which are tired, it is your brain, and your attention span plus your anxiety is the reason. If ears are damaged by sound, it is not the ATTENTION to the sound which hurts them. It's just the physical effect of being in the same room with loud vibrations. You could be passed out on the floor, and if the sound were loud enough to hurt your ears, they would still be hurt. You are exposed to exactly the same sound levels tuning with an ETD as you are tuning aurally. Tuning aurally does not make anyone more prone to hearing damage or to needing hearing aids. It's the total volume of sound and the time spent exposed to it which does the damage, not fretting over "beats" or having to pay attention to sounds. "Ears" do not get tired. Brains get tired. This doesn't mean that you have to tune aurally, or that you cannot go right on working on players, etc. just as you do at present. It might help if you stopped bellyaching about the RPT exam. Nothing says that you need to earn those magic letters. Many people have worked on pianos at every level from elementary to the top of the profession for their whole lives, without them, and without missing them. Susan </body> </html>