<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>Re: factory apprenticeship</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> <BLOCKQUOTE> From: "Kevin E. Ramsey" <ramsey@extremezone.com> Reply-To: pianotech@ptg.org Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 19:32:26 -0700 To: <pianotech@ptg.org> Subject: factory apprenticeship </BLOCKQUOTE> <BLOCKQUOTE>    "</FO= NT>I have been to several 'famous' facto= ries in Europe and also three times to the Yamaha Pianotechnical Academy in Hamamatsu. Yamaha is the best place in the world for learning, according to me."<= BR> André Oorebeek Gott im Himmel! Andre. I'd love to= go just once. Although, from what I've heard, it can be grueling. Those Jap= anese are just sooooooooo,,,,,,,,,,,   type A personalities, if yo= u know what I mean.    Or am I just leaping at the wrong conclusions, again. Th= e reason I ask, is that I spoke with a tech who went there, and he said that= he spent three hours getting the dip just tight, and they said, " dip = not right, do over please." He spent like three days working on the reg= ulation on a new grand, and then they said. "After touch not quite righ= t, do over please."    Sounds like boot camp to me. ( Of course, you'd just HAV= E to come away from that a better tech.) Kevin E. Ramsey ramsey@extremezone.com </BLOCKQUOTE>Hi Kevin... During my very first time at the Academy (this was for the basic grand pian= o course) I had to practice one whole week on key dip. I just couldn't, for some reason, get it together according to their precis= ion. Finally, they brought in a special weight, which, when put on a key, gave t= he final and correct key dip. Same thing for anything else one had to learn there (dampers, regulation, t= uning, voicing). After a final regulation, for instance at a pre-exam, they bring in several= instructors who measure the whole regulation process. They then each give t= heir opinion and a mark. On a slip of paper all the marks are shown and, add= ed up, the final mark or result. That is the most gruelling and thorough way of checking the work of a stude= nt. It also shows precisely where the weak points are and thus where to make= corrections in the learning process. I could easily go on for days or Months, and thereby write a complete book,= on what you learn there, how they do it, what it feels like, about the pers= onal contacts with fellow students from Japan or other Countries, the teache= rs, the dormatories, the Factory, Hamamatsu etc etc etc etc. Maybe I will, some day, but in the past I have already given several descri= ptions here on this list. I am always open to giving spefic details about my experiences in factories= , and I think that, for a piano technician, a training in any piano factory = is of the highest priority. That's why I reacted to our Spanish colleague. Friendly greetings, André Oorebeek Amsterdam </BODY> </HTML>