<HTML>In a message dated 12/8/02 3:29:04 PM Pacific Standard Time, ssclabr8@flash.net writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">Forgive me if I'm rehashing a subject that has been discussed before, but I've been trying a lot of different tuning patterns on many different pianos.  Although I've only been tuning part-time for two years now, I seem to keep coming back to the pattern I first learned.  Here is what I do. 1.  Strip mute the entire piano 2. Tune the temperament (I use a Vrtituner but prefer to do aural tuning checks as I go) 3. Tune octaves down to the tenor/bass break (using aural checks to make sure everything sounds ok) 4. Tune octaves up all the way to C88 (using aural checks to make sure everything sounds ok) 5.  Using the back muting method with a single rubber mute, pull in all the unisons from C88 on down to the bass/tenor break. 6.  Tune down to A0 from the tenor/bass break, pulling in the bi-chords as I go along. That's it.  I've tried doing unisons as I go but for some reason, I seem to get a better tuning overall if I use the above method. I curious what some you you seasoned veterans think about this method - it's advantages and/or drawbacks.  What patterns have you found to work best? Thanks in advance for your responses! Corte Swearingen Associate Member PTG </BLOCKQUOTE> There is really no right or wrong way but people do differ in how they do it.  Some have good reasons, others just do what they were taught and don't question it. I use strip mutes too but believe me, there are people who say that is wrong.  I almost never tune a piano just once.  When using the strip mute, pulling in the unisons will affect the pitch of the center string, no doubt, question nor exception about that. Sometimes, doing things in a certain, routine pattern gives the worker a sense habit which goes a long way towards consistency which is important.  To me, tuning the unisons as I go is uncomfortably tedious and slow.  Using the strip mutes, I really fly through a rough tuning in 15 minutes or under.  This gives me the foundation for a fine tuning which will hold.  It will also take under 30 minutes on many pianos. I did a concert tuning today where the pitch was flat, way off and octaves across the middle were a nightmare.  I had tuned that piano last on October 26 when it was sharp and out of tune. I've been the only technician for that theater and piano for 10 years now and that is normal for that piano, that place and the climate I live in.  I tuned it 3 times but it still took less than an hour. I would never tune a piano starting on A0 with an ETD but I am not saying that's wrong, I just wouldn't even think of doing it that way.  Whether it be a rough or fine tuning, I start in the middle, tune the temperament octave and any notes below it in the middle/tenor section, then proceed upwards to C8, tuning the unisons in the treble and high treble on the way back down but leaving the middle stripped and leaving the bass for later.  I have very good reasons for doing it just this way and wouldn't care to change. If you try to tune the higher end from notes where all 3 strings are sounding, you may easily encounter the effect which I think of as the "coupled motion of strings effect" where the pitch of a 3 string unison is slightly lower than the pitch of a single string.  Since I create my own programs on my SAT, never using the FAC program, I like to tune a single string to a single string.  This gives my program the greatest clarity and accuracy. Once having tuned the treble and high treble, I tune the bass to the middle/tenor which is still muted.  I pull in the unisons of the bass and do my middle/tenor unisons last.  The bass and middle/tenor unisons are the easiest part of a tuning to do well, that's another good reason for leaving them until last.  It gets the hardest, most tedious part done first and saves the easiest part for when some fatigue starts to set in.  I approach most other piano work this way too. These techniques are so routine for me that I can and will be tuning 5-7 pianos per day from now until Christmas.  This, of course, means $$$ and that is how I earn my living.  Every business has its peak times and ours is now.  The demand is so great that I simply must accommodate my customers or lose them.  I am obviously the benefactor for getting done what needs to be done when it needs doing. On an off topic note, I just finished a 2 night concert series where I was the featured soloist, singing a verse of "O Holy Night" in the original French and then a verse in English for a trio where I wrote the arrangement.  It was extremely well received both nights but tonight in particular (standing ovation).  I got a new voice student out of it. Bill Bremmer RPT Madison, Wisconsin <A HREF="http://www.billbremmer.com/">Click here: -=w w w . b i l l b r e m m e r . c o m =-</A></HTML>