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I just had to share this little gem with you all!
One of my dear pupils went to a local museum on a school trip today and then came up for her piano lesson. Showing a general interest in her day, like the dutiful teacher I am, I asked her what she'd liked best in the museum to which she replied "the coffin with a piano on the end of it". Well, I pondered for a while and tried to put on my 8 year old's thinking head but failed to come up with anything so probed further until I got a result. It turns out that a coffin with a piano on the end of it is actually otherwise known as a harpsichord! Don't you just love 'em?!

In the dim & distant days when I taught the piano, a brat was playing a piece called the Bugler, note perfect - butvery very quietly. I told her it was very good, but to play it loudly. 'I can't,' she said, 'it wouldn't be right.'
Turned out she thought it was about a burglar...
Here, Celestite, my book on crystals says that 'Celestite encourages blissful silence.' Shome mishtake, shurely?

Hmm, I don't know about blissful silence, but I certainly seem to have the knack of bringing about stunned silences!
You must be some sort of wonder woman, Gill - not only are you one of those very rare tuners who plays aswell, you also have a book on crystals. Does this mean you have a passion for them too?

Celestite wrote:...not only are you one of those very rare tuners who plays ...

I must admit that (as a player not a tuner) I'm surprised how many tuners don't play. The guy who visited regularly to tune my parents' piano always played really well for about 10 minutes when he finished tuning "just to make sure everything was in order" and so I assumed all tuners played.

I had a tuner visiting recently who told me that most don't, he said it interferes with the ability to listen to the sound of the instrument, rather than the sound of the music.

I'm certainly interested in the properties of crystals, Celestite...but my weakness is for rainbow sapphires, amethysts and aquamarines set in lumps of gold and stuck on my fingers. I'm seriously considering holidaying at Windscale to grow a few more fingers to accommodate more rings...
A few tuners I've heard of gave up playing when they started tuning, but there are quite a few who don't play. My old mentor always sounded as though he were on the verge of launching into Rachmaninov, but never did; his chords were just to test the sound of the piano. I'd dispute your tuner's theory that most don't play though, Grenache. Perhaps he didn't!

Grenache wrote: I had a tuner visiting recently who told me that most don't, he said it interferes with the ability to listen to the sound of the instrument, rather than the sound of the music.

that's a new one on me. When I started College there was 10 who started at the same time four could play six could not and of the four two were grade 7 +. Of the ten who started only two of us made it all the way and now only me left still tuning both of us could not play a note and after 30 years I still can't

Now! tuners who don't play tend to tune longer and tend not to suffer tinnitus later on but I know of a few who play well and still tuning in there 80s so.....

I have seen that tuners that play well G7 + for some reason their regulating tends to be very poor and you would think they would be very good again there are exceptions to the rule.

Barrie,

Barrie Heaton wrote:

Grenache wrote: I had a tuner visiting recently who told me that most don't, he said it interferes with the ability to listen to the sound of the instrument, rather than the sound of the music.

"Now! tuners who don't play tend to tune longer and tend not to suffer tinnitus later on but I know of a few who play well and still tuning in there 80s so..... "

I've heard several tuners say how years of tuning affects their hearing so perhaps it's not a case that tuners don't play, more that players don't tune for fear of damaging their hearing?

Eh? Speak UP, can't you?!

Back to the original thread and my dear little coffin lady, I now know where she gets it from. Her mother phoned me this afternoon with the most original excuse I've ever had for cancelling a lesson. She informs me her daughter will not be coming for her lesson tomorrow because she (Mum) is on strike this week so none of the kids are doing any of their normal after school activities! She is, however going to pay me (I should coco) as it is their issue, not mine!
One day I think I'll write a book....