Pianotech

I inducting a novice into the world of tuning.  We are working with the premise that a significant degree of ambidexterity is a helpful factor in cultivating long-term soundness of the bodily structures used in tuning.

I do not tune with a significant degree of ambidexterity.  I have been using a full sized Levitan Professional (C Lever) for a number of years when tuning uprights and the trebles of grands, and nothing I do with a standard lever makes me quite as happy as I am when I am using my C lever.  But I don't think this is the right place to start with a novice.

A search here of "tuning +upright +left +hand" yields lots of helpful information, as does a search in the Journal archives on similar terms.  The results I have found however, at least thus far, focus on the reasonableness of different strategies, as viewed from the point of efficiency, physics, stablility and so forth.  These are certainly useful and important in our ongoing conversations, but I'm not finding as much material in terms of body arrangement when using the various approaches.  Does a part of the arm rest against part of the piano case? Are the subtleties of hand position?  And so forth.

So my questions are, for both left handed and right handed tuning with a standard tuning lever, what works for you? What bodily arrangements are consistent with stamina and long term health?  What gives you the control you need?  What instructional resources do you deem helpful in inducting someone new into all of this?

Thanks for any help you can give with this!

For me, left hip towards the piano. No testing of arm. Lever at 11 to 1 best. David Campbell at convention showing verticals tuned in the Pearl River factory. All were being tuned left handed. He was asked if that was best? He said I don't know. The man that taught them was left handed.

I inducting a novice into the world of tuning.  We are working with the premise that a significant degree of ambidexterity is a helpful factor in cultivating long-term soundness of the bodily structures used in tuning.

I do not tune with a significant degree of ambidexterity.  I have been using a full sized Levitan Professional (C Lever) for a number of years when tuning uprights and the trebles of grands, and nothing I do with a standard lever makes me quite as happy as I am when I am using my C lever.  But I don't think this is the right place to start with a novice.

A search here of "tuning +upright +left +hand" yields lots of helpful information, as does a search in the Journal archives on similar terms.  The results I have found however, at least thus far, focus on the reasonableness of different strategies, as viewed from the point of efficiency, physics, stablility and so forth.  These are certainly useful and important in our ongoing conversations, but I'm not finding as much material in terms of body arrangement when using the various approaches.  Does a part of the arm rest against part of the piano case? Are the subtleties of hand position?  And so forth.

So my questions are, for both left handed and right handed tuning with a standard tuning lever, what works for you? What bodily arrangements are consistent with stamina and long term health?  What gives you the control you need?  What instructional resources do you deem helpful in inducting someone new into all of this?

Thanks for any help you can give with this!

For me, left hip towards the piano. No testing of arm. Lever at 11 to 1 best. David Campbell at convention showing verticals tuned in the Pearl River factory. All were being tuned left handed. He was asked if that was best? He said I don't know. The man that taught them was left handed.

I inducting a novice into the world of tuning.  We are working with the premise that a significant degree of ambidexterity is a helpful factor in cultivating long-term soundness of the bodily structures used in tuning.

I do not tune with a significant degree of ambidexterity.  I have been using a full sized Levitan Professional (C Lever) for a number of years when tuning uprights and the trebles of grands, and nothing I do with a standard lever makes me quite as happy as I am when I am using my C lever.  But I don't think this is the right place to start with a novice.

A search here of "tuning +upright +left +hand" yields lots of helpful information, as does a search in the Journal archives on similar terms.  The results I have found however, at least thus far, focus on the reasonableness of different strategies, as viewed from the point of efficiency, physics, stablility and so forth.  These are certainly useful and important in our ongoing conversations, but I'm not finding as much material in terms of body arrangement when using the various approaches.  Does a part of the arm rest against part of the piano case? Are the subtleties of hand position?  And so forth.

So my questions are, for both left handed and right handed tuning with a standard tuning lever, what works for you? What bodily arrangements are consistent with stamina and long term health?  What gives you the control you need?  What instructional resources do you deem helpful in inducting someone new into all of this?

Thanks for any help you can give with this!

I inducting a novice into the world of tuning.  We are working with the premise that a significant degree of ambidexterity is a helpful factor in cultivating long-term soundness of the bodily structures used in tuning.

I do not tune with a significant degree of ambidexterity.  I have been using a full sized Levitan Professional (C Lever) for a number of years when tuning uprights and the trebles of grands, and nothing I do with a standard lever makes me quite as happy as I am when I am using my C lever.  But I don't think this is the right place to start with a novice.

A search here of "tuning +upright +left +hand" yields lots of helpful information, as does a search in the Journal archives on similar terms.  The results I have found however, at least thus far, focus on the reasonableness of different strategies, as viewed from the point of efficiency, physics, stablility and so forth.  These are certainly useful and important in our ongoing conversations, but I'm not finding as much material in terms of body arrangement when using the various approaches.  Does a part of the arm rest against part of the piano case? Are the subtleties of hand position?  And so forth.

So my questions are, for both left handed and right handed tuning with a standard tuning lever, what works for you? What bodily arrangements are consistent with stamina and long term health?  What gives you the control you need?  What instructional resources do you deem helpful in inducting someone new into all of this?

Thanks for any help you can give with this!

I inducting a novice into the world of tuning.  We are working with the premise that a significant degree of ambidexterity is a helpful factor in cultivating long-term soundness of the bodily structures used in tuning.

I do not tune with a significant degree of ambidexterity.  I have been using a full sized Levitan Professional (C Lever) for a number of years when tuning uprights and the trebles of grands, and nothing I do with a standard lever makes me quite as happy as I am when I am using my C lever.  But I don't think this is the right place to start with a novice.

A search here of "tuning +upright +left +hand" yields lots of helpful information, as does a search in the Journal archives on similar terms.  The results I have found however, at least thus far, focus on the reasonableness of different strategies, as viewed from the point of efficiency, physics, stablility and so forth.  These are certainly useful and important in our ongoing conversations, but I'm not finding as much material in terms of body arrangement when using the various approaches.  Does a part of the arm rest against part of the piano case? Are the subtleties of hand position?  And so forth.

So my questions are, for both left handed and right handed tuning with a standard tuning lever, what works for you? What bodily arrangements are consistent with stamina and long term health?  What gives you the control you need?  What instructional resources do you deem helpful in inducting someone new into all of this?

Thanks for any help you can give with this!

The following applies to traditional Tuning Levers:

When I started learning, the Braid White book "Piano Tuning and Allied Arts" was my bible. He recommended tuning uprights with lever in left hand between 10:00am and noon with some explanations as to why. The 1st printing is in the public domain for download. As we are more often raising pitch we are pulling upwards in the same direction that we are pulling the string through the bearing points. I tune grands with the lever in my right hand positions roughly between 1:00 and 3:00. Again, if raising pitch, pulling the string in the same direction passing through the bearing points.

Most importantly, I have been splitting the load on my wrists and shoulders over nearly fifty years. Granted, I tune far more uprights than grands but I know it has made a difference.

I mentored a friend who learned in the later 70's to start tuning uprights lefty and he has thanked me many times over the years for this.

Finally, tuning uprights lefty allows one to reduce additional load by levering with your elbow on the fallboard of spinits and consoles. Also levering off the left side of the case with your forearm. I encourage all people starting to try and tune uprights lefty.

I inducting a novice into the world of tuning.  We are working with the premise that a significant degree of ambidexterity is a helpful factor in cultivating long-term soundness of the bodily structures used in tuning.

I do not tune with a significant degree of ambidexterity.  I have been using a full sized Levitan Professional (C Lever) for a number of years when tuning uprights and the trebles of grands, and nothing I do with a standard lever makes me quite as happy as I am when I am using my C lever.  But I don't think this is the right place to start with a novice.

A search here of "tuning +upright +left +hand" yields lots of helpful information, as does a search in the Journal archives on similar terms.  The results I have found however, at least thus far, focus on the reasonableness of different strategies, as viewed from the point of efficiency, physics, stablility and so forth.  These are certainly useful and important in our ongoing conversations, but I'm not finding as much material in terms of body arrangement when using the various approaches.  Does a part of the arm rest against part of the piano case? Are the subtleties of hand position?  And so forth.

So my questions are, for both left handed and right handed tuning with a standard tuning lever, what works for you? What bodily arrangements are consistent with stamina and long term health?  What gives you the control you need?  What instructional resources do you deem helpful in inducting someone new into all of this?

Thanks for any help you can give with this!

I had Reblitz's book in my hand early in my development as a tuner, and as I review what he says, it seems clear that I pretty much embraced his recommendations -- use of the dominant hand rather than an ambidextrous approach, a hammer position just off of vertical, and a commitment to resting the elbow somewhere to heighten control.

In the responses above, Larry advocates a left-handed approach with no resting of the elbow.

Tremaine suggests a between-10:00-and-noon position for left-handed tuning, together with levering off of the fallboard or the left side of the case, where possible.  He also cites Braid White who says some of the same, and who advocates standing to tune.

When I stand to tune the center section of a U3 with a standard lever, there is no obvious place to immobilize the elbow, so I end up in the situation Reblitz describes with the words "With your elbow hanging in mid-air, your shoulder is also a pivot point, decreasing control."

It may well be that a good measure of the frustration I feel when I try to tackle this task is owing to an insufficient ongoing commitment to maintain muscular strength in my shoulders.  Even without the load of free-elbow tuning, I've run into grief with shoulder pain, though things are not uncomfortable in recent days.

I would appreciate what further insight this community has to offer.

The following applies to traditional Tuning Levers:

When I started learning, the Braid White book "Piano Tuning and Allied Arts" was my bible. He recommended tuning uprights with lever in left hand between 10:00am and noon with some explanations as to why. The 1st printing is in the public domain for download. As we are more often raising pitch we are pulling upwards in the same direction that we are pulling the string through the bearing points. I tune grands with the lever in my right hand positions roughly between 1:00 and 3:00. Again, if raising pitch, pulling the string in the same direction passing through the bearing points.

Most importantly, I have been splitting the load on my wrists and shoulders over nearly fifty years. Granted, I tune far more uprights than grands but I know it has made a difference.

I mentored a friend who learned in the later 70's to start tuning uprights lefty and he has thanked me many times over the years for this.

Finally, tuning uprights lefty allows one to reduce additional load by levering with your elbow on the fallboard of spinits and consoles. Also levering off the left side of the case with your forearm. I encourage all people starting to try and tune uprights lefty.

I inducting a novice into the world of tuning.  We are working with the premise that a significant degree of ambidexterity is a helpful factor in cultivating long-term soundness of the bodily structures used in tuning.

I do not tune with a significant degree of ambidexterity.  I have been using a full sized Levitan Professional (C Lever) for a number of years when tuning uprights and the trebles of grands, and nothing I do with a standard lever makes me quite as happy as I am when I am using my C lever.  But I don't think this is the right place to start with a novice.

A search here of "tuning +upright +left +hand" yields lots of helpful information, as does a search in the Journal archives on similar terms.  The results I have found however, at least thus far, focus on the reasonableness of different strategies, as viewed from the point of efficiency, physics, stablility and so forth.  These are certainly useful and important in our ongoing conversations, but I'm not finding as much material in terms of body arrangement when using the various approaches.  Does a part of the arm rest against part of the piano case? Are the subtleties of hand position?  And so forth.

So my questions are, for both left handed and right handed tuning with a standard tuning lever, what works for you? What bodily arrangements are consistent with stamina and long term health?  What gives you the control you need?  What instructional resources do you deem helpful in inducting someone new into all of this?

Thanks for any help you can give with this!

While I do advocate tuning uprights lefty, I only mention levering of an elbow or forearm as a potential added benefit under certain situations. Usually, when pitch raising smaller uprights as it can take some of the stress of of shoulders. I don't recall Braid White mentioning elbows. If I were tuning uprights righty, I imagine that I would have the tuning lever around 12:00 o'clock and using my elbow on the top of the piano when possible. But, I don't do uprights righty with the exception of very low bass notes under certain situations. (Baldwin Hamilton or upright left side up against a wall)

I had Reblitz's book in my hand early in my development as a tuner, and as I review what he says, it seems clear that I pretty much embraced his recommendations -- use of the dominant hand rather than an ambidextrous approach, a hammer position just off of vertical, and a commitment to resting the elbow somewhere to heighten control.

In the responses above, Larry advocates a left-handed approach with no resting of the elbow.

Tremaine suggests a between-10:00-and-noon position for left-handed tuning, together with levering off of the fallboard or the left side of the case, where possible.  He also cites Braid White who says some of the same, and who advocates standing to tune.

When I stand to tune the center section of a U3 with a standard lever, there is no obvious place to immobilize the elbow, so I end up in the situation Reblitz describes with the words "With your elbow hanging in mid-air, your shoulder is also a pivot point, decreasing control."

It may well be that a good measure of the frustration I feel when I try to tackle this task is owing to an insufficient ongoing commitment to maintain muscular strength in my shoulders.  Even without the load of free-elbow tuning, I've run into grief with shoulder pain, though things are not uncomfortable in recent days.

I would appreciate what further insight this community has to offer.

The following applies to traditional Tuning Levers:

When I started learning, the Braid White book "Piano Tuning and Allied Arts" was my bible. He recommended tuning uprights with lever in left hand between 10:00am and noon with some explanations as to why. The 1st printing is in the public domain for download. As we are more often raising pitch we are pulling upwards in the same direction that we are pulling the string through the bearing points. I tune grands with the lever in my right hand positions roughly between 1:00 and 3:00. Again, if raising pitch, pulling the string in the same direction passing through the bearing points.

Most importantly, I have been splitting the load on my wrists and shoulders over nearly fifty years. Granted, I tune far more uprights than grands but I know it has made a difference.

I mentored a friend who learned in the later 70's to start tuning uprights lefty and he has thanked me many times over the years for this.

Finally, tuning uprights lefty allows one to reduce additional load by levering with your elbow on the fallboard of spinits and consoles. Also levering off the left side of the case with your forearm. I encourage all people starting to try and tune uprights lefty.

I inducting a novice into the world of tuning.  We are working with the premise that a significant degree of ambidexterity is a helpful factor in cultivating long-term soundness of the bodily structures used in tuning.

I do not tune with a significant degree of ambidexterity.  I have been using a full sized Levitan Professional (C Lever) for a number of years when tuning uprights and the trebles of grands, and nothing I do with a standard lever makes me quite as happy as I am when I am using my C lever.  But I don't think this is the right place to start with a novice.

A search here of "tuning +upright +left +hand" yields lots of helpful information, as does a search in the Journal archives on similar terms.  The results I have found however, at least thus far, focus on the reasonableness of different strategies, as viewed from the point of efficiency, physics, stablility and so forth.  These are certainly useful and important in our ongoing conversations, but I'm not finding as much material in terms of body arrangement when using the various approaches.  Does a part of the arm rest against part of the piano case? Are the subtleties of hand position?  And so forth.

So my questions are, for both left handed and right handed tuning with a standard tuning lever, what works for you? What bodily arrangements are consistent with stamina and long term health?  What gives you the control you need?  What instructional resources do you deem helpful in inducting someone new into all of this?

Thanks for any help you can give with this!

I had Reblitz's book in my hand early in my development as a tuner, and as I review what he says, it seems clear that I pretty much embraced his recommendations -- use of the dominant hand rather than an ambidextrous approach, a hammer position just off of vertical, and a commitment to resting the elbow somewhere to heighten control.

In the responses above, Larry advocates a left-handed approach with no resting of the elbow. 

Tremaine suggests a between-10:00-and-noon position for left-handed tuning, together with levering off of the fallboard or the left side of the case, where possible.  He also cites Braid White who says some of the same, and who advocates standing to tune.

When I stand to tune the center section of a U3 with a standard lever, there is no obvious place to immobilize the elbow, so I end up in the situation Reblitz describes with the words "With your elbow hanging in mid-air, your shoulder is also a pivot point, decreasing control."

It may well be that a good measure of the frustration I feel when I try to tackle this task is owing to an insufficient ongoing commitment to maintain muscular strength in my shoulders.  Even without the load of free-elbow tuning, I've run into grief with shoulder pain, though things are not uncomfortable in recent days.

I would appreciate what further insight this community has to offer.

The following applies to traditional Tuning Levers:

When I started learning, the Braid White book "Piano Tuning and Allied Arts" was my bible. He recommended tuning uprights with lever in left hand between 10:00am and noon with some explanations as to why. The 1st printing is in the public domain for download. As we are more often raising pitch we are pulling upwards in the same direction that we are pulling the string through the bearing points. I tune grands with the lever in my right hand positions roughly between 1:00 and 3:00. Again, if raising pitch, pulling the string in the same direction passing through the bearing points.

Most importantly, I have been splitting the load on my wrists and shoulders over nearly fifty years. Granted, I tune far more uprights than grands but I know it has made a difference.

I mentored a friend who learned in the later 70's to start tuning uprights lefty and he has thanked me many times over the years for this.

Finally, tuning uprights lefty allows one to reduce additional load by levering with your elbow on the fallboard of spinits and consoles. Also levering off the left side of the case with your forearm. I encourage all people starting to try and tune uprights lefty.

I inducting a novice into the world of tuning.  We are working with the premise that a significant degree of ambidexterity is a helpful factor in cultivating long-term soundness of the bodily structures used in tuning.

I do not tune with a significant degree of ambidexterity.  I have been using a full sized Levitan Professional (C Lever) for a number of years when tuning uprights and the trebles of grands, and nothing I do with a standard lever makes me quite as happy as I am when I am using my C lever.  But I don't think this is the right place to start with a novice.

A search here of "tuning +upright +left +hand" yields lots of helpful information, as does a search in the Journal archives on similar terms.  The results I have found however, at least thus far, focus on the reasonableness of different strategies, as viewed from the point of efficiency, physics, stablility and so forth.  These are certainly useful and important in our ongoing conversations, but I'm not finding as much material in terms of body arrangement when using the various approaches.  Does a part of the arm rest against part of the piano case? Are the subtleties of hand position?  And so forth.

So my questions are, for both left handed and right handed tuning with a standard tuning lever, what works for you? What bodily arrangements are consistent with stamina and long term health?  What gives you the control you need?  What instructional resources do you deem helpful in inducting someone new into all of this?

Thanks for any help you can give with this!

I inducting a novice into the world of tuning.  We are working with the premise that a significant degree of ambidexterity is a helpful factor in cultivating long-term soundness of the bodily structures used in tuning.

I do not tune with a significant degree of ambidexterity.  I have been using a full sized Levitan Professional (C Lever) for a number of years when tuning uprights and the trebles of grands, and nothing I do with a standard lever makes me quite as happy as I am when I am using my C lever.  But I don't think this is the right place to start with a novice.

A search here of "tuning +upright +left +hand" yields lots of helpful information, as does a search in the Journal archives on similar terms.  The results I have found however, at least thus far, focus on the reasonableness of different strategies, as viewed from the point of efficiency, physics, stablility and so forth.  These are certainly useful and important in our ongoing conversations, but I'm not finding as much material in terms of body arrangement when using the various approaches.  Does a part of the arm rest against part of the piano case? Are the subtleties of hand position?  And so forth.

So my questions are, for both left handed and right handed tuning with a standard tuning lever, what works for you? What bodily arrangements are consistent with stamina and long term health?  What gives you the control you need?  What instructional resources do you deem helpful in inducting someone new into all of this?

Thanks for any help you can give with this!

I inducting a novice into the world of tuning.  We are working with the premise that a significant degree of ambidexterity is a helpful factor in cultivating long-term soundness of the bodily structures used in tuning.

I do not tune with a significant degree of ambidexterity.  I have been using a full sized Levitan Professional (C Lever) for a number of years when tuning uprights and the trebles of grands, and nothing I do with a standard lever makes me quite as happy as I am when I am using my C lever.  But I don't think this is the right place to start with a novice.

A search here of "tuning +upright +left +hand" yields lots of helpful information, as does a search in the Journal archives on similar terms.  The results I have found however, at least thus far, focus on the reasonableness of different strategies, as viewed from the point of efficiency, physics, stablility and so forth.  These are certainly useful and important in our ongoing conversations, but I'm not finding as much material in terms of body arrangement when using the various approaches.  Does a part of the arm rest against part of the piano case? Are the subtleties of hand position?  And so forth.

So my questions are, for both left handed and right handed tuning with a standard tuning lever, what works for you? What bodily arrangements are consistent with stamina and long term health?  What gives you the control you need?  What instructional resources do you deem helpful in inducting someone new into all of this?

Thanks for any help you can give with this!