FACHBEITRAG_

What does a Piano Tuner do when he goes deaf?

It is a part af the human condition that one's
own experiences are absolutely riveting,
while that of others can be intens,ely boring!
So taking up the amount of space this piece
will do is something of a risk. But hearing
is by far the most essential sense a piano
tuner possesses - while it is possible to tune
having lost any of the other senses, tuning
is impossible, even with an electronic aid,
without the ability to hear.-Therefore I hope
my experience, and the discussion I will make
around some of the aspects of it, will be in-
teresting, and perhaps even helpful, to you.
Part one
A
few years ago I had the shock of my life
when, following a concert tuning, the
organisers complained that the ensemble had
said the piano was not properly tuned. It had
seemed harder work than usual, because I
had to do the tuning on the way back home
from a fortnight's holiday and I always found
I needed a couple of days or so to get back
into the swing. But even so, I had made all
the checks and everything seemed to be OK
to me.
In somewhat of a daze - is my tuning ca-
reer over? - I made an appointment to have
my hearing checked by a company adverti-
sing free tests in your own home. But I deci-
ded that since he was selling a very costly
product, I would not make a decision during
that visit. After testing me he said I had 1000/o
loss of hearing in the higher frequencies and
recommended hearing aids costing into four
figures each. I said I would think about it!
I then paid a visit to the audiologist at my
doctor's practice. After her test, which pro-
duced similar figures to the previous one,
she said that to call it ' 1000/o hearing loss'
was very questionable. There was a degree of
hearing loss in the higher frequencies, but
not enough to warrant the use of a hearing
aid. My hearing was still better than the
majority of the popuiation, I was told.
The second thing I did was to ask a local
concert tuner, whose work I respect
(although sadly not a PTA Member), to check
the piano over. He did so a week after the
concert and said that the tuning was no
worse than one would expect, bearing in
mind it had been used for a concert in a
fairly damp church, then transported iO miles
away to the place where it is normally stored
in good, dry conditions.
So everything appeared to be all right. but
still there was a niggle at the back of my
mind. I had never had a complaint about a
concert tuning before (or since). Wast-his the
first sign of a problem that sooner or later
would develop and prevent me from tuning?
I had to make absolutely sure that I could
continue to tune with no doubts I would be
doing a good job. So that is. one reason why
I took the plunge and invested in a Sander-
son Accutu ner (SAT). By the way, th is is not
intended to be an advert for the SAT, although
I have been very pleased with its perfor-
mance. There are other alternatives. But for
me, at that time, the SAT was the best one.
When I first saw the SAT quite a few years
earlier, I decided that sooner or later I would
buy one, for the very reason I have just been
setting out. It is a fact of life that the upper
range of our hearing deteriorates as we
get older. I have seen several examples where
an older tuner has made a first-class job of
a piano throughout the entire range apart
from the highest octave. In three cases,
I found in the top octave two adjacent notes
playing at the same pitch and the rest of
the notes to the top of the piano were .a
semi-tone flat. In other cases the top octave
goes horrendously sharp.
By definition it is impossible for a tuner to
know if his hearing has deteriorated in this
way, because the sense he uses to check is the
one that has become faulty. So my thought
was to buy such a machine while my hearing
was st ill good so I could become accustomed
to using it while there was no problem. Then
ifa problem did develop later on in life, I could
.be sure my work would still be at an accep-
table standard.
There are two things to say about the
SAT. Firstly, I have found it most helpful. It
produces an excellent tuning, is invaluable in
noisy conditions, and regardless of hearing
problems I would not want to be without it.
The second thing is that when using it on
pianos I had been regularly tuning by ear,
I found that apart from variation due to
humidity change, the tuning I had put in
to these instruments closely agreed with
the SAT. While the greatest variation did
occur in the top octave, I have since found
out, having followed a number of good
concert tuners on different pianos, that the
discrepancy between my tuning and the SAT
was no greater than anything I found in any
of their tunings!
Then, of course, there was the fact that
I examine tunings for PTA Membership
examinations and for VIEW (the examining
board for Hereford students, which awards
the AEWVH diploma the Associa_Jion of Blind
Piano Tuners use as their entrance standard).
I took th is very seriously. Clearly, if there were
any doubt about my hearing, I would have
to resign as an examiner. But my judgement
has always agreed very closely with my
fellow examiners, and since I am privileged
to examine for two different organisations,
I have probably examined with more different
examiners over the past few years than
anyone else currently examining in the UK!
There are always two examiners present at
every test.
As another aside, prospective candidates
for these tests should take confidence in the
fact that examiners do agree so closely when
awarding marks. I cannot remember a t i me
when we were more than +/-1 (or on very rare
occasions, 2) cents apart on any aspect of the
test; and there has never been a t i me when
there has been a dispute between examiners
whether it was a ' pass' or a 'fail'. I can
only speak from my personal experience, of
course, but it could only have been this way
if, indeed, all the examiners did operate to a
very similar standard.
So, to return to the main point, my confi-
dence began to be restored that, in spite of
the complaint, I was still capable of doing a
good job. But then I came to a concert tuning
about a couple of years after the complai nt.
which put everything into perspective. It was
for an organiser for whom I have done a lot
of concert work over quite a number of years.
There were three concerts that week, on
Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. The artistes
were the same for the last two, but it was
a different pianist on the Tuesday.
When I arrived on the Saturday, the pia-
nist for the ensemble who had used the piano
the previous day said to me that the piano
was flat. I said that it usually stayed in tune
very well, and had been exactly at A-440
when I had tuned it on Tuesday. "Oh !" he
replied, "We want A-442"! So he was wrong
of course; the piano was not flat - it was
simply not as sharp as he wanted it! I
mentioned this to the organiser when
presenting her with the bill. "Well", she sai d,
"they were the people who had complained
about the tuning before!"
So my two years agony about my t uning
had been all because this clown had wanted
the piano tuned above the standard pitch, .
expected me t o know without telling me
and then complained that the piano was
not tuned properly when he didn't get what
he wanted!
piano
39
0
I suppose I should have gone back and
thrown the piano stool at him or something.
But, to be honest, I was so reUeved for the
final confirmation that there had been no
problem all along, I just floated back to my
car and drove off to the next concert tuning
I had to do that day.
Part two
T
ime went by, and I began to be aware that
increasingly I had to ask people to repeat
what they were saying to me. At home it was
always I who wanted the TV turning up
louder, and being in a crowded room became
a nightmare - conversation was all but im-
possible as I could not hear what was being
said to me for the general babble of noise.
Piano tuning and examining was still ok
however (thankfully), and of course I now had
the SAT to keep track of what I was doing.
So in order to pacify the family I went back
to the doctor and arranged to see the
practice audiologist again. After testing my
hearing she said that it was unlikely that any
hearing aid would solve my problem as it was
only the high frequencies that were affected
and hearing aids were unable to deal with
that situation adequately for my needs.
However, she did give me the best analogue
hearing aid she had available to try out. It
made everything louder, but no clearer;
so since it was not helping, after a few weeks
I gave up and handed it back.
More ti me went by u nti I the event that
moved me once again to see what the
options were, when I went to tune for a
retired conductor (of orchestras, not buses!).
On previous visits he used to say to me,
"I can't hear anything from the top few notes
of the piano - it just sounds like the hammers
banging on the frame to me." Then he got
digital hearing aids and on this visit he came
in while I was finishing the top of the piano
and said with obvious delight, "You know,
I can hear all those notes perfectly now -
right up to the top one!" (A good job I'd con-
tinued to tune them then!)
I had been told by my doctor that a digi-
tal hearing aid was not an option on the Na-
tional Health (although I understand that has
now changed), so on seei ng a likely- sounding
advert in a local paper, went to see Mr Glen
Smith at Digitone, a hearing aid company in
Verwood, Dorset (I am most grateful to him
for providing me with the resources for the
technical information whi ch follows). He had
a very impressive set- up and I entered his
soundproof booth for a hearing test. The re-
sult was similar to that found by the previous
audiologist - a pattern, Glen told me, cal led
'ski - slope', and t ypical of sound damage.
0
10
20
JO
...J 40
I so
ca (Kl.
"
70
80
'
100
110
120
Hz
o o ~ o ~ o.s
I
~ ....
I
I, 5
I
I\ I
'
1
~
~ .....
In the diagram (not my result, by the way)
the line begins at the left with the lower
frequencies and finishes on the right with
the higher ones. The lower the line goes, the
greater the volume needs to be for the sound
to be audible. In my case the lower frequen-
cies were better than average, but then the
hearing dropped off rapidly the higher the
frequencies become. You will remember that
4kHz, the lowest point of the line in this
graph, is around the pitch of the highest note
in a piano. It is the kind of pattern found,
for example, in people whose pastime is
shooting. But since I do no shooting, and
do not vi sit discos or any place where there
is excessively loud sounds, how did the
damage occur? There can be only one answer
- piano tuning! To see why, perhaps it would
be good to look at how the ear works.
The visible part of the outer ear (the
auncle or pinna) is, of course, a funnel to
catch sound and direct it into the ear canal,
which is curved and irregul arly shaped. The
canal is about 2.Scm long and 8mm in dia-
meter. Its walls contain glands, which create
wax (cerumen}, the function of which is to
keep the area moist and clean. If a foreign
body invades, more wax is created, and even-
tually can build up to the point where the
hearing is significantl y diminished. That is the
time to go to a specialist to have it dealt with.
At the end of the ear canal is the ear drum
(membrana tympani), on the other side of
whi ch is the middle ear cavity where three
small bones (the ossicles) are joined together.
They are called the hammer (malleus}, anvil
(incus) and stirrup (stapes). The sound vibra-
tions, picked up by the eardrum, are trans-
ferred through the bone assembly to the
cochlea, which is shaped like a snail shell with
two and a .half turns. Two small muscles (the
stapedius and the tensor tympani) are atta-
ched to the bones and are activated by reflex
to loud sounds. This.impedes the transmission
of vibration through the bones and protects
the inner ear from loud sounds.
Inside the cochlea are.hair cells, which are
the central part of the hearing organ, called
'the organ of Corti' (named after the Italian
anatomist A. Corti). They are seated in the
basilar membrane, which is approximately
30mm long. There is one row of outer hair
cells, which have muscle tissue, and three
rows of inner ones, which do not. Fluids in the
inner ear are set in motion by the footplate
of the stirrup attached to a 'window' in
the cochlea. The basilar membrane moves
with motion of the fluids and the hair cells
transmit that movement to the brain via the
nerves to which they are attached. The
higher frequencies (e.g. lOkHz) are picked up
by hair cells closest to the window on the
cochlea where the footplate of the stirrup is
attached; the middle frequencies (e.g. 1 kHz)
will be around the middle turn; and the low
frequencies (e.g. 100Hz) will be near the top
of the cochlea.
. .
..
. . . .
.. . .
. .
. . . .
When there are very slight vibrations from
a weak sound, the outer hair cells stimulate
the inner hair cells by means of their muscle
tissue, which enables the basilar membrane
to vibrate sufficiently. The outer hair cells
have a significant effect at low levels, but
practically none at high intensity sound. This
function is easily damaged by noise such as
gunshots or heavy industrial sounds.
The Eustachian tube connects the middle
ear cavity to the nose and throat, and its
function is to maintai n a normal atmospheric
pressure in the middle ear space. It is usual-
ly closed, but opens briefly during swallowing
or nose blowing (something to remember
when in an aeroplane!).
You may be interested to know that it was
Alexander Graham Bell who invented the first
audiometer to test hearing, demonstrating
with it that children previously thought of as
'slow' or 'backward' were simply unable to
hear! He gave his name to the relative sound
differences in intensity - the 'decibel'.
The most common form of hearing loss is
damage to the hair cells, which can be a
result of disease, loud sound, or, most often,
aging (presbycusis). Deterioration commonly
begins around the age of 18 and can become
significant when reaching the SO's or 60's,
although this varies considerably; some
suffering little loss even into their ?O's or 80's
and others much earlier. The problem is
usually more pronounced in men (sound
damage from their wives' voices? I jest!). To
the left is a diagram showing the normal
frequencies (across the top) of vowels and
consonants, and their normal decibel level
(down the side). When compared to the
previous ski-slope loss chart, the effect of loss
of hearing on the understanding of speech
becomes dear. Consonants such as 'k', 'f and
's' are at quite a high frequency r ~ g e and
at the same time fairly quiet.
But to return to my original question: how
did the damage to my hearing occur? I was
originally told that piano tuning could never
be the reason. But then when one realises
that the first fraction of a second of sound
from a piano has been measured at over
lOOdB, a level well over the point where
damage is known to occur, then a pattern
begins to emerge. I have studied my own
tuning method and calculate that during
the 45 minutes it takes me to undertake
an average tuning, I play each note between
1to2 t imes per second, speeding up as I reach
the higher notes. That can result in a repe-
tition of 40-60 times on the same note.
Water dripping on a stone will eventually
wear a hole through it. It makes sense to me
that while playing a single note on a piano
Hz
2SO soo 1000 2000 4000 8000
0
10
20
lO
40
~
J:
so
co
"O
60
70
80
90
100
110
120
FACHBEITRAG
will not cause any damage, this kind of
constant repetition, over many years, could
have the same effect as the water on the
stone. But add to that the fact of my age (60
next birthday*), a time when aging is also
likely to make me more vulnerable, and my
present situation is not so surprising. But why
do concert pianists, who can practice for 8 or
10 hours a day, not have the same problem?
I can think of three reasons. We tune with the
casework parts out, maki ng the sound louder
for us than for them. The tuni ng position
forces the head closer to the source of sound
than when playing. In tuning, the same note
is constantly repeated; in playing, the pitch
of the notes is constantly changing.
Well, that is enough about me for the
moment; what about you? I would suggest
that if you are younger than 'middle-age'
(whatever that is), and/or not tuni ng full-
time (i.e. you spend time recondit ioni ng, et c.),
then perhaps, for the moment, you may
be safe. But what if you are one of those
whose hearing will deteriorate earlier than
'average'? What if you undertake a signi-
ficant number of concert tunings, when you
are likely to be working on an instrument
with a powerful sound, striking t he keys
harderthan normal to ensure stabil ity? If you
undertake piano tuning on a regular basis,
whoever you are, my advice is to take note of
my experience and investigate the purchase
of quality, hearing protection.
Les Sherlock
Part Three: Issue 3/2007
This article was written in 2004
piarn
-
piano
FACHBEITRAGE __________________ _
In conclusion to this long epistle, which I
hope has not bored you too much, I make the
following observation. I have followed quite
a number of good concert tuners since
having the SAT. In pretty well every case I
have found that while their tuning follows
the SAT's tuning closely throughout the bass
and middle sections, in the top octave there
is invariably some variation in some of the
notes. Typically they start going sharp, then
perhaps one or two notes at the very top will
come back into line, or even be flat. One thing
the SAT is very good at is consistency. So is
this deviation deliberate on their part to make
the top end 'brighter' (in which case why
should some top notes not follow the rest
in their 'sharpness'?), or is it the first sign
of hearing loss in experienced tuners who,
like me, have spent years tuning pianos with
unprotected ears?
If you are a young funer, then think
carefully about your .most valuable asset,
your hearing. How are you going to protect
it? If you are an older tuner (and I leave you
to define 'young' and 'older'), particularly if
you. find you need to have people repeat
. things to you, need the radio or TV turned up
higher than other people, and/or have diffi-
culty with conversation in a crowd, then it
may be worth finding a reputable audiologist
to have your hearing checked out. But who-
ever you are, do consider quality hearing pro-
tection. Better to spend some money now on
hearing protection, than having to spend a
great deal more some years down the line,
with the inconvenience of a plug in each ear
thereafter I
Les Sherlock
- An air lock' which prevents the ear drum from
vibrating
- Since this was first written technology has
moved on and the latest hearing aids are signi-
ficantly superior.