I never learned to play a musical instrument. Beyond my old-school Onkyo receiver, Radio Shack equalizer and Kenwood speakers, I can't play a note.
That didn't stop me from getting a job in the 80s at a musical instrument repair shop in Memphis. What got me in the door was my understanding of computers, to the component level. Music keyboards were fully digital by that time. So I repaired a lot of DX7s and other keyboards. But I also got to repair some older analog keyboards that were tuned with a stroboscope and a drop of melted lead in the element which was filed down until the note was perfect on the scope.
Then I learned to tune a pipe organ at a local church. This required the same stroboscope, and a ladder. Most of the problems they had were in the high notes, often wooden elements that had been patched many times over the years. I got pretty good at it because I knew a bit about wood and epoxy.
But one day I was sent to a massive Catholic cathedral looking church in midtown. The whole back was was organ but the panel was in the balcony above the parishioner's gallery. I'm halfway through setting up when a rather hostile Nun approaches and tells me to stop what I'm doing. I introduce myself and show her the paperwork. Then she's like, "You can't tune this organ, we need a master (I was in my 20s, no long white beard or wizard's costume). So I call my boss.
He's as pissed as he can be because this apparently happened before. So he arrives and immediately lays into her about this stupid obsession with "an old master" tuning the organ. He makes her watch as he sets the first note on the list. The scope is spinning and as he hits the key and fills the building with sound, the lines on the scope slow down to a really slow spin. He opens the panel and adjusts the valve with a wrench, turning maybe 3 degrees and the lines stop.
He points and says "That is the note, it's perfect". Then he says, "I'm almost completely deaf from tuning these damned things all my life, I can't possibly tune it by ear, so I use the same device he's using" followed by "you do not NEED an Old Master to do this, you need someone who can go up and down a ladder all day" (me, a former sailor).
This article really goes into the depths of a massive organ with several great examples. So if someone speaks of a problem with a dulciana, you'll know what they mean!
http://www.pipeorgansirl.com/news/2014/7/28/tuning-organs
That didn't stop me from getting a job in the 80s at a musical instrument repair shop in Memphis. What got me in the door was my understanding of computers, to the component level. Music keyboards were fully digital by that time. So I repaired a lot of DX7s and other keyboards. But I also got to repair some older analog keyboards that were tuned with a stroboscope and a drop of melted lead in the element which was filed down until the note was perfect on the scope.
Then I learned to tune a pipe organ at a local church. This required the same stroboscope, and a ladder. Most of the problems they had were in the high notes, often wooden elements that had been patched many times over the years. I got pretty good at it because I knew a bit about wood and epoxy.
But one day I was sent to a massive Catholic cathedral looking church in midtown. The whole back was was organ but the panel was in the balcony above the parishioner's gallery. I'm halfway through setting up when a rather hostile Nun approaches and tells me to stop what I'm doing. I introduce myself and show her the paperwork. Then she's like, "You can't tune this organ, we need a master (I was in my 20s, no long white beard or wizard's costume). So I call my boss.
He's as pissed as he can be because this apparently happened before. So he arrives and immediately lays into her about this stupid obsession with "an old master" tuning the organ. He makes her watch as he sets the first note on the list. The scope is spinning and as he hits the key and fills the building with sound, the lines on the scope slow down to a really slow spin. He opens the panel and adjusts the valve with a wrench, turning maybe 3 degrees and the lines stop.
He points and says "That is the note, it's perfect". Then he says, "I'm almost completely deaf from tuning these damned things all my life, I can't possibly tune it by ear, so I use the same device he's using" followed by "you do not NEED an Old Master to do this, you need someone who can go up and down a ladder all day" (me, a former sailor).
This article really goes into the depths of a massive organ with several great examples. So if someone speaks of a problem with a dulciana, you'll know what they mean!
http://www.pipeorgansirl.com/news/2014/7/28/tuning-organs
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