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President's Message
by Paul Eccardt

Some of our older customers start to lose their hearing. How do we handle it? Different situations require different answers. One customer that I still have is in her nineties. I have tuned three pianos for her three times a year since she was in her sixties. Once, when she was in her late eighties, she asked me to come back and check the tuning; she said that it didn't sound right. I checked out the tuning and it was fine. She played some fifths in the treble and said that she didn't think they sounded like fifths. I didn't know what to say to her, and I thought that I would end up losing the customer. I told her that it sounded good to me and just left. Luckily her children play the piano. The next time she had her grown up children over to her house, they said that the piano was in tune but just out of regulation. I ended up booking a regulation. I learned from that experience to ask doubtful customers if they know any other good musicians that could check the piano and give them their opinion.




The last experience I had was with a different customer who couldn't even hear the very top octave. I asked her to see if her husband could hear the notes. Unfortunately, the husband was just as old and also couldn't hear. Then I noticed that she had a hearing aid on, so I told her to turn the volume up. She turned it up and then apologized to me for making me come out. It seems that when people lose their hearing, everything sounds too harsh or bright. That was why she turned the volume down. I've noticed that the older my customers get, the more they want the treble voiced down. These are some of my experiences, and if anyone has any ideas or insights into this matter, please let me know or we can briefly discuss it at the next meeting.

Ronsen