The technical was Part II of Steve Fairchild, Sr.'s innovative approach to concert tuning. He discussed the importance of tuning as a musician hears it as opposed to our usual reliance on theoretical values, as well as his numerous inventions and developments, especially to electronic tuning. Steve presented his modified tuning hammers for examination, with separate designs for grand and vertical application. He discussed his Ultra III system of tuning, with its two octave temperament and stretch program. His final discussion focused on pitch-raising and determination of the existing pitch of a piano and the degree of over-stretch compensation necessary to achieve A440.

The meeting ended at 8:30 PM.

Following our November technical by professional audiologist Dr. Bonnie Franco-Forman, I availed myself of her offer for a free hearing evaluation, and discount on a pair of custom-molded hearing protectors. I chose the 9-decibel filters, and thought I would share my observations. Because they are individually cast from your own ear canals they are surprisingly comfortable, even for the duration of an entire tuning. At first, I had a feeling of isolation (like a bad head cold) and the sensation that I really couldn't hear well, and was tempted to set the temperament without them. But I decided to give them a try and I left them in. What a surprise! I could still hear every beat and the temperament fell into place beautifully. The attack of hard test blows, harsh acoustic environments, bright Asian hammers --- nothing painfully assaults the eardrums any longer. And it also seems that the weak upper partials in the treble sections are greatly reduced or eliminated, leaving primarily the fundamentals, and the tuning results in these areas have been very good indeed. A long day of tuning leaves almost no aural fatigue or tinitis or "shift." For certain critical or difficult adjustments, the option always exists to remove them from the ears if necessary, but on the whole I have found the filters to be an excellent way to prolong our tuning careers.