A regular meeting of the Long Island Nassau Chapter, PTG was held on May 8, 2012, at Frank and Camille's Keyboard Center, 229B Glen Cove Road, Carle Place, N.Y. Eight chapter members and one guest attended.

President Slavin called the meeting to order at 7:14 PM.

The minutes for the April 10, 2012 meeting were accepted by general consent.

The treasurer’s report was accepted by general consent.

• The current chapter officers were re-elected by a unanimous vote.
• The June dinner will be held at Bistro Cintron, located at 1362 Old Northern Boulevard in Roslyn. The cost of dinner is expected to be about $49 per person.

A letter from the Piano Technicians Guild Foundation acknowledging receipt of and thanking the chapter for the donation of Owen Jorgensen’s book on historical temperaments, was read aloud by President Slavin. This book was owned by Lenny Genovese and had been autographed by the author. It was one of the items for sale at the auction held last month, but no one bid on it.

The business meeting concluded at 7:18 PM at which time our guest speaker, Daniel Levitan, was introduced. Mr. Levitan is the author of the book: The Craft of Piano Tuning, and has developed and patented a new tuning-hammer design.

Mr. Levitan’s lecture for the evening focused on the skill and forces involved in turning the tuning pin and setting the pin in the course of tuning a piano string. Topics discussed included setting the tuning pin, tuning pin friction, deviations in tuning pin orientation introduced intentionally and unintentionally while tuning, and tuning-hammer leverage. Mr. Levitan introduced his new tuning-hammer, explained its benefits, and demonstrated its use. To further illustrate the points made earlier in the discussion, a metal disk with a tuning pin secured at the center was passed around, along with a typical tuning hammer and Mr. Levitan’s tuning-hammer. While holding the disk in one hand, and turning the tuning-pin with each of the tuning hammers, one could experience the differences in the amount of flagpoling that took place.

The meeting ended at 8:43 PM.