Applied Academics

Tune Up Your Listening and Speaking Skills

Piano Repair Technician Technical and Professional Communications 12

Lesson Idea by: John Mutter, Gateway Community Learning Centre, Armstrong, B.C.

Piano repair technicians deal directly with the public. Most often, they tune pianos right in a customer's home. Because of this, technicians must be able to communicate with the customer. A tuner has to understand what the customer is saying about the piano's performance. As well, the tuner must be able to explain what they're doing in terms the customer can understand.

For instance, a tuner has to understand what a customer means when they say the piano has "strange sounds" coming out of it. Customers often make up unusual words or expressions to describe the simple vibrations of the wires, and tuners must understand what they mean.

"'Strange sounds' can mean anything from an out-of-tune piano, to objects like metal, brass, or glass vibrating in the room in sympathy to the piano being played," says Paul Brown, a registered piano technician who lives in British Columbia, Canada.

Another common complaint is that the piano doesn't sound like it did in the store.

"This is very typical response," observes Brown. "A store is usually quite large. Also, in a home setting, there is almost complete silence, and the slightest difference in sound can be heard."

Tuning is a very complex process. Still, it's one that customers want to understand.

"The best way for the public to understand about pianos and their operation is to use analogies," says Brown. "The best tuners that I know do this all of the time."

If you have access to the Internet, visit this site for piano resources in Canada. It's maintained by the Canadian Chapters of the Piano Technicians Guild Inc.

You're a piano repair technician. You have a customer who has just bought a new piano. You want to explain the importance of proper maintenance, so you hand the customer a sheet of paper that reads:

"Pianos must be maintained properly to be in good working condition. They must be tuned frequently to ensure they stay at concert pitch. All manufacturers suggest that pianos be tuned three to four times per year in the first year and once or twice per year after that. If pianos are in climates where the humidity fluctuates, they should be tuned more often. Pianos must be completely regulated in the shop and in the house after moving so that they perform properly."

You explain to your customer that there are two main reasons why pianos don't stay in tune -- not enough tuning and humidity (climate) changes.

Your customer is totally confused by the paper and your brief verbal explanation. He wants a layman's explanation as to what "tuning" really means, and why humidity is such an important factor.

In your own words, explain what is meant by the above two concepts. Do your research at the library, on the Internet or by interviewing a local piano tuner

A very important part of the communications process is listening and responding. "Effective listening means being an active listener, not just a passive listener. Listening well involves more than just your ears; your eyes, your body posture, your hands and your mind all have to be involved in the process." This is the word from Chelsea Donaldson in The Communications Handbook (Toronto: Nelson Canada, 1996), page 180.

There are three main steps in active listening. Listen with your whole body, listen for a reason and pick up the speaker's signals.

Many problems with understanding what has been said occur because we don't focus on the speaker. We may be more concerned about how we might respond. Or, we may be distracted by the room temperature or a variety of other things. An excellent way of ensuring you've understood the speaker is to paraphrase or summarize their comments before you respond. To tune out distractions, keep your eyes focused on the speaker.

Why are we listening? To gather information? To help form an opinion? If we start out with a reason for listening, we will know if we've received the necessary information or not. If we are in a conversation, and we need information, we can paraphrase the speaker's main ideas, ask appropriate questions and summarize at the end. If we want to form an opinion, we can paraphrase the speaker's main ideas, consider and critically analyse the validity of each point, and summarize with questions at the end.

What are the speaker's signals? Sometimes the signals are clue words such as firstly, next, finally. Sometimes the signals come in sentences such as "There are three ways...", "I will present four reasons..." These let you know what is coming. Sometimes the signals are the speaker's tone of voice and inflection.

Most often, signals are related to body language and facial expression. When you are giving information, watch the body language and facial expressions of your audience. They may say they understand and have no questions. Yet, careful analysis of things like tone of voice, body language and facial expression can help a speaker determine if the point is being made or the information is being understood.

Another valuable speaking and listening skill is the use of analogies. Analogies help to make a point by offering the audience a parallel example that allows them to make logical connections. Another skill is the use of stories or narratives to help support a point by connecting it to known events. Stories provide a context or historical backdrop against which an idea can be interpreted and understood. Listeners and readers tend to appreciate stories, particularly if they are brief and relate directly to the point being made.

Finally, active listening requires us to paraphrase and summarize. While we listen, we need to translate the speaker's words into words, phrases, analogies and metaphors that make sense to us. As we listen, we need to occasionally stop the speaker and ask questions like, "So, what you are saying is ..." State your understanding of the message the speaker has made. This gives you a chance to check your understanding and allows the speaker to clear up any misconceptions or questions you still might have.

Summarizing is similar skill, but it usually takes place at the end of a conversation, exchange of information or presentation. At this point, you create a paraphrased summary of what the speaker has said in order to validate your understandings and allow the speaker to clarify any problem areas. A good speaker will offer listeners an opportunity to paraphrase or summarize during the course of a presentation.

Apply paraphrasing, summarizing, analogies and/or narrative devices to the Practice section exercise. After reading the instruction sheet regarding tuning and humidity, decide which of the techniques will be most effective in explaining the concepts to the customer. What questions would you ask? What analogies would make sense to you? Discuss with others what would make sense to them. As you talk with them, practice paraphrasing and summarizing their comments. Watch their body language to determine if you are being understood or you are understanding them.

What kinds of clues would indicate that your message is or is not getting across? What strategies could you employ to increase the likelihood of understanding?

1. Think of something you do that is fairly complex, such as a computer process, a video game skill or a physical activity, that you can have your audience easily perform in the classroom. Create a comprehensive list of instructions for performing the activity. Use the jargon associated with the skill when completing your initial list.

2. Rewrite your list of instructions in everyday terms using analogies, metaphors, and anecdotes to help your audience understand and perform the activity. Consider that you may have a variety of audiences, ranging from your peers to younger people to adults and prepare some appropriate alternative explanations.

3. Work in teams of three. Create a check list/rubric/criterion referenced assessment tool to assess both speaking and listening skills. The form should have a comment area for observers to give examples and clarifications. Each person will play each of these three roles: presenter, listener and observer. Both the presenter and the listener will be assessed.

4. Each presenter will give the listener a copy of their initial instruction list, complete with subject jargon. Using a variety of strategies, the presenter will translate it for the audience. The presenter should check that their audience is understanding and adjust their explanations as required.

Each listener will employ a variety of strategies to develop an understanding of the presenter's message. Using active listening skills, they should check for understanding throughout the activity.

Each observer will use the check list to monitor both the presenter and listener. At the end of each presentation, the presenter and the listener should assess their own performance using the check list. The observer should debrief the presenter and the listener and compare assessments.

Evaluation

1. Criterion Referenced Assessment Rubric (Check List).

2. Role of presenter

3. Role of listener

Course/Grade: Technical and Professional Communications 12
Curriculum Organizer(s): Reading, Viewing and Listening; Writing, Representing and Speaking; Products and Presentations II	Curriculum Sub-organizer(s): Comprehension, Critical Analysis, Planning
Prerequisites: English 11	Resources: The Communications Handbook, Internet access, Career Prep access to a Piano Tuner

 

Solution to Practice Paul Brown, a registered piano technician, answers customer questions this way: Music wire is spring steel. The best way to explain this is to use an analogy of a spring coil. When you pull the two ends apart, and then let them go, the spring coil returns to its original shape because it has been in that position for a long time. But if you stretch the ends too far apart, the spring coil will not return to its original shape and will likely stay in the new position. Let's say that we have a coil that is six inches long that should be twice that length, or one foot long from bottom to top. If we want it to stay one foot long, we will have to stretch it considerably so it will stay that new length. Similarly, if we have a coil that is two feet long, we will have to compress it so that it will remain at its new one-foot length after we let go. In this example, we have adjusted two coils, one upward and one downward. Even though now we are satisfied that these two coils are each one foot long, they probably won't stay that way. After they're adjusted, the coils still may change slightly. If we return in a couple of hours, the coils won't be exactly one foot long, because they haven't completely adjusted to their new position. It may take a day or a week for that to happen. Just imagine how difficult it is for a piano tuner to adjust over 200 wires! If the piano hasn't been tuned frequently enough, a technician could spend all day tuning and the piano will still go out of tune, because the wires have not had time to settle into their new positions. Humidity refers to the amount of moisture in the air. Humidity plays a major role in why pianos go out of tune. This is because humidity affects wood, and pianos are made of wood. Seasonal and even daily changes in humidity cause wood parts to swell and shrink, affecting tuning stability and touch. One of these critical wooden parts is called the "soundboard." The soundboard is a sheet of wood about 3/8 of an inch thick. It has a slightly crowned shape. You can picture the soundboard as a thin membrane that vibrates up and down when it receives sound waves. The piano wires, or "strings," pass over the soundboard and are connected to it by another wooden piece called a bridge. The bridge in a piano is analogous to that of a violin. The rounded shape of the soundboard presses the bridge tightly against the strings. When there is very little humidity, the soundboard is fairly flat and the strings that are connected to them are at a certain tension. When the humidity is very high, the soundboard may warp. This expansion pushes the bridge harder against the strings. The strings are stretched tighter and the piano's pitch rises. Since the wires have now been stretched, they are no longer at their original position and the piano goes out of tune. If you have had the piano tuned on a day of high humidity, and the climate becomes much drier, the soundboard will flatten out and the wires will be "relaxed." In this case, they will no longer be at the position they were in high humidity, and the piano will be out of tune. When the relative humidity returns to its previous level, the average pitch of all the strings will return to normal, although the exact pitch of individual strings will be slightly changed from their original settings. Thus, a piano only will stay in tune as long as the humidity level in the air surrounding the soundboard remains constant. This is why tuners recommend that pianos be tuned at the same time of year every year. This way, the tuner is likely to have the same weather conditions as they did when the tuning was done the year before.