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Vacuums just stop me cold. 'Dunno' why. The "ETD" under my hat doesn't have a magnetic pickup ... thankfully.

As Bob mentioned, we can hear you folks! I always feign innocence by way of concentrating on the piano, but two or three rooms away is seldom enough isolation. The CIA should enlist a few piano tuners. It's amazing what a tuner can hear! Or, maybe not. Most of us DO use our ears.

The seductive voice from a customer’s 20 year old daughter: very distracting. Happens all the time, but somehow I don’t mind…

Vacuum cleaners are at the top of the list for me. Also any 60hz hum like from PA equipment or old fluorescent lights.

When a customer comes in to the store, it's standard etiquette to stop tuning so the salesman can make a presentation. I resolve the that problem by requesting a key to the store and tuning before or after hours. No customers then, and I can have piano parts all over the floor without fear of people tripping on them. The salespersons appreciate that too.

The wife startin' in again with "You spend too much time with that damn piano and not enough with me!"

Hey Jurgen, that noise cancelling NoCaTS system may be just the thing for me.

Jerry,

I agree with you here. Overwhelming noises will cause me on rare occasion to tune an entire piano using my ETD. It's nice to have the option.

Cuckoo Clocks that sound every 15 minutes.

UprightTooner,
I'd rather have your distraction than mine.

It gets old, just ask Brad Pitt.

A woman, with an already loud voice, talking 3 times louder than necessary on the phone.

UprightTooner,
Now I know how you got that name.

My daughter when she is crying.(20 months)

Upright is the twin brother (I have another) that is now in a Monastery. He tunes while seated.

Annoying bratty kids screaming and hollering and fighting with each AND the parents AND the parents screaming back at the kids the whole time you are there I had happen a couple of days ago. Totally impossible to hear to do a good job. Parents were home, but, could not or, rather, would not properly control the kids. Man, if that were my dad and me and I were talking to him like these kids were back talking to their parents? WHOA! I would have had the spanking of a lifetime.

One of my clients has an African Gray parrot- adults can have a 3000+ word vocabulary. The piano is in the same room but the bird is usually quiet when strangers are in the room.

It eventually got used to me somewhat and started making this one sound but I didn't immediately attribute it to the bird. I thought the client had left the house without his cell phone. I kept hearing that walkie-talkie chirp some cells have. This went on for 15 minutes or so. Then I heard the bird say "Hello" and I realized the bird could exactly mimic electronic tones. Blew me away!

It took me a little longer to tune, not because he made noise while tuning, but he would just go off while I would leave the room for a break. I can't repeat everything he said because the owner has a twisted dirty sense of humor. Too funny to end my breaks that quickly. I eventually got it done.

He's due for another tuning here shortly.

Teach it a few new words...

I had a customer who had a bird like that once. Man, could it ever swear! The customer would say, "hmmm, I don't know where he comes up with these words?" Like, yeah right!!!

Wind chimes, baying beagles, construction power tools, juke box, lawnmowers and bagpipes screeching in the background.

That's got to be more than the average high school graduate knows these days....

That's about right. I'd guess a few hundred nouns and verbs, an adverb or two without the "ly" ending, and "awesome", and "sweet" for adjectives, and that about does it.

The African Grey Parrot is said to have the intelligence of a 5/yo, and the emotional development of a 2/yo.

It's really astonishing what they can come up with for antics. Some friends had one that would boss the family dog around using perfect imitations of the voices of the adults in the household.

Maybe I can teach it sound out A440 and use it to calibrate ETD's- who needs NIST. Or he could be my tuning fork. Or even better he could answer my phone and set up my appointments for me. May work if I don't end up working for crackers and he doesn't cuss anybody out!

Tuning in a music school while someone's taking a lesson on the saxophone, drums, clarinet, oboe or trumpet. Those sounds really blast through the sound proofing.


best,
Valerie