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For lack of a better term, I find there are times when I'm tuning pianos in rapid succession, when everything begins to sound awful, like I'm hearing every little beat from every interval all at once. I found I have to step back and take an aural break at that point before going on.

I've had many opportunities to go back at another time and hear my work, and then it sounds just fine, so I know it's me, and *not* something I did badly.

Anyone else experience that?

It happens to me all the time. I have never tuned a piano that I was completely satisfied with. If it doesn't happen by the mid-treble, it certainly does in the low bass. It is a super-critical attitude and is what makes me tune as perfect as possible. I have no idea how someone could tune UT aurally. It would be like purposely running a car into the ditch.

That's because your ears are becoming tired. Over time, they are listening and discerning and need a break. When your ears get to that point, nothing sounds right yet, if you give them a break say, return tomorrow and listen to what you did today, you'll be amazed at how well the piano actually sounds. This is because your ears are now rested again.

If you spend about an hour on the tuning, things should be fine but, if you go over it and over it and over it and over it again and again trying to make everything perfect which is impossible to do, you will encounter this on every single piano. You have to learn when to say "stop." Moving onto the next piano.

I'm glad to 'hear' I'm not alone in this.

I wondered if it had to do with my tinnitus.

I assume the tuner who can successfully do that has amazing aural discipline and can stick to counting beats.

What I can't wrap my head around would be the ability to do *that* repeatedly.

No, it does not Jim. It is a natural thing that all tuners will experience when our ears are over worked.

I think my ears get better the more pianos I tune.

With experience, yes. but not when you tune 6 pianos in a row with no breaks and not if you spend 3 hours in a row on one piano.

You're not alone, with the tinnitus either.

I find it helps to make sure you're properly hydrated and fed at all times. A heavy day of tuning will always result in ear fatigue, but this helps stave that off as long as possible. It is your brain getting tired that produces it - simultaneously processing and analysing the information is hard work, and after a while it can't offer you the analysis you need quick enough. Brain needs food, water and rest to function properly.

Taking a break and listening to some music, or playing a piece on the piano, helps as well. Gives the analytical tuning part of your brain a rest and the hearing part something to help it relax.

I have some tinnitus in one ear. But I never, ever notice any ringing while tuning. I am too intent on listening to the piano.

The human ear is a muscle group; similar to any other muscle group it is subject to overuse and fatigue.

Take a break and try again. As I am getting on in years this is why I don’t like to tune every day but do other kinds of work in the shop setting, also to mix it up a bit. There were times when coming back from school board work that I just did not want to “hear anything” at all….tired of hearing generally….

Being a tuning machine day after day gets a bit wearing, for me anyways. I like the variety the shop brings to the equation.

Dan:

You have said this before and I doubt it is true. The ear is a sensory organ. What muscles are you talking about?

There are two muscle groups in the ear; Tensor Tympani and the Stapedius.

Ear muscle anatomy

Thanks, Dan. I stand corrected. There are muscles in the inner ear. Of course that does not mean that the saturation we are talking about is due to muscle fatigue.

For me it is a mental, not a physical thing. The closest thing I can relate it to is looking for coins on the ground. It draws your mental focus. Every tramped upon wad of gum looks like something that needs to be picked up. (Some of you might be able to relate if your spending money ever came from what you could find.)

I am of the opinion that two things are happening there; the ear muscle fatigue and the mental deterioration of concentration.

Because I worked for a half dozen school districts I have a lot of administrators as clients, both active and retired. I learned from one of the specialists it has been noted in the education systems that the human brain will begin to wander after 20-22 minutes on any given subject.

Now I did not believe this at first. When I held a tech seminar last year I cut the classes down to 20 minutes from 40. After 20 minutes I had them move onto something else.

When the reports and photo sets were filed by the attending student technicians I discovered they retained far more of the materials and noted far more enlightened observations in those reports when comparing them to previous seminars.

Could have been just a coincidence, as the study is completely unscientific and too small of a sample to be significant, unless repeated with identical results on other students. Could also be I am getting better at presenting the materials for improved comprehension.

I haven't tuned a single note, but the mental fatigue part seems reasonable. When I was heavily into teaching tennis I would attend tha National Tennis Teachers Conferences. These were filled with great teachers who I admired, but I found it difficult to listen to more than two one hour lectures in a row.

The funny thing is how many school administrations expect teenagers to be able to go to class after class with no break except for five minutes to walk to the next room.

Maybe some effective short meditation breaks would work at unfatiguing the brain. It works in other facets of stress/fatigue.

I agree that experience more mental fatigue (or just plane boredom) than physical fatigue. It is not easy to maintain the level of focus needed for fine tuning for more than a few hours per day.

Thanks for the comments, guys. Knowing the commonality of this relieves a lot of frustration.

I had accepted it as part of the job, but didn't know there were others in the boat, or just how big the boat was.