Ken Vinen was kind enough to carbon copy his post on the above.  I am
doing him the same favor on this post.

I pulled out the 1905-1907 Nyles Bryant (there was no hyphen as I
originally typed) and read it.  I am going to list the lessons, and
make a few comments as I go.  Then you can decided for yourself whether
or not the course was a "scam."

By the by... they sent out quizzes after each lesson... and they graded
them!

Lesson 1-How to Begin

Nyles Bryant, from here on out abbreviated NB, sent every student an
"action model".  Section 4 states, "The object of sending the action model
to the student is that he may experiment and watch the results from a side
view, and without risk of damaging his own piano".

Section 10 of the same lesson: "We allow the students to retain the action
model TWO WEEKS (emphasis theirs) from the day it is received, thus
affording them time to put the lessons on action regulating into practice.
It is IMPORTANT that the action model and screw-drivers be returned at the
expiration of the time limit".

Lesson 2--Instructions for Regulating the Upright Action.

(I just read the whole thing and found out some things that I wished
I had known all those years I was doing piano action work)

Lesson 3--First Principles and Elementary Tuning Practice

This has some very funny passages in it, to wit:  "Provide yourself with a
piano, upright preferred.  An old one will do, although a comparatively new
instrument will be better.  If you are obliged to rent one for a time, it
is not necessary for you to explain what use you wish to make of it, for
many, not knowing the nature of tuning, would imagine that the practice
work might injure it" !!!! (Exclamation points mine)
The rest of the lesson is devoted to the proper method of holding the
tuning hammer, stance, etc.  Very informative.  THEN they launch into an
the most detailed explanation of beats that I have ever read.  (I should
have used this in my Physics classes).  Here is the final quote: "The beats
are the secret means by which the properly educated tuner works out his
final results.  The average public views the professional tuner with a
species of awe".  (Bet y'all didn't know that... neither did I.)
NOW... about that instrument that Ken talked about in his post.  I am
quoting directly from the course, and the capital letters are their's, not
mine.

"It is right in this matter of catching the beats that is demonstrated in
one of its features, the supreme effectiveness of the TUNE-A-PHONE as an
aid in the study of piano tuning.  In this unique instrument (used in the
advanced tuning practice, Lessson Five), are incorporated, side by side,
for ready comparison, sets of beating and non-beating tones.  Through the
agency of a special patented device known as the BEAT AMPLIFIER, by an
ingenious application of certain laws of acoustics the beats are made to so
powerfully magnify and intensify themselves, relatively  (sic) to the
purely musical part of the tone, that the listener's ear has at once forced
upon it a vivid impression of just what a beat sounds like, and is thus
enabled to easily recognize the fainter beats in the unisons and intervals
of the piano".  (Ed's note:  I would have loved to have met the man that
wrote that sentence.)

Question 12 in the "Questions for Examination section" asks, the caps are
theirs, "WHAT SUCCESS DID YOU HAVE WITH THIS LESSON"?

This post is getting very long, so I am going to just list the subjects of
the remaining course.

Lesson 4--The Tuning of the Octave Interval--Preliminary Tuning of the
Tempered Interval

Lesson 5--The Setting of the Tempermant.  Final Operations of Actual
Tuning.

Lesson 6--Special Repairs Upon Pianos (Fascinating information on how to
knot broken bass strings (Illustrated), repairing broken hammer stems, how
to remedy sticking hammers, removing a broken tuning pin (!) and on and on.

Lesson 7--(No question Blank with this lesson)  "We are sending you a
flange, partly bushed, to show the correct method of putting in a new
bushing................then send us the sample back"  And later
on..."Please send us a sample of your work at the earliest convenience."

Lesson 8--How to Remedy Worn Felt on Hammers, or Putting in New Hammers

Lesson 9--To Remedy Squeaking Pedals and Other Squeaks in Pedal Action in
Upright Pianos

Lesson 10--(You are gonna love this!!!) Some Necessary Information about
Square Pianos

Lesson 11--Square Action Continued  (See they were a problem then......just
as they are now)

Lesson 12--Definition of Sound  (Once again this treatise could have been
used in one of my physics lectures, and the kids just MIGHT have gotten it)

(No chapter number)Business Instructions   (After reading the whole thing,
I realized that there are things in this part I should have used for
years...it is timely...)

(No chapter number) A Treatise on the Finishing and Repairing Piano Cases
(Good stuff here also)

That is it.  Now...decide for yourselves...scam...or a valuable set of
instructions that trained literally thousands of tuners who kept all those
marvelous automatic instruments, and straight pianos, in tune.
(And I said that I was not going to comment....I lied)

-30-

Ed