Customer Reviews

The Seventh Dragon: The Riddle of Equal Temperament

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The Seventh Dragon is one of the special category of books that draws you deeply into a world that most people happily never know about. It then exposes you to fascinations of science, history and art.

The process of tuning a piano is revealed as an application of delicate strength and obsessive sensitivity. Along the way, the complicated evolution of the modern piano is explained in intriguing detail.

The writing is direct and clear, the explanations are lucid and fulfilling, and the writers affection for the subject is obvious and hard to resist.

I honestly have not completed reading this book, but less than halfway through it I think it's really made an impact on me. It's a really great run-down of what tuning a piano really is, written in terms that non-tuners and non-pianists can actually understand. However, from a tuner's standpoint, it really inspires one to step back and take pause and appreciate one's own profession and craft for once. It is so easy to get into a rut and take for granted what exactly you are doing when you are tuning pianos every day. And that rut can lead to burnout, and sloppy work. Anita Sullivan's words shine a different light on things, and inspire tuners to feel out the art of their craft again.
Supposedly, the book also serves as sort of a philosophical metaphor for life in general as well, but frankly I am still reading "on the surface" as it were.
Good Stuff!

I've been struggling with aural piano tuning and received a recommendation for this book from a fellow piano technician. I had hoped for more specific tips to improve my tuning skills.