In need of some encouragement - another possibility

[Avery]

Hi Israel,

When I had my first "trainee" a few years ago, I had no real clue 
about how to do it. I asked Jim Coleman, Sr.
for some suggestions and the main one he mentioned was to make them 
tune unisons until they could do it as well
as I can. THEN start teaching them to tune a temperament! It worked 
pretty well, even though they didn't really
"enjoy" it! :-D But it paid off!

Avery


>Another feature of our training was extensive practice tuning 
>unisons and octaves for a long time, before attempting temperaments. 
>This developed both our sensitivity to beats and our "aural 
>endurance" so that by the time we were working on temperaments, we 
>could actually maintain our acute hearing ability long enough to 
>tune a rudimentary temperament. It takes beginners a long time to 
>tune a temperament - speed comes with practice. If your ear "shuts 
>down" before you can complete your temperament - you suddenly stop 
>hearing those fifths and fourths beats that were so clear before... 
>I suspect that many self-taught beginner tuners can avoid a lot of 
>frustration with temperament tuning if they have the patience to do 
>sufficient unison and octave practice before attempting 
>temperaments. And with ETDs supplying an adequate temperament on 
>which to base octaves, this should be fairly easy.