The Voicing Tool

LINKEDIN Discussion

When you did your very first tuning for a customer, do you remember approximately how long it took?

Social Networking. The http://PianoSD.com/ website lists 31 Kansas "Piano Tuners".

...various responses similar to these:
Toni Van Loan • I think it was a Chickering grand for a former music school teacher. I thought I had done an ok job in 90 minutes, but he made me go back and tune the higher treble somewhat sharper ! Absolutely you should at least try to find a fairly decent piano to tune , even if it's for a friend, for free. It'll give you some idea what a better piano is supposed to sound like, and maybe make it a little easier to hear the Cable spinets-----.
Brian Janey • It took 4 hours and they guy paid me extra because he thought "Gosh, if it took that long, it must have really been bad!"
Bill Brummal • So it seems like the average here is about 3 hours or more. That's about where I'm at right now. Still trying to improve my technique to get my speed up a bit. Thank you all for your input.
then the tone shifted:

Bill Brummal
2 days ago• Like• Reply privately• Flag as inappropriate
Don Ober • This thread is a fine example of how important it is to continue the tradition of apprenticeship agreements! Because I dont mean to be nasty but it is not really fair to the piano playing public to have people out there tuning pianos professionally when it takes four to eight plus hours and, I'm nearly certain the results were not very good either.

My first tuning professionally for a client of mine took an hour and fifteen minutes maybe less because, although I was not as fast an accurate as I am now thirty years later, I was very, very prepared from having tuned well over a hundred pianos for the man I apprenticed under in his rebuilding shop. Apprenticeship programs and (in store tunings) for music stores where someone can critique and correct you MANY times is crucial to the public being treated fairly.

Im pretty certain (and thankful) there are no doctors out there doing operations that take 45 minutes normally but did their first one in eight hours because they were ill prepared by not first working under the tutelage of a master. We should respect our trade in the same way.

Roy Howard • Thanks, Don for your contribution advocating the importance of internship and supervised practice before going public for pay. I was about to confess to all the 3 hour "cleanings/tunings" for $15 that folks persuaded me to do because I knew more than anyone else in the area; but by the time I did hang a shingle and represent myself as a piano technician, I was ready for a schedule of 4+ tunings per day, and that included repairs and regulation adjustments. I could feel good about about charging $25 each piano, because I had studied, consulted with experienced technicians and tuned and regulated so many before making that commitment.

I started in 1966 and got most of my "supervised internship" in 1977-1978 before going public. In those days the saying was "you have to tune 1,000 pianos before you understand what to listen for; the trick is finding 1,000 people willing to let you practice on their piano!"

Bill, when you can do an excellent tuning on a good piano in 90 minutes, you are probably ready to charge professional rates. You get to this point much more efficiently when you have a supervised internship, like any other profession.

Ted Sambell Part 1, Piano Technicians Journal, Oct 2012
by PTGHomeOffice
In July 2012, Ted Sambell, RPT, received the highest recognition awarded by the Piano Technicians Guild: the Golden Hammer Award. This interview (recorded by John Parham, RPT, a year earlier) recounts not only his story of his circuitous journey into the piano tuning industry, but also how he entered into an association with the world-famous Canadian pianist Glenn Gould. YouTube video part one and part two

The 2012 SCRC Piano Technicians Guild Seminar
October 15-17, 2012 Kerrville, Texas