In a message dated 04/21/2000 10:24:31 AM Central Daylight Time, owner-pianotech-digest@ptg.org writes: << Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2000 09:58:48 EDT From: Wimblees@AOL.COM Subject: Re: An observation - a prediction - somewhat off-topic Rook, and others My dad was a piano tuner. While I was in high school I helped him in the shop, but he and I never talked about how much money he was making, or discussed my future in the business. It wasn't until I was laid off from teaching, and spent a year trying to sell life insurance, that I took a close look at the economics of tuning pianos. During that year of selling insurance, I somehow got by, and with the help of my father in law, on about $6000. When the idea of being a piano tuner came to me, I did some calculations. 4 tunings a day 5 days a a week, for 50 weeks at $25 a tuning, comes to $25,000. After only making $6000, $25000 was like hitting the jack pot. Although I didn't quite make $25000 my first year, I at least found a career I knew I could do, and be happy with. I think one of the reasons more young people aren't coming into the field is that high school counselors and college piano professors never mention this as a possible career. And part of the reason for that might be our fault. How many of you have approached a high school counselor, or talked to a college piano professor, about getting young people interested in a career of piano tuning. (I haven't.) This summer I have as an apprentice a high school student who is at the Interlochen Performing Arts Academy. Rolf von Walthausen, is the tech there, and he is working with some of the students. This young man wants to be a concert artist one day, but also wants to know how to take care of his won instrument. Which brings me to the next problem. How many piano students, much less piano performers, know anything about their piano? I play French horn, and know how to repair my own instruments. Most instrumentalist know how to take care of their own instruments. But very few piano players know how to tune, much less do any kind of repair or regulation. I think we, as a profession, in order to perpetuate our trade, need to approach high schools and colleges and get more young people interested in piano tuning. Then we won't have the problems Phil warned us about. Wim >> Hi, Willem! Just a quick note to let all of you know that there are a few of us out there who take care to point out to our music students that there is now and will be a shortage of qualified instrument repair technicians. I'm including more than pianotechs in this group--string, brass and woodwind techs are not in plentiful supply--but it applies to the current discussion. Most students are not aware that this profession is viable because they themselves have had little need to seek out such people to help them with their instrumental difficulties. We have, at our community college, invited wind and stringed instrument repair specialists to speak to our students and demonstrate at least the "normal" sort of problems they deal with, and each year the pianotech person who services our department does a presentation for our students. He has thus far presented mini-seminars (one hour) on tuning, regulating, field repairs and rebuilding, and our students have ALWAYS come away buzzing about what they've learned. Will any of them go in this direction? Who knows? But we've at least exposed them to the idea, and I'm rather proud of that. Stan Ryberg Barrington IL
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