Wim's observations, another viewpoint

[Ron Nossaman]

>In a sense I agree with you, Ron. But if high school kids aren't even told 
>about piano tuning as a way to make a living, they won't even consider it.

Hi Willem, 
There's another sort of left handed, back handed, oblique point to all this
as well. I've always believed that each and every one of us is an absolute
certifiable genius at SOMETHING. Almost nobody ever finds out what they
really should be doing with their lives, early or late. I wouldn't have
been interested in being a piano tuner in high school, and I'm not
particularly interested in it now. It's the associated aspects of the
business that tuning got me into that I find so endlessly fascinating, and
nothing anyone could have told me about piano tuning when I was 17 would
have particularly piqued my interest. The money is quite decent for the
demands of tuning, and the variety of people I meet in the process have
certainly proven to be worth the price of admission, but I would never have
known that until I had done it. I worked in a rebuilder's shop long before
I got into tuning, and frankly learned to tune as a means to secure shop
work, not because I wanted a tuning career. Someday, I may yet stumble
across that thing for which I am most suited. Come to that, I may already
have looked it in the face and not recognized it for what it was, but I'm
pretty satisfied with the choice I've made. I've chosen a few odd side
paths of a not terribly colorful (sorry Ed, that wasn't intentional <G>) or
glamorous profession that have the potential to keep me thinking,
challenged, and enthusiastic for a long time yet. I think I'm getting into
the ball park of the kind of thing that suits me, and it's not tuning, and
no one could have possibly anticipated all this when I was in high school.
Least of all me. 

Another point please, if you're still out there. I have met literally
dozens of people, not that old, who have made it a point to inform me that
they too used to tune pianos, but went on to something else that better
suited them. That's the other side of this coin.

Night all,

Ron N