Greetings, I just joined the mailing list a couple of days ago and have been enjoying the amount of email sent to me by this mailing list. It's nice to see a very active list. I do have a question about training to become a piano technician (as I'm sure you have been asked numerous times). How did you get your training? Currently, I'm looking into both the Randy Potter and the Americal School correspondence courses, but I'm not sure if either is better or if I should try to find a technician who is willing to take on an apprentice. I have issues with how both schools present themselves as being the "better" school. In the case of Randy Potter, he includes a 12-year-old article from Keyboard Magazine saying that his school is the best. (Written by Larry Fine, no less) I'm not sure how much relavance an article of that age has on training today. In the case of the American School, there are email testimonials included, but none of the testimonials are from members of the PTG. They say that they just haven't bothered. Cost, of course, is an issue, since the Randy Potter course costs twice as much as the American School course. Which brings me to the other option. From what I've read on the list and the archives, it seems to me that most piano technicians would not be willing to take on an apprentice since they fear that this will take business away from them. How can that be approached? Yes, I'd be willing to pay a technician for training if they would offer it to me. I have been in touch with the PTG about membership and stating that I'm looking to maybe apprentice to someone. I'm currently living in the SF Bay Area, just to give you a geographical reference. Any help/suggestions/comments would be very welcome. You are welcome to contact me off-list if you feel that this is not worthy of the bandwidth on the list. Thank you very much. Sincerely, Doug Jones
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