Wanting to become a Piano Technician

[Farrell]

Hello Kevin,

I did the Randy Potter course about ten years ago. Very good course. I 
started out knowing less than zero. I now know slightly more than zero. If 
you know what a half-step is and that pianos have unisons, you know WAY more 
than I did when I started Randy's course! So yes, you can learn the basics 
of this business with his course. And yes, experiment with and try 
everything on that old upright - and afterwards, like Dale Erwin posted 
about - you can take it apart and recycle the parts!

And find the nearest PTG Chapter meeting and attend the meetings and join 
the PTG. Go to all the conventions you can. Read this pianotech list (but 
don't take everything you read as gospel!).

Good luck!

Terry Farrell

> I just joined this list because I am wanting to become a Piano Technician. 
> I have ordered material to try to eventually become an associate member of 
> PTG.   I live in a rural part of Texas with no way of learning from others 
> but I should receive Randy Potter's course material that I ordered in a 
> day or so.
>
> I have some piano tech tools that I purchased a couple of years ago but 
> only used them on this old upright until I broke one of the strings on the 
> high C.  I don't really know what I'm doing. This piano says "Wilson & 
> Sons Piano Co. Muncie Ind. 1886".  It came out of a barn and I had to 
> clean out the mud dobber nest and spiders.  The pedal board is rotted from 
> water damage and several keys aren't working.  I figured it could be my 
> experimental learning piano since it is probably a junker anyway.
>
> Here's a story that I know will probably have many of you cringing. 
> Yesterday, I figured to heck with it and decided to tune it not knowing a 
> thing about tuning pianos.  I used a chromatic tuner and noticed that it 
> was nearly a 1/2 step low.  I decided to tune it to A440.  I started with 
> middle C (middle string) using the tuner and then matched the unisons by 
> ear.  I worked my way up the C's then did the same on all the C's working 
> down.  I repeated this process  going through the circle of 5ths ( first 
> all the G's then all the D's.... A's  etc).  The tuner would not pick up 
> the highest octave or the lowest so I had to do those by ear.  It took me 
> several hours to finish and luckily I didn't break any strings.  It really 
> don't sound that bad now.
>
> Maybe I should rebuild this piano as a learning experience.  It only has 
> sentimental value (It belonged to my mother-in-law).
>
> Anyway, enough yacking.......Anybody here learn to become a piano tech by 
> correspondence course?  Can I learn that way?  I have been a musician for 
> 30 years and have a Bachelor of Music degree but I don't know if that 
> helps that much.  Is it a good idea to experiment on this old upright and 
> try everything on it?  Any pointers to get me started in the right 
> direction?  Thank you so much for your advice....I have thinking about 
> doing this for many years.
>
> Best Regards
> Kevin Cook
> http://coyotedream.com
>
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