Wanting to become a Piano Technician

[Avery Todd]

Hi Kevin,

At 02:20 PM 5/12/05, you wrote:
>Greetings Folks,
>
>Anyway, enough yacking.......Anybody here learn to become a piano tech by 
>correspondence course?  Can I learn that way?

Of course! That's how I started back in the early 70's. The best thing 
available then was
the Aubrey Willis course, which I took! I wish Randy's course had been 
available back then!
But outside of giving me a basic idea of how to tune and a very basic idea 
of some repairs,
I didn't do too much until I got involved with a Baldwin dealer in Abilene, 
TX. He'd been
a tech and he had one working for him that he'd trained. I guess he finally 
got tired of
me asking questions, so he asked me to come and work in the store, which I 
did. It was
probably at least a year later that he finally started paying me for my 
work! There were
always pianos that needed to be tuned and I always had help if I needed it!

Thankfully, at that time I didn't need the money all THAT much. Even though 
I've had to "relearn" some of the shop stuff he taught me (bad), I'll 
always be grateful for the opportunity he gave me!

>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.

I never finished my degree but I had 5 years of college. I think that 
training helped me
tremendously!!!!! At least I knew what the course was trying to teach me. I 
just had to
figure out how to do it! Thankfully, over many years, I did. And pretty 
damn good, too. If
I do say so myself! :-)

>Is it a good idea to experiment on this old upright and try everything on 
>it?

I think so! It's MUCH better than experimenting on a customer's piano!!!! 
DAMHIK.

>Any pointers to get me started in the right direction?

Just work your ass off while you're learning. I used to spend 4-6 hrs. 
trying to set a
temperament. That was the "problem" with being a good musician. I knew what 
I "should"
be getting, but I just wasn't able to get it! For a while, anyway! :-)

Good luck and work hard!

Avery

>Thank you so much for your advice....I have thinking about doing this for 
>many years.
>
>Best Regards
>Kevin Cook
>http://coyotedream.com
>
>_______________________________________________
>pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives