These are very interesting responses folks, thank you so much. Leslie, I enjoyed your thoughts. Jeff, you more-or-less describe my own situation. I got into piano tuning & repair in the early to mid 1980s. At that time, I had other part-time work, and I did consider whether piano tuning full-time could be an option. However, the opportunity of a full-time permanent post in teaching came up, a(relatively)secure and well-paid job. So piano tuning has remained a sideline for me. In Scotland, low population density means that there is simply not enough work for a huge number of full-time tuners (the population of all of Scotland is about the same as that of inner London). I occupy a kind of geographical niche, however. I could get more work if I marketed more agressively and pushed more aggresively into the territory of other tuners. But I am in the happy position that I don't need to. I have kept the piano work going because I love it. I operate in an entirely legitimate manner - my income is declared to the Inland Revenue and I have Public Liability Insurance. I am also one of what I guess must be very few tuners in Scotland - perhaps I am the only one - to have invested in a Fujan lever! I get work through referrals from happy customers. The local theatre tells me they always get compliments on the tuning of their Steinway. Having been tuning for some 25 years and to the satisfaction of all the noted musical figures locally, I am hardly a fly-by-night. Could I produce a concert tuning of ravishing wholeness and beauty and a voicing and regulation of exquisite fineness for a fussy concert pianist? Possibly not. How many other tuners in a fifty mile radius of here could, I wonder. I got into piano tuning and repair on a kind of hobby basis in the early 80s and it grew from there. At that time the available college course was a three-year diploma and I was not in a position financially and in other ways to undertake it. For several years the Pianoforte Tuners Association opened up classes in association with their annual convention, and I attended many of them, and learned much useful stuff from fine craftsmen. But I am aware of my limitations. The fascinating rebuilding work sometimes described on here would be well beyond my current capabilities. In the course of 25 years tuning and repair, I have encountered some shameful work by previous technicians, and some work I'd have been proud to call my own. I do not think that in the scale of piano tuning & repair in the West of Scotland, I offer a bad service. I think I offer a good one. What I think I am getting at, is that we must be awake to the possibility of routes into, and modes of working in, this trade, other than the traditional apprenticeship-then-into-fulltime-job mode. There isn't so much of that these days, in any field. This list is exemplary, I feel, it the generous-hearted openenness of its contributors, who are willing to share encouragement and knowledge that, in many contributors here, is vast. This has been a rather rambling post, I am sorry! Best regards, David. >I tuned full-time for one year back in the 70’s and was a member of >the Guild at that time. Then I chose a different career, and then >switched careers, but always tuned a little on the side. I have been >tuning more lately because the local tuner no longer can. There are >more distant tuners that tune in this area, but there are some >customers that only want a local tuner, not someone from a “Big City”. >I fill a niche in a rural area. Am I as good as the “Big City” tuners? >I really don’t know. Are the customers happy with my work? Yes. >I am not sure which ethics we may be talking about. I do collect and >pay taxes on my services. I charge more than I might otherwise so that >I am not undercutting anyone else. There is no divvying up of >territory (which might not be legal or ethical) that I am violating. >As far as efficacy, since I do not travel as far, it is more efficient >for me to tune than someone coming from a “Big City”. But for other >independent part-time craftsman, regardless of the trade, do we really >want to squash free enterprise? How ethical would that be?
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