I agree wholeheartedly with Israel's comments, and in answer to his question about CSPT's experience, yes, the general population of students is in the 20-30 year old range, with the usual extremes. I would also add that, having been around the PTG for 25+ years now, I began hearing this same issue raised from almost day one. The average age (entering or otherwise) of membership hasn't dramatically changed since I came around. I'm not sure that there's much information in the datum. Paul In a message dated 7/7/2010 6:53:35 P.M. Central Daylight Time, custos3 at comcast.net writes: On Jul 07/07/10 2:00 PM Paul T. Williams wrote: Hi Ed, >I think our profession, on the big scale, is slowly dwindling like the piano industry as a whole. My chapter here in >Nebraska, is probably about an average of my age (nearing 50) or better (at least those who come to the >meetings), but we have two budding students who are charged up about the future possibilities! Paul, I really don't see things as pessimistically as you do. It may be true that because our profession consists to a large part of "retreads" - it's typically a second or third career choice - the average age will be a bit higher than typical in other professions. But, a PTG convention - especially in a difficult economy - is not the best sample of age distribution, as we of the gray hair, spreading midriff and suspenders crowd (thanks Joe) are more likely to have the cash and the leisure to go. You know, kids out of the house, mortgage almost paid, business well established... I come across plenty young people in our ranks - in their twenties and thirties. At our San Francisco Chapter meetings you will typically find a pretty wide age distribution. The trick is to develop interesting and varied programming with appeal to all levels of competence and not to allow a chapter to become a narrow homogenous "clique" that ages together over the years - which then becomes not particularly attractive to younger people to spend time with a bunch of geezers... It's sort of a chicken and egg thing, I suppose... Then again, a large proportion of the RPT candidates I have tested over the years tend to be in their 30's and even 20's. The same goes for the students from North Bennet Street School and Western Ontario I meet - and I would bet that Paul Revenko Jones could probably say the same about his students in Chicago (though I can't vouch for that personally). >We need to recruit more young folks who want to continue in our footsteps. Can't argue with this. But then there are people who are doing just that - and have been doing it all along. Joe Garret in Oregon has trained some crackerjack young technicians over the years, and Lance LaFargue in New Orleans keeps cranking out these fuzzy-cheeked youths who can run circles with their technical skills around many of us graybeards. John Callahan here in the SF Bay area has launched many youths' careers in his rebuilding shop and so has Margie Williams while her shop was active - one of them is now chief technician at the University of Denver. I am sure there are more such everywhere... >I wish I had the time to properly train some new blood as I have 110 pianos to care for, so lots to learn from. The >university is always willing to get free "help", at least on the upright practice room pianos. The down side for me is >that I have to immediately go and correct all the mistakes :>( as they learn; so the 2 sided coin....heads I win, tails >you lose. or the other way around, I should say. >We only offer a one semester class on the basics of piano mechanics in which I have an average of 3 or 4 students just >looking for a small bit of education to learn of the instruments they play. Most of my students are not even piano majors, >but filling up an elective as it's a cool class. They're always very enthusiastic in class, but at the end of the semester, >that's all they do. Sadly, and I think it should be manditory, that all piano majors take my class; but, then again, >I don't have the time to teach that many students. I don't know how feasible it is to do much training in an institutional setting (though I have some ideas that I might pitch to the appropriate people given the opportunity) but those of us with their own private shops are in a much better position to do this. So we should make the effort... >It may be a problem in the next 10 years, however, the income possibilities may be huge for the new blood entering this field. At least here in Northern California there are plenty younger folk of both genders who are well positioned to take advantage - and more show up from time to time... And - by the way - the fly-by-nights of all ages have always been with us, and will continue to be with us - as long as the ignorance about pianos among those who make a living playing them continues to be as widespread as it has always been. And the good thing about recessions is that they knock out a fair number of them out of business - because they don't have the skill set or the equipment to survive in difficult times and expand into a greater variety of work when the tunings dry up. But then again, I have seen enough of those "quick buck" types actually develop an interest in the profession after a year or two and eventually become fine technicians. So let's not get all gloom-and-doomy about a preponderance of gray hair and spreading midriffs at Las Vegas - it means little, as far as I am concerned... Israel Stein, RPT From: Ed Foote <a440a at aol.com> To: pianotech at ptg.org Date: 07/07/2010 03:31 PM Subject: [pianotech] Are we fading? ____________________________________ Greetings, In this months Journal, Clarence Zeches mentions that the average age of "our technicians", (I take that to mean Guild membership), is in the 50's or later. Judging by the gray hair and wrinkles at the conventions, (mine too!) I will not dispute that. This was in response to the question of "Where are the techs going to be coming from in 20 or 30 years"? My personal observation is that the average age of tuners is much lower, but that includes the non-Guild tuners, many of whom have an ETD, hammer, mute and maybe a screwdriver but no more. It is easy money, and many of the bread and butter tunings are being done, (poorly), by part-timers. Is the Guild slowly representing fewer and fewer of the people that are actually doing the tuning out there? Ed Foote RPT _http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html_ (http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html) -----Original Message----- From: Avery <ptuner1 at gmail.com> To: "pianotech at ptg.org" <pianotech at ptg.org> Date: Wed, 7 Jul 2010 12:05:16 -0500 Subject: Re: [pianotech] how's everyone hold'n up? Only about 81 in Houston right now. Thanks to the clouds & rain moving in from the Gulf. A sister in PA has been hotter than Houston for the last several days! Rare! On Jul 7, 2010, at 11:36 AM, Zeno Wood <zeno.wood at gmail.com> wrote: > It's hot. > > Really hot. > > Wow, it's hot. > > I think it got to 103 yesterday, and humid. Vegas was hot but this is wretched. My family camped out on the dining room floor last night, huddled around the AC. -----Original Message----- From: <pianolady50 at peoplepc.com> To: <pianotech at ptg.org> Date: Wed, 7 Jul 2010 16:12:16 -0400 Subject: Re: [pianotech] how's everyone hold'n up? Try tuning in a south facing room with no AC! Should have had a bucket to stand in...settled for a big towel under me. Came home and tried shop work. Lights bright, flip switch for bench sander, lights brown. Took it as a sign that I needed a break. Shop work happened super early this morning instead. A bit better today with a sea breeze. Debbie L. Rockport, MA -----Original Message----- From: Paul T Williams <pwilliams4 at unlnotes.unl.edu> Cc: CAUTlist <caut at ptg.org> To: pianotech at ptg.org Date: Wed, 7 Jul 2010 16:00:31 -0500 Subject: Re: [pianotech] Are we fading? Hi Ed, I think our profession, on the big scale, is slowly dwindling like the piano industry as a whole. My chapter here in Nebraska, is probably about an average of my age (nearing 50) or better (at least those who come to the meetings), but we have two budding students who are charged up about the future possibilities! We need to recruit more young folks who want to continue in our footsteps. I, for one, am going to teach my 13 year old to rebush keys this summer so he can make some cash., but he hasn't shown interest in doing what I do for a career. I wish I had the time to properly train some new blood as I have 110 pianos to care for, so lots to learn from. The university is always willing to get free "help", at least on the upright practice room pianos. The down side for me is that I have to immediately go and correct all the mistakes :>( as they learn; so the 2 sided coin....heads I win, tails you lose. or the other way around, I should say. We only offer a one semester class on the basics of piano mechanics in which I have an average of 3 or 4 students just looking for a small bit of education to learn of the instruments they play. Most of my students are not even piano majors, but filling up an elective as it's a cool class. They're always very enthusiastic in class, but at the end of the semester, that's all they do. Sadly, and I think it should be manditory, that all piano majors take my class; but, then again, I don't have the time to teach that many students. It may be a problem in the next 10 years, however, the income possibilities may be huge for the new blood entering this field. Just my 2 cents. Paul From: Ed Foote <a440a at aol.com> To: pianotech at ptg.org Date: 07/07/2010 03:31 PM Subject: [pianotech] Are we fading? ____________________________________ Greetings, In this months Journal, Clarence Zeches mentions that the average age of "our technicians", (I take that to mean Guild membership), is in the 50's or later. Judging by the gray hair and wrinkles at the conventions, (mine too!) I will not dispute that. This was in response to the question of "Where are the techs going to be coming from in 20 or 30 years"? My personal observation is that the average age of tuners is much lower, but that includes the non-Guild tuners, many of whom have an ETD, hammer, mute and maybe a screwdriver but no more. It is easy money, and many of the bread and butter tunings are being done, (poorly), by part-timers. Is the Guild slowly representing fewer and fewer of the people that are actually doing the tuning out there? Ed Foote RPT _http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html_ (http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100707/e134dcf9/attachment.htm>
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