<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16441" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial" bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7><FONT id=role_document face=Arial color=#000000 size=2> <DIV> <DIV><STRONG><EM>  Hi David</EM></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><EM>  Thanks you for the kind words.</EM></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><EM>  It's unfortunate the condition you describe.  In my prior post It may seem as thought I've had my head in the sand concerning industry trends & reduced interest in pianos as evidenced by world wide piano production being down. However it doesn't seem to have affected the Chinese investment in piano plants.</EM></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><EM>  I think the American piano environment is far different as well as larger than the UK which probably accounts for the differing anomaly you experience there.  </EM></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><EM>  We Yanks have had the advantage of hundreds of well made American pianos in our culture. Prior to the advanced transportation system   Every region had it's own favorite maker as it wasn't all that desirable to ship such a heavy object long distances.  Never the less they were shipped & even out in Calif. we have an amazing number & varity of makers avaible to work on & we are far from the East coast plants that produced them.</EM></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><EM>  Here in the states I have witnessed the advance of technology in parts,training/knowledge & craft net working completely unthinkable 15 to 20 years ago.</EM></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><EM>  I like your attitude.  It will be the thing that makes change if a change can be made.</EM></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><EM>  kindest regards</EM></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><EM>  Dale Erwin</EM></STRONG></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>Dale,  it's great to hear how good Dennis's course was!  That's wonderful!<BR><BR>The provision of piano tuning and technology courses has finished <BR>substantially in the UK in the last two decades.<BR><BR>In the 1980's, a couple of colleges started brand new courses - in Leeds and <BR>in Wales, but they didn't last long.  The long-established course in <BR>Edinburgh also folded.  Now there are only three options.  There is the <BR>facility for the visually impaired at Hereford, the course at what used to <BR>be called the London College of Furniture, and the course at <BR>Newark-On-Trent.  And that's it.  This loss of courses must basically be due <BR>to lack of demand - colleges do not "pull" courses which are attracting good <BR>numbers.<BR><BR>In turn, then, why did the number of applicants drop?  I don't know. Perhaps <BR>there is a problem with the status of the trade/profession in the UK, and in <BR>addition, the perception of young people about careers may have altered over <BR>the years.<BR><BR>I have not hitherto sought schools business, but there is one high school <BR>where I tune, and another I did recently. I have found it interesting that, <BR>when I have attempted to engage teachers in  conversation, they have looked <BR>at me as if the geranium spoke!  I found this recently in the new school as <BR>well as in the one I usually do. Perhaps high school teachers are too <BR>trodden down and harassed to converse, or perhaps they see piano tuners as <BR>menials unworthy of civilized chat.  This amuses me, because I am a college <BR>teacher myself, registered with the same professional bodies as the <BR>schoolteachers, and I get paid about $3500 more per annum than <BR>schoolteachers at the same grade!  So when they won't talk to me, I take <BR>comfort in that.....<BR><BR>I do think that the profession is not highly esteemed in the UK, and I think <BR>it would be hard to sell youngsters on the idea of a career in piano tuning <BR>and servicing.  I really don't know what the answer is in Britain.<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>David. <BR></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV> <DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR><DIV><FONT style="color: black; font: normal 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF;"><HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px">See what's free at <A title="http://www.aol.com?ncid=AOLAOF00020000000503" href="http://www.aol.com?ncid=AOLAOF00020000000503" target="_blank">AOL.com</A>. </FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>