Marshall, I'm not familiar with the situation in your area at all, but have you considered the possibility of hooking up with a store which takes older pianos in on trade, reconditions and re-sells them? Maybe with someone already doing that work that you could help and learn more from. Back in the "dark ages" when I first began, this was one of the few ways to actually get some help. I was lucky enough to get with a very active Baldwin dealer who also was a tech and in addition, had another one who worked out of that store. I was able to learn a lot of things by working on those older pianos, plus if I had a problem, I had access to two techs who could show/help me do whatever was needed. As a bonus, there were also plenty of new pianos around on which to hone my tuning skills. At that time, I didn't really need the money so I agreed to work for free in order to learn until such time as he thought I was worth being paid for my work. That happened, too. I was eventually even sent out to a university to tune for a concert to see if I could satisfy them so they would stop calling the dealer to tune for recitals and concerts. (They didn't really like the other tuner's work & the dealer didn't really want to do it, anyway.) It was a godsend to me at that particular time in my career. I realize in your case, that in you wouldn't be able to do that every day. But just another one of many possibilites. Best of luck to you. Avery Todd, RPT Houston, TX <div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 9:19 PM, Marshall Gisondi <<a href="mailto:pianotune05@hotmail.com" target="_blank">pianotune05@hotmail.com</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"> <div><div dir="ltr">I just need to figure out how to get the ball rolling. For me making the connectons and getting with somone or a place where I can practice and hone the skills needed for the test is my number one obstacle to overcome, and I will. Marshall Marshall Gisondi MARSHALL'S PIANO SERVICE <a href="tel:215-510-9400" value="+12155109400" target="_blank">215-510-9400</a> <a href="http://www.phillytuner.com" target="_blank">http://www.phillytuner.com</a> </div></div> </blockquote></div>