Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Greetings and questions (future piano tuner)

It is perhaps worth noting, in connection with the viability of tuning for a living, and the need to consider location, that we have no full-time technician posting here from a Congolese village......

When many of us started in this business there wasn't much demand in China either.
Who would have thunk?.

Theo,

The 'questions' aren't about tuning as a career, but selecting a career in general when faced by people of your age. Tuners don't have 'the answer' either.

When a boy of five is asked what he wants to be when he grows up, the answer is often an adamant "Fireman" or "Cowboy." That is, at least in the USA. As a late teenager, there is often a pause and an expression of uncertainty. That is what is universal, not the specific career involved.

Please accept my complements on your command of English. It is very good.

Compliments I have to add as well. And all the best.

Hi Theo!

Reading your post was an interesting experience for me because I, too, am nineteen years old and am planning on becoming a piano technician. And I, too, have had some negative comments and skeptical replies from certain people (mostly professors) regarding this somewhat unusual career choice. The worst was probably when my chamber music professor looked at me in horror and said, "Why do you want to do that? You have intellect!"
Where our situations differ, I think, is in the fact that my family has been extremely supportive of my ambitions and has never tried to convince me one way or the other. I'm sorry to hear about your struggles on that front, but I think you put forth a lot of very convincing and sensible reasons for your career choice. I have been giving this a lot of thought in my own life, and my feeling is, if you KNOW what you want to do, you should do it. And you're lucky that you know what you want to do, because I know many people in their mid-twenties (and older) who are floating around uncertain of what they want, stuck in dead-end jobs. I know others who went to college and majored in subjects that they weren't passionate about, who graduated and found that they didn't want to work in their chosen field of study. And then there is the famous "mid-life crisis", which is the point at which many piano technicians get their start (or so it appears to me). Odds are, if you want to be a piano technician NOW, and do programming instead, who's to say that you won't end up throwing in the towel at age 40 and becoming a piano technician at that point, because that's what you really wanted to do in the first place? Just a thought, anyway. It COULD happen.
I disagree with most of the list of objections that your family/others put out; I don't think they're very logical. I also don't think that studying programming and piano technology at the same time is a good idea, for the same reasons you mentioned. I do think that if you are methodical, attentive, and are willing to work hard you will succeed as a piano technician. Good luck in your studies!

Sarah

I really do believe that if you are able to become really skilled in this profession, that you will never be short of work and be able to attain a very good income. The biggest problem facing many who think of becoming tuners is that they just aren't good enough to attract the clients needed in order to maintain the amount of work necessary to make a worthwhile living. If you have the opportunity to gain expertise under a supervised apprenticeship then that is most likely the best start you could possibly wish for.

Once you have reached the highest standards and your name has become held in high regard, word will filter around through recommendation and increase you client base.

I was advised to not consider going into "such a strange profession" by teachers, they, like so many thought it something that would never enable me to earn a good living! Having served 5 years as an apprentice I then started out working for high class piano firms to gain experience of working in the field rather than in the workshops. After several years, I then became self employed and have never looked back.

I know I was very lucky to get such a good training from the start, and it is much more difficult for those wishing to persue this career to obtain the same level of training these days..... but if it can be found, and if you can reach the highest standards, then seriously go for it.

In these difficult enconomic times where jobs and professions are becoming both hard to get and no longer are considered 'jobs for life', I can hand on heart say that it was the wisest decision I ever made .... the work comes to me, I can't remember when I last had to ever contact clients to obtain work .... I've never had to seek financial help from the state, and there are so many bad tuners about that they in fact only generate more work for me when their work fails to impress their clients.

47 years in this profession without a break of any sort, and I can continue for as long as my health holds out. You want to become a tuner ? If you can become good enough then there's no earthly reason why it shouldn't be the wisest choice you may ever make.

You must be serious and dedicated ... be prepared to put everything you have into obtaining the highest standards of expertise and getting yourself a good reputation .... it's not good enough to be anything less if you are to compete and win over the amount of clients necessary to ensure a good lifelong living. I wish you the very best of luck in coming to your final decision.

If you're looking for encouragement, you came to the wrong place. I'm not going to tell you not to become a piano tech. May I suggest not completely dropping all that you've developed so far, like the viola and computers.

1)Piano tuner-technician job is a very narrow specialization. In fact, it would be pretty hard to find a specialization as narrow as being a piano technician is. (Is this true and if it is, is this a con? If not, how is it a pro?)

This is a relatively small industry, but there are different "specialties" within the Piano Technician title such as concert prep, rebuilding, refinishing, belly work, action work.

2)The income is not sufficient to sustain oneself and ones wife (kids?).

The income level depends on how hard you work and how good you are at marketing yourself. It can easily support a family in the USA.

3)The bank will not give out loans to buy an apartment due to unstable income. (or insufficient finance)

It can be harder to get financing, but not impossible. A good credit rating is very important. It's funny, because no one can fire me. I can't get laid off. My job is more secure than that loan officer at the bank.

4)There will always be a job for a programmer, where for a piano technician there will not.

There will always be work for the best tuners who can market themselves.

5)A programmer has more freedom in terms of when and where to work and how much to work in comparison to a piano technician

False. I can set my own hours. I take time off when I want. I also work hard when the work is there - sometimes 20 days straight without a break.

6)It is hard to imagine that a piano tuner-technician (unemployed) be able to work full-time.

It's flexible, full time or part time, or semi retired


7)Piano tuner-technician is a psychically straining job, it is better to work intellectually (business managment, programming etc) as I would be strained or unable to work in old age.

There are physical demands, but if a technician protects his ears, back, shoulders, elbows, and wrists, a long career can be had. Long days can be mentally taxing as well.

8)I can only continue my studies as a piano tuner by becoming a super-puper-mega piano tuner

The better you are, the more money you make.

I'm agree with you...
Perhaps main problem new tuner is he don't know what will make every day for all his life.
A job of tuner is very hard, monotonous, stodgy and often ungrateful but there group people which don't can live without it. A Name is a tuner piano.
GLORY, people this profession!

Hello,
That was the same with me. I really like programming as a hobby a great deal, but when I got a summer job doing business application programming, I decided it wasn't for me. I still program once in a while, and I enjoy that.

Just like we have tried programming and decided against it, try out tuning-- study up yourself, volunteer on beat-up/abandoned pianos in homes, find a mentor if you can, before making major commitments, and see if it grows favorably on you. Your hobby list that you have in your post best already state something closely related.

best wishes-

I had a music professor make a snide remark once when I was tuning at a prestigious East-Coast college. I turned and extended the handle of my tuning hammer to him. Several looks went across his face, then he smiled and said, "You're right. 'Different skills. Carry on."

Theo, may I join others in complimenting your fluency and accuracy in English.

It is possible to be a piano technician AND a programmer, as demonstrated by Mario Igrec, author of the new book Pianos Inside Out, the best technical piano book yet written.

Jonkie sounds a very positive note with his comments, and it's good to consider those encouraging thoughts. However, various factors have to be thought about. Johnkie is based in London, which has very high population density, piano density and wealth density. Other areas may not offer the same opportunity. You may be the best technician in the country, but if it's a country with few people and few pianos, there may not realistically be a living in it. In which case it would be necessary to take your skills to another country in order to get enough work.

I am finding it a struggle in Scotland. After leaving my full-time teaching job in 2011, I am trying to make a full living from pianos, after having it as a minor second income stream for 27 years. But the population of all Scotland is around the same as that of inner London. So there are fewer people and fewer pianos, within a reasonable radius. In addition, in the economic recession, Local Authorities are struggling for cash, and are less inclined to have school pianos properly maintained. I offer a good service, customers are very happy, and I don't get compliants (and if I did, I'd go back and deal with them immediately). But there just aren't enough pianos out there!

So, these things must be weighed carefully. Where are the pianos, and are the people who own them willing to keep them tuned? If there are few pianos around you, are you willing to move elsewhere - maybe to another country - to find the instruments?

Please keep us updated with your progress!

Indeed. I have an early Naxos CD of Bach piano music, recorded in China, Tsuen Wan Town Hall in 1985. The unisons are OK, but some of the intervals sound very odd (and I don't think it was a historical temperament!) Someone said to me at that time, that competent tuners were few and far between in China. Things have moved on!

In considering a career as a piano technician, though, some forethought is surely necessary, with the mention of Antarctica being a good example. It seems extremely unlikely that in the lifetime of a student today, there will ever be a high piano density in Antarctica. So it's not the place to live and work as a piano technician. A bioscience researcher might be more able to find a living there.

So, one considering a piano tech career has to think "Are there pianos where I live, and if not, can I move to somewhere where there are pianos? And where there are not already many established technicians?

RxD : That is exactly my point ... if you are really good then you should be able to pick who you work for. Piano firms are desperate to employ good tuners, but good tuners normally make a much better living working for themselves. However, in order to be in this position, you must have a solid track record if you expect the likes of the big manufacturers to either employ you or use you on a sub-contract basis.