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Just curious as to who is out there that is a student or graduate of the Randy Potter School.

If you are - a couple of questions (curiosity only)
1. How long have you been - or - how long did you take going through the course?

2. How did you address the apprentice situation?

3. What are you doing with what you learned? (private business, schools, store etc?)

4. For graduates - did you continue with another school situation for more training?

Again - this is just curiosity on my part. Thanks

I have the course. I got it after I had already been tuning for awhile, mostly I got it for the added repair and regulation info. As far as apprenticing if you can find someone to apprentice under go for it, but as for me I didn't have the option in this area to apprentice full time I just got tips and tricks here and there from local techs. As far as continuing on for more training, yes every day is a learning experience. I would suggest reading as much material on tuning and repair that you can get your hands on, try to find a friendly tech in your area that you can call for for some quick pointers if you need, head to some PTG meetings. Good Luck.

Jim:
Greetings. Here is another option for you. A couple of the longtime RPT's in the Cincinnati chapter of the PTG, Nevin Essex and Ben McKlveen, have been conducting a small tuning school. It meets on Mondays at Premier Pianos, (the area Steinway dealer). Premier is just north of Cincinnati, in the suburb of West Chester. It is right off of Interstate 75. If you are in Xenia, it would be about a 45 minute drive. They will not meet this coming Monday, because it's Memorial Day. There is a small fee. Premier has something posted on their website:
Premier Pianos tuning school

I'm usually not involved in this, but filled in yesterday. There are two groups going, one entry level, and one more advance. The students are coming along nicely. Nevin and Ben know their stuff, and are good teachers. I would recommend checking this out.

Jim:
Something else. The Cincinnati chapter will be hosting the Central East Regional Seminar in October. The dates are October 9-12. There will be a full range of classes. You would be welcome to attend.

Thanks Roy;

I am aware of the Seminar in October - mainly because Mr Potter is teaching at part of that and it was promoted on his calendar material.

I know Nevin Essex!!! He is a fine technician. He used to do work for me when I was at another church - I even hired his son in when I needed an extra percussionist! I will give him a call!

Thanks again for the tip.

Jim,

Although I am a student of Randy Potter's Course, I am not currently pursuing it for the simple reason that it took me too long to get tuning tapes back. The last tape, a "re-do" of unisons, took seven months to be returned so I gave up. Now, having said that, this is truly an excellent, excellent course. And, when you do get tapes back from Randy, his comments and direction are superb, often pages long and, of course, dead-on accurate. It's like he's right there in the room with you. Alas, there's only one of him and, as you already know, he's a busy guy. But again, the course materials are beyond imagination, the tools/supplies are totally adequate and, if you have more patience than me, it'll see you through to RPT exams. YMMV.

Also, forgot to mention, Nevin Essex is teaching a session in Rochester at the National Convention. Never met him but I know he does excellent work because he prepped my SD-10 before it was shipped from the Grand Antiques Mall a couple of years ago. (before I decided to study technology.) I'll meet him [and maybe you, too] in June!

Thanks Jim;
Sorry - I won't be in New York. I am too early in the game to go traveling too much for seminars (not that I couldn't use the training). I need to wait till I am making some money to throw back at the business expenses. Besides - with great conventions like the Cinci one practically in my back yard - I can get there with a lot less expense.

On the school matter - I am disappointed to hear about these turn around times. Their material talked about him grading things "as quickly as possible" but 7 months is a long time!!! Hopefully they have improved their system.....

Thanks again for the info. Are you still working in this field?

I took a voicing class from Nevin at the last national in Kansas City. He was excellent.

--Cy--

I graduated from Randy's school a few years back. I got it primarily for the regulation and repair sections. I learned quite a bit about tuning in the process as well, even though I first learned to tune in the late '70s.

There is plenty of valuable information about the business side of our profession, too. The apprentice section was the one part I didn't spend much time reviewing. I just did the necessary work and moved on.

I think the whole course took me a little over a year to finish, though it would have gone faster had I not been working and raising a small child at the time.

I didn't wait for the tapes to come back before pushing ahead in everything else. When they did come back, his critiques were very detailed.

It took me awhile to get my diploma; Randy always seems to have about two dozen irons in the fire at once.

There's alot of information in there, and if you can't find what you need, there are likely directions to get where you need to go to find it.

The course seems expensive, but it can pay for itself in a hurry!

Thanks Dave;

When I started this thread - I said it was curiosity - and it is. I have heard numbers between 50 and 75% of techs do at least part of their training from corrsespondence courses. I was just curious to see how that played out here. I am not relying on this training for my "career" or livelihood. But I want to be good - no - very good at it. This will probably someday move from a side job to my main job as I get older and church music leadership changes again.

I have heard many times (and read other areas of this forum) that the Potter school is the best and most comprehensive. That is one of the reasons I chose it. I have not really heard much about other correspondence programs except the American School and that has been all negative.

This is the first time I have heard of the testing delays though (not that I have heard the opposite!). I have not been waiting on anything to be returned before moving on. I have just been plowing through. I am not in a hurry - but I am motivated and working very hard - so I am not likely to wait for months to see how I did on a test before I move on. Now that this discussion has raised its head - I guess I realize that I am still waiting on everything I have sent in to them. As I said - I have just started here in the spring and I have been working very hard. I am pretty detailed about copying exams before I mail them in and marking the date I mailed them. I'll update my story when I get my returns. I'll be able to tell you exactly how long I waited....

All in all - I am enjoying the depth and detail of the learning - so that's good. My apprentice questions are just seeing how people are handling the gap between correspondence and a live mentor/teacher of some sort. The Nevin Essex class and my prior contact with him may give me some great options there. I have only lost contact with him due to my relocation about 10 years ago.

Have a great day everyone

Jim, I started the Potter course last fall and have been slowly plowing my way through it while being a mostly stay-at-home mom to 3 kids, the youngest of whom is not yet in school. I, too, have occasionally been frustrated with the turnaround time, though I guess I was luckier than some since it only took Randy about 4 months to return my first unison tuning tape! When he did it was extremely detailed and very helpful. I can understand the frustration of others because I have incorporated some of his suggestions into my tuning technique, and it might have been more difficult to do that if I'd had to wait much longer for he critique. (Oh, and he only critiqued my second tape--somehow my first tape got lost. But no big deal. At least it was the first one that got lost and not the second one, which would have been a bigger drag.)

Regarding the apprenticeship, I was lucky enough to find someone fairly easily, since I live in a big city. I got to a point where it felt like learning how to drive a car from a book, so I was motivated to find someone. It's been great, though I expect it'll be at least another full year before I finish the course, because I'm doing a lot of store-mangement type tasks & dealing with customers rather than just learning technology. But I'm also getting paid (first time in 11 years) and I figure it's all part of a good piano education.

Who else is going to Rochester? I'll be there the 21st and 22nd only, and hope to meet some of you there.

Anne

Congratulations Anne!

It sounds like things are falling into place nicely for you...

As far as these exam delays go - what was your contact with the school during these months? What was their response to the delays?

Dave - since you experienced this as well - please weigh in here also....

Back to Anne: am I to assume the store and the customers refer to a piano shop or store?

I got an email back from Nevin Essex yesterday. He is about to finish up another class and then a new one will start in September. According to the website info the class is limited to 6 students. That's a great ratio!

You know how some people just have a gift for helping people understand? (Cy is one of those in this forum). Nevin is amazing at this. When he would come to my church to tune the pianos - I would learn a ton just from talking with him. At that time I had no particular goal to go into this field (although I have been dabbling in it most of my life). Hopefully I will be able to get some time with him this summer and fall for the "live" school. Honestly - as much as I love the Potter course - this whole delay talk is scaring me a bit....

Jim,

I wasn't that concerned about the delays. I don't recall that I ever contacted them. I figured they'd get there when they got there. (I was already working full-time as a tuner back then.)

I went on ahead in the other chapters, which kept me plenty busy. I see different issues for you here. You are looking to take in a vast amount of knowledge, which is difficult to do without a mentor.

Thanks Dave;

I have no problem moving on into the new studies - I am already doing that. I also am being very faithful with my daily or at least near daily practicing and learning. I have a little bit of a concern with any business who takes 4-7 months to get you a grade back. By all standards - that is a very long time.

I will just have to relax my expectation on the school and continue to keep a high expectation on myself. Ultimatley my learning is my responsibility. I am only partially dependent on the school. However - my payment of tuition should secure me with some reasonable expectations and timely responses. Would any of your customers wait that long without hearing from you?

I admit I started wondering why it was taking so long (though I had obviously not stopped studying to wait for a response). I also had a lot of questions in the beginning (naturally), and I had some trouble getting email responses for a while, but that has improved greatly.

My only other criticisms of the course is that it is so long-winded, the material is poorly organized in parts, and it is FULL of typos. I was a writer/editor in my former life, so I realize these things are likely to bother me more than most people, but I fantasize about one day offering to go through the whole thing with a blue pencil and make it more coherent (for a price, of course!). I do, however, like Randy's conversational style, and reassuring tone.

Sorry, I had written a much longer version of what I posted earlier and then edited it down. I work in a small rebuilding shop and we have about 17 pianos in various states of repair for sale at any given time.

Anne

Jim,

You have good points, and I can't defend the school here. If it was my business, I'd bust my butt to expedite the process.

Anne's got good points, too. Some of the stories are a little longer in length than necessary, and the editing isn't perfect.

NOnetheless, there is a lot to be learned in those many, many pages.

Before I registered for this course I did some research. I was forewarned (even the KEYBOARD magazine review talked about Potter's style and wordiness) - but no other course came close on the content.

I'm cool with all of that. I am too new to have the same stories or problems as you all - BUT I don't want to have the same stories either! It seems that this problem doesn't fit with what is taught in the business section of the course.

Every successful business venture faces the growing pains of having to let go and let somebody else help. One of the boasts of the Potter course is that he personally grades all of the recorded exams. Maybe it is time for him to allow apprentices or graduates he trusts to do some of the grading for him.

Anyway! As I said - my biggest expectation is on myself. The exam scores would be nice to let me know how I am doing while I have time to do something about it - but I can work on my own and keep learning from the course and experience - and, of course, from all of you!

Maybe Randy will check into this forum....it might be good for him to read some of these posts!

I have just begun the course and have sent off my first tape. I sure hope things have improved in the turn around time for tapes. The instructions are to wait until you get your first tape back read/listen to Randy's critique before sending in the second tape. At seven months of turn around time getting tapes back, this course could take a lot longer than the what the course suggests. It says that I could be out and tuning after 4 months of study. Yikes!