can I learn to tune?

[kookaburra]

What does it take to become a piano tuner?

Are we talking, weeks months or years to be able to tune a piano?

Is it necessary to have an instructor, or can this be self-taught?


 

[quantum]

You have to ask yourself if you want to make this your profession, or you are doing it just to learn something new or be able to tinker with your own piano as a hobby.

I taught myself by reading lots of books.   Keep in mind this is not something you can learn in a day, or a week.  It takes time.  The theory is one thing, putting it in practice is another.  Learning how to tune is probably as involved as learning how to play the instrument itself.  The payoff however, is rewarding.

I don't tune professionally, only my own piano.  It has given me a much deeper understanding and sensitivity to pitch, which has contributed to my main activities of performing and teaching.  A number of years with little steps of part time study was necessary for me to feel comfortable to tune an entire piano.  Now I am grateful that I took the time to learn (I'm still learning and refining), having an in-tune piano most of the time is a wonderful thing.  I usually do touch up tunings once a week (sometimes every day depending on how much I practice).  I'm finding this little upkeep helps the piano's tuning remain much more stable over the long run.

[hoj76]

Hi

I am an apprentice in the subject, in Norway it will take 3 years to become certified, I have one year left before I finish. I have not read a single page in a book, simply because it is not there where I can teach. One teach only by practice. Now I have a few hundred pianos that I have been finished, and yet I have much to go before it becomes "perfect".

Temperate middle part is I guess what takes the longest time, and getting the tone to sit even after hard use.. To become a good piano tuner, you have to spend much time, I tunes about three pianos a day, five days a week. And I understand very well why it required three years before one can take the exam.

Good luck - for me this is the best job there is.

[keys60]

It is quite an involved process. I have apprenticed of 2 1/2 years and learned how to tune pretty well and have a way to go on regulation, rebuilding, repairs. I can perform most small in house jobs, sticking keys, loose tuning pins, maybe reglue a broken flange, splice strings, but that is a fraction of what there is to know.

What you need to do, is find a certified technician and ask if they take students. OR, register in a school that teaches piano technology. When you're ready, you can be tested to become a Regitered piano technican which is not mandatory, but its a good way to get your name out there. Its a mostly word of mouth business.
Start your research here:  https://www.ptg.org

Unfortunately, at my age with house and family to maintain, this is not my profession. I get a few jobs per month and really enjoy the craft, but its a little late to totally change my career.

Also, it takes most people YEARS to develop a clientele to make enough to make a good living at it. Most people buy a piano for the kid, they don't tune or regulate as often as they should, kid quits and the piano sits there and deteriorates and looks pretty with the pictures and candles on it and such.

Don't let me talk you out of trying. If you are a real go getter, you can do this. Just letting you know, don't quit your day job until......
You'll get out of it what you put in.

[hoj76]

Piano Tuners i the US is realy good, in Norway we don't have any schools at all left who teaches pianotec. But we have a few piano-stores who allsow have students, I think I'm one of two who is learnig this job now - in the Norway.

As keys60 say - it take time to learn it. I tune around three pianos each day, 5 days in the week. And I would say if I had to tune tree or four pianos at the week, I would never be able to take the exam.

[alessandro]

It's fine that this topic comes up...  I asked kind of the same question on this forum months ago with a little more specification concerning the situation here in Belgium but till now I have no feedback whatsoever.   The craft of tuning and repairing piano's is also for me one of the things I really would like to learn, and with really I mean really 'super-motivated'.   Schools are only in neighbouring countries, which would mean that I have to entirely give up my life here to go and study in France, Englang, Germany, Holland or even further, which is for me impossible and at the same time (but that's really a national matter) is hard to grasp for me.   All of the technicians I know of speak of too much work to do, a lack of time, frustrations etcetera...   but there is apparently not a single one that is ready to invest in teaching - even if it only were for a part-time job - new people.   I frankly think that the circuit of technicians is really a 'closed' one here in Belgium...   Let's keep all the business and the work inside our branche, inside our shop, inside our circle of acquintances "it is already hard enought to survive" but at the same time I'm wondering for how many years this situation can go on.   Or is it so that all of the work will soon be centralised in the bigger companies, the ones exclusively linked to big brands (like for instance here in Belgium "Maene" linked to Steinway) and that there will be absolutely not one independent craftman left in let's say twenty years ? Again I'm asking via this forum that if there's anyone in Belgium that once in a while would like to introduce me in the craft of pianotechnique, please contact me, I'm hyper-motivated and absolutely in love with the instrument.    Of course, I soon will try to teach myself, apparently there is no other choice, and maybe that is here in Belgium the only way to make my dream come true.
Kindly.     

[kookaburra]

Just letting you know, don't quit your day job until......
You'll get out of it what you put in.

I'm not planning on making it a career. 2 years ago or so, we moved our big old piano from our previous house to the one we live now. It really needs tuning. Which has turned out to be one of those things, "when we have some money left over", so it's still untuned, and I've been playing it constantly, which can't be good for my ear or the piano. The middle keys are all in tune with each other but not really in tune, as I found out with a cromatina. The far upper and lowers are pretty bad.  So I was thinking, could it be that hard? So we'd never have to hire a tuner again, and besides I could tune it whenever it needs to be, and my friend's pianos besides. (and maybe even make a few bucks.)
Because playing increasingly advanced pieces on a out-of-tune instrument becomes increasingly aggravating. (especially when 2 keys don't work at all.)

 

[indianajo]

The piano tuner I used after I bought the piano was got upset at my having a cat in the house, so I didn't call him back.  At some point my piano was unpleasant.  I was a bassoonist in high school band (a very good band), so my sense of pitch was fairly well developed. So, I just started doing it.  I never bought a key, I just put a 1/4" socket backwards on a 5/16' allen wrench, and set some rolls of coins on the keys to keep the dampers up.  I pluck the strings with my fingernails- you can't do that professionally, you nails will wear out, but for just once it is fine.  For a piano that is slightly out, tuning treble strings unison to the bass ones is good enough.  I just bought a Steinway that was totally out of tune, I found if I tried unison tuning it was still badly out.  So a bought a little cheap organ at the charity resale shop and tuned the piano to that.  Much better- it is quite beautiful in fact.  The great mysteries of life are voicing and possibly action, and if I break a bass string matching it will be and adventure.   Tuning itself is nothing if your ear is good.  As the above poster, I did the Steinway 4 times before it stabilized.  The pro was not tuning my piano up to pitch, as it costs more for him to do it several times.  If it is at standard pitch, you can play along with records, to train your ear in harmony.  I didn't know what I was missing until now.

[silverwoodpianos]

It's fine that this topic comes up...  I asked kind of the same question on this forum months ago with a little more specification concerning the situation here in Belgium but till now I have no feedback whatsoever.   The craft of tuning and repairing piano's is also for me one of the things I really would like to learn, and with really I mean really 'super-motivated'.   Schools are only in neighbouring countries, which would mean that I have to entirely give up my life here to go and study in France, Englang, Germany, Holland or even further, which is for me impossible and at the same time (but that's really a national matter) is hard to grasp for me.   All of the technicians I know of speak of too much work to do, a lack of time, frustrations etcetera...   but there is apparently not a single one that is ready to invest in teaching - even if it only were for a part-time job - new people.   I frankly think that the circuit of technicians is really a 'closed' one here in Belgium...   Let's keep all the business and the work inside our branche, inside our shop, inside our circle of acquintances "it is already hard enought to survive" but at the same time I'm wondering for how many years this situation can go on.   Or is it so that all of the work will soon be centralised in the bigger companies, the ones exclusively linked to big brands (like for instance here in Belgium "Maene" linked to Steinway) and that there will be absolutely not one independent craftman left in let's say twenty years ? Again I'm asking via this forum that if there's anyone in Belgium that once in a while would like to introduce me in the craft of pianotechnique, please contact me, I'm hyper-motivated and absolutely in love with the instrument.    Of course, I soon will try to teach myself, apparently there is no other choice, and maybe that is here in Belgium the only way to make my dream come true.
Kindly.     

Yes the situation in parts of Europe is unfortunate; I know that France lost an entire generation of piano technology when the factories mostly shut their doors, just like here in Canada. Our last piano factory closed in 1986.

I only know of a tech in Vitry and then another in the south of France so that is not of much help to you.

It is a good idea to  find an old  instrument there; you can learn a lot with an old instrument to use for practice.

 I have instructed and tutored a number of students. One of the BIGGEST problems with teaching is this: Finding the time not only to instruct the student, but to check the work over and then instruct on the corrections if there are any, PLUS get enough work completed each and every day to feed your own family.

For someone who is apparently as motivated as you are, how about one of the self-teaching courses? There is a popular course in the US that many have started with, the Randy Potter course. There is also a large collection of books available both instructional and informational, that would go a long way to assisting you in further studies.  This could be explored very much like a music lesson. You could do some of the self-study courses and then in the summer months, or on vacation from your regular job arrangements could be made to work with a technician or a piano shop.

With the computer and the internet a lot of this can be discovered on-line these days.
Best of luck,

[kookaburra]

, and if I break a bass string matching it will be and adventure.

I share a piano with several other people, so not just me would be inconvienced by breaking a string. Nice idea, but I can't afford that kind of adventure.

[kookaburra]

This topic has been moved here from INSTRUMENTS.