Piano tuner

Piano tuner

Imagine belonging to a music profession in which demand exceeds supply and you are greeted only with joy by those who hire you. Plus, you don't have to race madly from one physically taxing gig to the next and you can decide how many hours you work every day. Where can this idyllic job be found? Just ask your local piano tuner.

There's a catch, of course: in the UK, training opportunities for new entrants to the piano tuning profession are few and getting fewer. With fewer tuners entering the system, demand is high. It's hard to know exactly how many tuners there are in the UK, but with the Pianoforte Tuners' Association (PTA) membership at 220, an educated guess might put the number at just over 1,000.

'Virtually every place in the country could benefit from more tuners and it's going to get worse,' says Nigel Donovan, a Cambridge-based tuner-technician and vice president of the PTA. Donovan himself studied at Newark and Sherwood College, which, after a recent takeover by Lincoln University, has shut its piano technology programme, leaving the field clear for London Metropolitan University to host the only UK-based programme.

Unsurprisingly, the PTA is concerned about the lack of training opportunities. The organisation has considered following the example of the United States, where many tuners are trained through correspondence courses, but has discarded that idea as 'not good enough': 'In the first year or two you need someone looking over your shoulder,' says Donovan.

'Tuners only tune; technicians do repairs and restorations'

One place that still boasts in-house apprentice training is Steinway & Sons in London, which employs six tuners, various apprentices and some technicians. They are kept busy. 'We do day-to-day tuning at concert halls, houses and studios,' explains John Anstey, a tuner at Steinway. 'We do minor repairs and attend recording sessions.'

Anstey provides the answer to an important question about his profession: what's the difference between tuners and technicians? 'Tuners only tune; technicians do repairs and restorations,' he says, adding that most technicians are workshop-trained. Anstey calls himself a tuner, and he's worked on instruments played by the world's greatest pianists.

Donovan calls himself a tuner-technician. After he left Newark and Sherwood College he set up as an independent technician working in schools, where he tuned all the pianos at a school once a term. It was an excellent opportunity for a novice tuner, but government funding for these contracts has since dried up and tuning regimes are now set by each school.

Once established, a freelance tuner such as Donovan can choose his or her hours. 'I know some who do seven pianos a day, six days a week. I know very few tuners who haven't got enough work,' he says.

The greatest challenge - besides the technical one of taming a horribly maintained, clapped-out piano - is a demanding or, possibly even worse, poorly informed customer. 'To be a tuner you need to have a certain degree of patience and you have to get on with people,' says Anstey. And if they still insist that the piano sounds just the same after hours of tuning? Some diplomacy is usually required. 'We call it tuning the customer,' chuckles Donovan.

Besides finely calibrated interpersonal skills, does a would-be tuner need to have any special abilities? 'You need to be practically biased and handy with a screwdriver, though you don't need to be an expert in woodworking and metal. You need good hearing, not superhuman hearing,' says Donovan. 'Some physical strength might be required, but only in the sense of being able to move a piano away from the wall.'

Surprisingly, a musical background isn't a requirement. 'It helps to be musical, although this is not necessary,' says Anstey. John-Paul Williams, a lecturer in piano studies at London Metropolitan University, agrees. 'It's not really an advantage beyond Grade 4 or 5. There's no connection between being a good tuning student and a good pianist. Some of our best students are not musicians, although there have also been plenty with a 'serious' music background.'

'Some of our best students are not musicians, although there have also been plenty with a 'serious' music background'

So how do tuners know when to tighten and when to loosen a string? 'I'm listening to beats when two notes are played together - it's all to do with counting beats,' explains Donovan. 'The hardest part is to hear the beats in the first place. It took me two years to get it. One day the light came on! I was tuning a piano and suddenly it made sense.'

It's a myth that having perfect pitch aids a tuner. 'We used to have a tuner here who had perfect pitch,' says Anstey. 'He unsettled every piano he worked with. You really have to work with the piano. It's a question of what to leave and what to change. He made a great factory tuner, though.'

There seems to be sort of a Zen of piano tuning, an ability to concentrate intensely. 'You learn to switch off ambient noise,' says Donovan, who also admits that 'these days I wear custom-made earplugs that take away decibels but leave frequencies'.

The impression of piano tuning as a relatively calm, unstressed profession seems to be borne out by the practitioners. 'Most tuners are relatively happy,' confirms Donovan. 'You're welcomed into homes and people are pleased to see you.'

Piano tuner

The role
Tuning and sometimes also repairing and restoring pianos, either freelance or on contract at a piano manufacturer, in schools or at other establishments

The pay packet
The Pianoforte Tuners' Association (PTA) has a scale of recommended tuning prices based on areas and house prices. The scale was worked out by a mathematician and ranges from £43 to £54 per tuning. A tuner might do four to five hour-long tunings a day. Staff tuners and technicians may earn more, depending on experience and skill. Other income sources include evaluating, buying and selling pianos

The training
At the moment the UK's only piano technology programme is at London Metropolitan University. The programme includes a two-year foundation course, which ends in a qualification as a tuner, then an optional third year, which most pupils do. In addition to the practical study of instrument building, repair and design, pupils also study musical styles and small business studies. In the third year a one-day-a-week work placement is arranged. The Royal National College for the Blind (www.rncb.ac.uk/courses/pianotechnology), which has a piano technology programme for blind people, also takes on some sighted pupils. There's also a possibility that Neward and Sherwood College, now under Lincoln University, may revive its programme. On the continent, much training is done on site at piano making factories

The prospects
'At the moment I have a 100 per cent record of placing students,' says John-Paul Williams of London Metropolitan University. 'There is work out there, but work is regional. There's also certainly work for top level technicians, but it takes a number of years to get to that level.' Few tuners go freelance straight away, however. 'It takes a number of years to know what to do,' says Williams

The highs
'The big plus is working for yourself and making your own timetable,' says Donovan. 'We have the freedom to move around,' remarks Anstey, who also enjoys meeting a variety of people in the course of a
single day

The lows
'The hardest thing is not the pianos but people,' sighs Donovan. 'Ninety-nine per cent are very pleasant, but you get the occasional exception. You're tuning for people who often can't tell the difference after you're done.' Plus, piano tuning is usually a solitary job once the piano owner has handed you a cup of tea and scurried away. 'It can be a lonely existence in some respects,' says Anstey

Weblinks
Pianoforte Tuners' Association
www.pianotuner.org.uk
London Metropolitan University
www.londonmet.ac.uk
Euro-Piano (for continental courses)
www.euro-piano.org

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