Any Piano Tuners Out There?

[Luv Bunnies]

My DH was laid off in May after 22 years at his company. He's been looking for a similar corporate job with no luck. He's been trying to think "outside the box" and explore other ways to make money besides a tradtional 9-5 job.

A couple of months ago, he ran into an old acquaintance who was formerly a high school music teacher. He said he's now tuning pianos for a living and encouraged my DH to think about it. He said with my DH's musical abilities and excellent ear (he's a certified a capella chorus director and also a singer), he has the basics for becoming a piano tuner. He also said he would be willing to act as a mentor and take him out on some jobs to see if it seems like something he would like to do. My DH decided to call the guy last week and set up a time to meet with him but he's out of town right now.

So, we're doing some initial research while waiting for the friend to get back in town. Is anyone a piano tuner or does anyone know a piano tuner? What are the requirements for becoming certified? My DH looked up some correspondence courses online but isn't sure what kind of license (if any) would be required. Any advice or experiences would be appreciated.

 

[barkley]

i've known 2 professional piano tuners. i don't think either were ever able to totaly make a living off the work, but they were the 'go to' guys in the area we lived in. they did work for private individuals, churches, schools and buisnesses.

both were very good musicians who if they did'nt have the full blown certification that was offered, did take most of the courses that the community college's piano tuning program required for certification.

if you live in northern california and want to p.m. me i can tell you which college there offered the program (i think they disbanded it some years ago but some of the same staff is still in the department and might give you some insight).

just as a heads up before your dh invests time and money in pursuing this-you might want to realy explore the availability of clientele in your area. in my experience (working with musical groups and many moons ago in a music store), those who have pianos such that they utilize regular tunings (because of frequent use/or in the case of giving lessons-freguent abuse) tend to be VERY loyal to their tuners. they find someone they know by association (often through mutual membership in bands, orchestras or other musical groups) or through very trusted word of mouth-and hold on to that person FOREVER. they are'nt apt to go looking for another tuner unless their regular guy absolutly won't come calling (and even then they are hesitant to take anyone on their regular guy won't vouch for).


you might call any local universities or colleges and find out how they found their current tuner, call music stores and find out how they found theirs as well. you can feel them out to see what the job market is like.

 

[Imzadi]

Does he have perfect pitch? The various tuners who came to tune my piano always had perfect pitch. They only used a tuning fork about twice in the couple hours they were tuning.

Also, I agree with what Barkley said about finding out just how much clientele there I around. The electronic pianos are big nowadays. And with budgets tight, I would think piano tuning would be low on a list of priorities, unless there was a concert coming up.

 

[Macca1111]

I'm interested too, but only because I was tired of the school district's terrible tuners, and I'm curious about being able to do it myself. Not that I'll probaby ever take it up - it's nice that the guy has offered to mentor your husband a bit. I think that would be the hardest thing, getting started in the training.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I'm so bad about getting my piano tuned--but the last time I did, my tuner was able to perform repairs and I get my piano cleaned (still trying to figure out how all the sand got in there, but the tuner said that it was expected for a beachtown.).

So something to consider.

My tuner could also play and would play John' Lennon's imagine when he was done just to put my piano through a little test.

 

[merryweather20]

Our piano tuner did make a living out of it, but for light residential use we only got our piano tuned once a year. I agree with a previous poster who mentioned that electric pianos and keyboards are becoming more popular, which might cause issues as well as piano tuning being near the very bottom of expenses in a tough economy.

That said if your friend is making that offer maybe its because he has more business than he can handle? and the above won't be a problem.