Training as a piano tuner

bridgetdunstable

Hi

Could anyone give me some information about how to train as a piano tuner. I am looking for an opportunity to start my own business and this was an idea I found on a website. It was American though and was suggesting training by correspondence course. Would be grateful to hear from anyone who works in this field. Is there much demand for piano tuners?

Jeff_Bridges_hair

I wouldnt know about that but sounds like an interesting job to have if you have a good ear.. I done the google like you must have but put UK at the end and got this as the first hit

.pianotuner .org.uk/pta5.htm


You will have to close the gaps and create the link as i canot post them

HTH

Callie22

My OH is a pianist and really struggles to find a good piano tuner - as a professional he likes people who tune properly by ear rather than just using digital tuners. It costs us between £30 and £60 for each tuning, and OH is willing to pay top whack for a really good tuning. Most of the best tuners are pianists themselves, so they understand how each individiual wants their instrument to sound - there are different kinds of tunings for pianos and it's not so simple as just getting a digital tuner out and getting each note mechanically perfect, as that often doesn't sound 'right'. It probably would help you a lot if you were a musician, I would have thought that it's not really a job you can do if you don't know a fair bit about pianos and pianists. If you're tuning a £60,000 Steinway grand then you really need to know what you're doing!!!

However, I have heard that it is quite tough at the moment as a lot of people see having a piano tuned as a bit of a luxury, which I suppose it is. Also, there are fewer pianos in schools etc so those jobs aren't as numerous as they used to be. I know that most of the tuners that OH uses do it part time, rather than as something to earn a full time living from. OH spends ages talking to the tuners and they often say to him that people don't realise that it isn't always that profitable - it can take a long time to tune your average neglected living room piano so although it seems like a good deal to get £30+ per job, working it out on an hourly rate (and including travel) makes you see that it's not really *that* well paid at all. Having said that though, if you're a really good tuner and you live in a place where there are lots of pianos then you probably could make a living at it.

bristol_pilot

Callie22 wrote: »

It costs us between £30 and £60 for each tuning

This should tell the OP one thing - there is no money in it.

Jeff_Bridges_hair

bristol_pilot wrote: »

This should tell the OP one thing - there is no money in it.

could be hitting the wrong note on this career then.

bridgetdunstable

Thanks for your replies. I do play the piano so that would help and was thinking it could be something I could fit in around my other job and maybe build up the business gradually`but understand what the last poster is saying prob not something I would make a fortune at. I also hadn't considered that you would have to take out travelling expenses from any profit and that the price for each tuning could be a al lot less than £30 to £60 per hour if it was a long job. Hmm interesting might still look into it though

bridgetdunstable

Ha ha just read the last reply

pinkshoes

It probably comes down to practice, so you could read an online guide on how to do it, then find some badly tuned pianos to practice on.

Ultimately, although a good tuner is hard to come buy, I don't think it's a "career" as such, and paying for training would take forever to pay off with work.

Then there's the fashion of electric pianos in schools/households, and those who tune their piano on a regular basis generally have a good tuner already.

Why not look to see how many are already working in your area:
http://www.pianotuner.org.uk/

PasturesNew

If you play the piano, why not offer your services to play muzak in hotel bars? I recently did some work in a hotel accounts department and the invoices coming through for bar players was about £150 for 2 hours (from memory).

Lirin

I play piano, and I've just bought one.

It's been moved at least twice, but only has 2 bum notes, and while it needs tuned, it's not as bad as I would have thought.

I'm finding the search for a tuner where I live very impossible- and I've been quoted closer to £100. There is still demand, but with more and more using digital media, you may not find the demand holding.

C_Mababejive

Is there a slow move to electronic pianos which presumably dont need tuning in much the same way as we have largely moved from film to digital photography?