piano tech. position

Greg Granoff gjg2@axe.humboldt.edu
Thu Sep 24 10:58 MDT 1998



DMCKECH wrote:

> List,
>
> The time has arrived for me to make my best justification for adding
> another piano technician position here at Ithaca College. The addition to
> the music building will be complete next spring and there will be more
> pianos to service.
>
> One of the primary arguments will be the number of pianos per technician.
> Also, these numbers compared to the number of piano majors. If anyone is
> willing to share their numbers with me I would be most grateful. Send
> privately if you wish.

  Don,I'm very interested in your database setup.  I've been looking for
something like it for a while (under pressure from the Chair) with the hope
that something pre-designed was out there to use.  I'm eager to know more
details.

My numbers here at Humboldt State are 62 pianos (of which 18 are grands and 3
are outside the department), a 25 station Clavinova lab, 3 harpsichords,  and
one small pipe organ.  There are two performance venues. Have a small amount of
money each year for O.E., with occasional extra amounts coming from other
sources for emergencies and so forth.  The position is 12 months, 40hpw,
tenured.
I'm also expected to assist when possible in the managing of the very large
instrument inventory as the instrument technician is only half time.  I have an
excellent relationship with administration and can say "no" to extra duties at
my discretion.  I think I'm a bit closer to the ideal numbers for "piano
technician vs pianos" than many who've responded.   However, despite
California's current excess revenues, there is absolutely no budget here for
replacement of any kind, regardless of age, and no sign of one on the horizon.
All the pianos are in almost constant use, so my ability to keep a scrupulous
level of service on all of them is critical-- the newest instrument is a 1984
'B'.

Good luck,
Greg Granoff  RPT


> My numbers currently are 139 pianos, 3 harpsichords, 46 piano majors for
> one technician. There are about 12 additional pianos around the campus that
> I service occasionally. I expect an increase of about 23 pianos and one
> harpsichord. One must also keep in mind the number of secondary piano
> students and music ed. majors to this equation. I do not have those figures
> for IC at the moment.
>
> I also plan to use the Guidelines for Effective Institutional Piano
> Maintenance published by the CAUT committee of PTG in my argument. Some of
> you may remember, in a post to Pianotech about two years ago, the database
> I set up that uses the workload formula from the Guidelines. (I also
> demonstrated it at the CAUT Forum in Dearborn.) The database is set up on
> FileMaker Pro. I would like to offer it to anyone responding to this post.
>
> Regards,
> Don McKechnie
> dmckech@ithaca.edu





This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC