reposting workload list

Allen Wright Allen_Wright@qmgate.cc.oberlin.edu
Mon Feb 15 07:57 MST 1999


        Reply to:   RE>>reposting workload list

At Oberlin, in years past we've actually had a couple of students who worked for four years who reached the point that they were actually useful as practice room tuners. Most work for a year or two. Our youngest colleague on the staff as piano technician now, in fact, got started doing piano work while he as a student here ten years or so ago - went off to graduate school, wokrked off and on with us in between and two years ago took over our third fulltime position when it became available.

He's in a particularly good position, then, (has good rapport with students, etc), to be in charge of supervising the students now. They start off cleaning the pianos in the summer, and learn how to move pianos safely (always with supervision by at least one of us). They can get very good at key rebushing, and also many rough regulation tasks (installing new shanks and spacing and traveling, key leveling-spacing-squaring, backchecks, rep. springs, letoff and drop etc. - at least in the ballpark, which makes my final regulation work and voicing much faster. They also participate in the rebuilding process by learning to replace damper felts, releathering backchecks, things like that. Some have gotten good at replacing strings in practice room pianos.

It does require a fair amount of supervision and training time, yes, but on the whole we've found that it's worth the effort in terms of the time it ultimately frees up for us. It may not be something that would work as well for a school that has, say, only one or two technicians. Although I may be wrong. Every situation will be different, of course, and it depends greatly on the particular students you're able to find. We've been fortunate over the years that I've been here in having some pretty bright and curious students, with some mechanical aptitude, and (obviously) an interest in music.

Hope this answers your question, Ed.

Allen Wright
Oberlin



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