[CAUT] Differences?

[Susan Kline]

Hi, Richard

I'm glad your daughter is training for the business. She may like
tuning better once she is further into it, when it starts to connect
her with music and people. One thing I'm told is different between
men and women (more or less - there's always an overlap, I feel) --
Women have more connections between the right and left brains (the
Bicameral Legislature <grin>) so they tend to react more to a whole
situation, instead of just one aspect. Never having been of the
male persuasion, I can't say if this is true, but one of the
attractions which piano work has for me is that it puts me into
situations with rich and varied backgrounds (people, places,
activities.) She wouldn't get this benefit while working on
tuning in your shop or home, but once she got out in the field,
it would probably kick in.

Upper body strength -- it does get physical. The extension hammer is
a great equalizer, as is the impact hammer. One gets adept at handling
a longer lever. When Charles Faulk made me a tuning hammer, he called
it "Kline's crowbar." <grin> Playing cello gave me some upper body
strength and the mental habit of developing techniques which are effective
and not physically stressful. Even so, I did some working out with
weights (from a book called "Beautiful Body Building for Women" <grin>)
while I was in tuning school, and it helped a lot for tasks like lifting large
upright actions in and out of pianos. I also try to change my grip a
lot as I work -- I try not to get stuck in just one grip or motion,
with either hand.

As for the address question, we'd all do better to think about such
things now and then. Just have her get herself a P.O. Box, and put
that on cards and in the yellow pages, instead of a physical address.
Also, if she moves, she can still keep the box, so she doesn't
have to change her cards.

I also always own a vehicle with a rear hatch, which has a little
curtain that pulls forward and hides the cargo compartment. No point
in shouting "Tools in Here! Help Yourselves!" Also, the rear loading
and folding rear seats greatly help in moving actions. With a hand
truck (small, cheap) and a board, I can get a grand action and
keys from the car into my house and up onto the bench okay, alone. Well, when
I brought home the huge Renner action from a nine-foot Baldwin, with
totally unchipped ivory keys, I got some help from a neighbor
getting it inside and onto the workbench. Now that I'm getting older
(59) I have a little folding cart (made by Norman Cantrell - 580-355-5003)
which is light to carry, and lets me pull grand actions and wheel
them to wherever I want them. It has been a godsend. In a pinch, I
can still woman-handle a grand action alone, but it's a lot easier
with the cart or with someone else taking one end.

When it comes to "businessland" in general, I think that being self-employed
sidesteps many problems that women usually encounter. (Glass ceilings,
harassment, dull powerless secretarial work, etc.) A self-employed person
is actually in a position of some power, with control over pricing, 
scheduling,
work methods, and so on. We can choose not to work for anyone we don't wish 
to.
No union is in our faces. Quality counts.

I have found that if customers are given quality and a cheerful approach,
they take hiring a woman for their pianos right in stride. Since
so many piano techs (practically all of them I know) are roughly my own age,
once our generation retires (and we're starting to retire already) people 
may be
delighted to find ANYONE to work on their pianos, and gender may not
matter a hoot.

Best,
Susan




At 09:04 AM 1/22/2006 -0600, you wrote:
>This has been an interesting thread on many levels.  For one thing,
>my daughter is coming to my office to learn piano service.  She
>graduated from college last summer and likes the idea of working
>independently. She's pretty handy with tools (she has a minor in art/ 
>sculpture), and has grasped tuning well, although I don't think she
>likes tuning all that much.
>
>My question is this:  What problems do women run into out there is
>businessland?  I talked to one woman who doesn't put her address on
>her business card because she doesn't want it out there for all to
>have.  This was something I had never thought about, being of the
>male persuasion.  Also the upper body strength issue seems that it
>must be a major problem.  One rather petite woman I know had to use
>both hands to move the tuning hammer on pianos with tight pins.
>Another said she had to lift weights and work out to keep from having
>pain.  I know this isn't just a female thing, men have upper back
>problems too.  If my daughter does indeed continue to do well, it
>would be nice to know what she should be aware of when she starts
>working on her own.  Does PTG do anything to help women get together
>and talk about these things?  Maybe you "guys" just seek each other
>out and meet over lunch to exchange ideas.
>
>On another note, I'd like to make an announcement.  I'll be retiring
>from my university job as of May 12, 2006.  I'll be 62 and will be
>moving into a part time piano service business and otherwise have
>time to do other things.  I'm looking forward to it.  I've worked at
>the university of NE for 30 years and it's been a good gig.  I'm
>announcing this so that any of you that might be interested in
>applying will know that the position will be open soon.  The
>department is preparing to advertise.  I don't know what the pay
>scale will be, but I'm pushing for a decent starting salary and the
>benefits are good.
>
>Richard West
>University of Nebraska