poll

[Avery Todd]

List,

   Well, I guess I might as well get in on this show & tell also. :-) I've
enjoyed reading about how others got started and learned the business.
   I originally got started learning out of self-defense when I was in The
Army Field Band Chorus. We traveled app. 6 mos. out of the year, I did a lot
of the accompanying on chorus gigs, and I was always running into pianos
which had not been tuned or notes that didn't work, etc. An advance team
went ahead of the band & chorus to confirm everything for the concerts and
I was going to ride with them to *confirm* the condition of the piano.
   Because of having that type of job, the only way I could begin was with
a correspondence course. Randys' course wasn't around yet (early 70's) so I
began with Aubrey Willis' course. Being a musician already, it wasn't hard
to understand what to do, it was just frustrating trying to learn to do it
well.
   I was starting to tune fairly well when I decided to get out of the Army.
I returned to my hometown (Abilene, TX.) and started trying to build a
business there. It was very frustrating to me trying to learn more about
the repair, regulating, rebuilding part of the business because I had no
one to
turn to for help at the time. I even called Baldwin and asked about the
possibility of coming to work there but was told that I would probably just
get good enough to be of real use to them and I would leave to pursue my
own business. I could understand that and the person I talked to was
probably correct.
   So, I finally got to know the Baldwin dealer there, who was also a
technician and had a tech working out the store. He finally got tired of me
bugging him for help I guess, and suggested I come work in his store shop
doing reconditioning, restringing, regulating, etc. I did. I also
worked/trained for free for about a year until he finally considered me
good enough to pay.
   A little later, he sent me out to do a recital tuning for a local
university (trying to get them off his back because he didn't have time to
go out and do outside tunings). I got lucky and satisfied them and did
their recital tunings the rest of the time I was there.
   Then came a stint in the Gulfport/Biloxi area where I got in with the
Yamaha dealer there and learned a lot from their technician at the time.
He finally had to retire because of MS and I took over his position there.
I ended up moving back to West Texas and landed in San Angelo. Stayed there
for about 15 yrs. until moving to Houston.
   Besides what's mentioned above and what I've learned from Guild members
and  Journals, probably one of the biggest influences on me improving the
quality of my work was Priscilla & Joel Rappaport. I met them probably 15
or
so years ago when I had a grand action that someone had gouged out a bunch
of key leads, added screw-on leads, drilled little holes is some leads and
some keys and in general, just made a mess of the action. The Rappaports
were writing their column in the Journal at that time and I had been
impressed with what they had to say, so I called about this weighting
problem. She came and got the action, I went to their shop over the weekend
and *helped* what little I could, picking their brains all the while. And
so it's gone ever since. I'm still learning, or at least trying to. They
were
even the ones who recommended me for this job here at the University of
Houston and backed it by writing one of the three recommendations I had to
have.
   So I guess I could fall under just about all but one of the categories
that have been mentioned so far: correspondence school, self-taught, PTG
classes, Journal, apprentice.

Avery

>At 05:07 PM 5/22/98 -0400, Ralph wrote:
>
>>There haven't been enough replies for any kind is accurate poll so the
>>validity of the following is certainly questionable:
>>
>>Randy Potter School......18%
>>Self taught....................... 41%
>>Other schools.................. 24%
>>University schools..........  18%
>
>There's an important category missing here, possibly because myself and
>some others I know who are second, third and even fourth generation tuners
>haven't spoken up yet. There are others we haven't heard from who learned
>their craft one-on-one from craftsmen in rebuilding shops and stores who
>would also fit into the missing category, which might be labelled
>"Apprenticed".

___________________________
Avery Todd, RPT
Moores School of Music
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204-4893
713-743-3226
atodd@uh.edu
http://www.music.uh.edu/

MUSIC DEFINITIONS:
   Accidentals : the wrong notes.