Tally

[Billbrpt@AOL.COM]

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
In a message dated 12/31/00 10:56:50 AM Central Standard Time, 
cedel@supernet.com (Clyde Hollinger) writes:


> I am basically happy with my position in the piano service world.
> It would be nice to service a more exclusive clientele, I suppose, but I
> like my clients, my clients like me, and the world needs people like
> me.  We can't all care for only the top of the line.
> 

No need to think of yourself as anyone in a lower position than anyone else, 
Clyde.  I know that many ordinary Piano Tuner-Technicians tend to think this 
way.  Many who start out tuning believe that if they haven't put in a 
pinblock and rebuilt a Steinway yet then they aren't really legitimate.  Fact 
is that many rebuilders can't tune well and many rebuilders become rebuilders 
because tuning just is not what they want to do, at least all of the time.

You are providing a service for people who have a piano, whatever kind it may 
be.  Historically, a really fine piano has always cost what the average wage 
earner's salary would be for an entire year, not just a month or two's like a 
diamond ring.  It is no different today.  These are people of modest means, 
yes, but I'll bet that most homes you enter are well kept, in nice, safe 
neighborhoods where you can drive right up, park your car and go in.

These are people with families to provide for so a $30,000 or more piano 
won't be found there.  But a gracious housewife or other person is there to 
greet you, offer you comfort and is respectful and admiring of your skills.  
You, in turn, provide a valuable and needed service knowing that what you do 
benefits the children most of all.  You therefore do the best job you can 
with whatever skills and extra effort you must put out to see that these 
people's piano plays and sounds as it should.

While we can all admire the type of technician whose clientele is exclusive 
to expensive, high quality instruments in high profile situations, those 
kinds of opportunities are rare.  Those kinds of technicians often develop a 
disdain for any work that seems beneath their stature.  Unfortunately, those 
are also the kinds of people who are visible and influential and so their 
opinions are heard, published and seen as a way of think that should be 
aspired to.

This leads many ordinary technicians to develop the wrong attitude about 
their work and the pianos they service.  You know me well enough to know that 
I do not have that attitude and I have tried to fight against it by exposing 
it candidly whenever and wherever I see it.  I've always known you to be a 
calm, gentle, level headed person who in no way fits the kind of profile I 
oppose.

In my book, you are indeed the kind of person that other young techs should 
look up to and whose example is worth following.  Keep it up.

Happy New Year
Let's all celebrate the fact that it is really now the year 2001

Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/01/74/3f/58/attachment.htm

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--