Piano Technician Training

[Doug Jones]

Greetings,
	I just joined the mailing list a couple of days ago and have been
enjoying the amount of email sent to me by this mailing list.  It's nice
to see a very active list.

	I do have a question about training to become a piano technician
(as I'm sure you have been asked numerous times).  How did you get your
training?  Currently, I'm looking into both the Randy Potter and the
Americal School correspondence courses, but I'm not sure if either is
better or if I should try to find a technician who is willing to take on
an apprentice.

	I have issues with how both schools present themselves as being
the "better" school.  In the case of Randy Potter, he includes a
12-year-old article from Keyboard Magazine saying that his school is the
best.  (Written by Larry Fine, no less)  I'm not sure how much relavance
an article of that age has on training today.  In the case of the American
School, there are email testimonials included, but none of the
testimonials are from members of the PTG.  They say that they just haven't
bothered.  Cost, of course, is an issue, since the Randy Potter course
costs twice as much as the American School course.

	Which brings me to the other option.  From what I've read on the
list and the archives, it seems to me that most piano technicians would
not be willing to take on an apprentice since they fear that this will
take business away from them.  How can that be approached?  Yes, I'd be
willing to pay a technician for training if they would offer it to me.
I have been in touch with the PTG about membership and stating that I'm
looking to maybe apprentice to someone.  I'm currently living in the SF
Bay Area, just to give you a geographical reference.

Any help/suggestions/comments would be very welcome.  You are welcome to
contact me off-list if you feel that this is not worthy of the bandwidth
on the list.

Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
Doug Jones