Many of you are probably familiar with Enrico Fermi's famous problem, "How many piano tuners are there in Chicago?" - asked of physics engineers. "Sometimes we must attempt to estimate important scientific and/or engineering values based on scanty or apparently non-existent information. Experimental science seeks its answers from Nature; but, before an experiment can be designed, some idea/estimate of the parameter space involved must already be in hand. We must make an initial guess. How do we proceed? We use what we already know, of course. Most people could do far more than they think if only they really knew how to use their heads. Enrico Fermi, hailed by some as, “the last universal scientist,” had a unique way of initiating his graduate students into this important discipline… see http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/CoE/Fermi.mod_files/v3_document.htm and http://www.stthomas.edu/physics/Academics/111/Green%20Group%20Problems/Fermi %20Problems/Fermi%20Piano%20Key.gif for two versions of the Fermi problem and its solution. (the second link above uses Twin Cities instead of Chicago). In the various solutions to the problem, the engineers make the following reasonable assumptions: 3 million people, 4 people per family, 1 piano for every 5 families, therefore about 150,000 pianos in Chicago. Estimate that each piano gets tuned an average of 1 time a year. And they proceed to estimate how many tuners are required to service those pianos thus: 4 to 5 tunings a day, 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year, therefore about 1000 to 1250 tunings a year per tuner ... therefore there are 120 to 150 tuners in Chicago. For our purposes in looking at average income, this tallies with Dave Porritt's rule of thumb that gross income is about 1,000 times your tuning fee. But do we actually average 1,000 to 1,250 tunings a year? I would have thought less. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Jason Kanter . piano tuning regulation repair jkanter@rollingball.com <mailto:jkanter@rollingball.com> . cell 425 830 1561 serving the eastside and the san juans -----Original Message----- From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org]On Behalf Of David M. Porritt Sent: Thursday, October 07, 2004 11:41 AM To: pianotech@ptg.org Subject: RE: average tuner income Terry: This is a touchy subject on many levels. I have always thought, however, that a good rule of thumb was 1,000 times your tuning rate as a gross income. That's assuming that you have some skill, some business sense and this is not your first year doing it. dave __________________________________________ David M. Porritt, RPT Meadows School of the Arts Southern Methodist University Dallas, TX 75275 dporritt@mail.smu.edu ----- Original message ----------------------------------------> From: pianolover 88 <pianolover88@hotmail.com> To: <pianotech@ptg.org> Received: Wed, 06 Oct 2004 15:36:03 -0700 Subject: average tuner income >I know it's hard to generalize, but I'm curious to know what other full-time >tuner/techs average income is per year. I will understand if not too many >want to divulge this info online. I'm just looking for a "ballpark", for LA >and other major cities or whereve. I read somehwere a while back in a PTJ >from about 3 years back, a little questionairre, where one of the questions >asked how much do you earn in a year. There were four multiple choice >answers listing income ranges. On the high range was "$200,000 or more", >and next to it in (----) was: "average for tuners in Los Angeles". Not being >able to find that particular article, I wonder if that was accurate or just >a joke! That would basically translate to no less than $766.00 per day, >every day, based on a 5 day week, or $639.00 every day, based on a six day >week. I've had days like that and sometimes even more, but not EVERY SINGLE >DAY! Of course when I think about it, that's really only 4-6 tuning per day, >with a few pitch raises, cleanings or extra stuff added to the mix. For me, >single with no debt, (except my home mortgage) I guess I'm happy keeping my >work day as short as practicable. Some techs might work from 8am 'till dark, >but I sure as heck don't need to, and never will! I love what i do-and I >love ice cream-but i don't over do it. The sky's the limit if we really want >it bad enough. >Terry Peterson >_________________________________________________________________ >Check out Election 2004 for up-to-date election news, plus voter tools and >more! http://special.msn.com/msn/election2004.armx >_______________________________________________ >pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives _______________________________________________ pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
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