How do you do it ??

[Tom Servinsky]

Richard,
I hope that you realize that you stirred the beehive, so to speak, with your 
inquiry of " how do you do it?".
For many of us who have been in this profession for many years, and I use 
the term "profession" strongly, end up being engulfed into a magnitude of 
procedures that we must master in order to properly address all the things 
which presents itself in this line of work. That being said, it's no wonder 
that the time allotment that many of us devote (to our work) goes well 
beyond that of a normal 40 hr. work week. The notion of a 40 hr. week seems 
like a vacation in retrospect. But you asked the question and I'll give you 
my spin on the subject.
I normally see 5-7 instruments a day x 5-6 days a week. 70% is concert 
related work as I'm the house technician for 3 concert venues, plus the 
local Steinway concert technician, plus being the local Yamaha concert tech 
which adds oodles of engagements through the course of our busy season. Many 
days I have as many as 4 major concerts occurring in one day, which means a 
lot of jockeying back and forth between theatres,meeting with the artists 
making sure everything is in proper order. In between  those times, I 
sprinkle in a few customers along the way.
My day usually starts around 6 AM at the one the theatre and usually 
finishes around 7:30PM or later depending upon if I'm on standby or not for 
the concerts. I also do a fair bit of rebuilding which is used for any 
tuning downtime that occurs. Normally there 2- 4 instruments in production, 
as being the case at this time.
So all in all, my work week usually hovers around 60- 80 hrs. per week. We 
have 4 children and I'm the sole bread winner in our family. I have 2 recent 
college graduates and 2 in private school. We live in a very nice area of 
the town, have the nice house, the 2 cars, the whole bit and caboodle....
Bottom line is that I have found a profession that inspires me. Yes, there 
are times when it gets to be a bit much, but luckily I have other interests 
as well that re-energizes the batteries and gives me my balances. On top of 
this I'm also a professional clarinetist playing with an excellent orchestra 
and do some free-lancing with other groups when time permits. I count myself 
as one of the lucky ones who have found a profession which inspires me and 
gives total satisfaction. It's a profession that the artist community solely 
depends upon to bring their performances to top order. Knowing that I have a 
hand in making the performance scene operate more smoothly gives me great 
pleasure. Thus, this no longer becomes "work" as it becomes more of a duty 
and obligation that I have been called to perform.  I take great pride in 
being able to be apart of such a noble profession. I seriously couldn't 
imagine being more happy and fulfilled in any other profession.
Tom Servinsky, RPT

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Phil Bondi" <phil@philbondi.com>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Sunday, January 30, 2005 5:47 AM
Subject: Re: How do you do it ??


> Richard, the last time I checked, which is right now, this profession, if 
> you're in it alone like I am, is a minimum 12 hr. day everyday you call a 
> work day. If you're tuning 3-4 a day, rebuild, repair, research then 
> you're looking at 12 hr. days. Some people have spouses to take care of 
> the paperwork and make scheduling arrangements. That cuts down a little 
> bit on the time. If I were in the position of having the luxury of having 
> a spouse to take care of the paperwork and scheduling, that person would 
> already have strong office skills and be a savvy scheduler with MY time. I 
> don't see that happening anytime soon for me.
>
> Learning how and when to say no works for some.
>
> -Phil Bondi(Fl)
>
>
>
>
>
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