future technicians

[Erwinspiano at aol.com]

Hi David
  Thanks you for the kind words.
  It's unfortunate the condition you describe.  In my  prior post It may seem 
as thought I've had my head in the sand concerning  industry trends & reduced 
interest in pianos as evidenced by world wide  piano production being down. 
However it doesn't seem to have affected the  Chinese investment in piano 
plants.
  I think the American piano environment is far different  as well as larger 
than the UK which probably accounts for the differing anomaly  you experience 
there.  
  We Yanks have had the advantage of hundreds of well made  American pianos 
in our culture. Prior to the advanced transportation system  Every region had 
it's own favorite maker as it wasn't all that desirable  to ship such a heavy 
object long distances.  Never the less they were  shipped & even out in Calif. 
we have an amazing number & varity of  makers avaible to work on & we are far 
from the East coast plants that  produced them.
  Here in the states I have witnessed the advance of  technology in 
parts,training/knowledge & craft net working completely  unthinkable 15 to 20 years ago.
  I like your attitude.  It will be the thing that  makes change if a change 
can be made.
  kindest regards
  Dale Erwin
 

Dale,  it's great to hear how good Dennis's course was!   That's wonderful!

The provision of piano tuning and technology courses  has finished 
substantially in the UK in the last two decades.

In  the 1980's, a couple of colleges started brand new courses - in Leeds and 
 
in Wales, but they didn't last long.  The long-established course in  
Edinburgh also folded.  Now there are only three options.  There  is the 
facility for the visually impaired at Hereford, the course at what  used to 
be called the London College of Furniture, and the course at  
Newark-On-Trent.  And that's it.  This loss of courses must  basically be due 
to lack of demand - colleges do not "pull" courses which  are attracting good 
numbers.

In turn, then, why did the number of  applicants drop?  I don't know. Perhaps 
there is a problem with the  status of the trade/profession in the UK, and in 
addition, the perception  of young people about careers may have altered over 
the years.

I  have not hitherto sought schools business, but there is one high school  
where I tune, and another I did recently. I have found it interesting  that, 
when I have attempted to engage teachers in  conversation, they  have looked 
at me as if the geranium spoke!  I found this recently in  the new school as 
well as in the one I usually do. Perhaps high school  teachers are too 
trodden down and harassed to converse, or perhaps they  see piano tuners as 
menials unworthy of civilized chat.  This amuses  me, because I am a college 
teacher myself, registered with the same  professional bodies as the 
schoolteachers, and I get paid about $3500 more  per annum than 
schoolteachers at the same grade!  So when they won't  talk to me, I take 
comfort in that.....

I do think that the  profession is not highly esteemed in the UK, and I think 
it would be hard  to sell youngsters on the idea of a career in piano tuning 
and  servicing.  I really don't know what the answer is in  Britain.

Best wishes,

David. 







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