future technicians

[Dave Davis]

Annie,

That's very cool. I wasn't around when piano tuners came to our house when I was a kid. (My mom assures me that she had the piano tuned...) I do the same as you and invite kids and their nervous moms to take a look and get a quick tour of how things work. One of the most rewarding parts of this job, for me, is making the family piano less mysterious. The tour also opens the door to showing why regular maintenance is needed.

When I read last year that the mean age of technicians in the PTG was something like 57, I decided to start mentioning Piano Technology as a career for aspiring piano students. It is a career that most teenagers haven't considered, and hopefully more will *and* lower the average age. On the other hand, the current statistics make me look young for a piano technician. Ah, it's good to be only 50.

Dave Davis, RPT


----- Original Message ----
From: Annie Grieshop <annie at allthingspiano.com>
To: Pianotech <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2007 9:37:14 PM
Subject: future technicians


This afternoon, I wrote a letter to the first piano technician I ever
watched tuning a piano.  That was back in the early '60s, and even as a
pretty young kid, I thought it was the most wonderful thing ever.  He'll be
80 this summer and is celebrating his 40th year in the PTG.  I don't expect
him to remember me, but he surely did change my life.

So, when I work in a house with kids (or interested adults), I always take
time to show them what's going on inside the piano and how things work, in
general.  With case parts removed, I encourage them to play so they can see
it all in motion.  (I've heard that the little ones don't pound as much
afterwards.)

And this month, I've heard from two young tuning customers who have decided
they want to try their hands at being technicians.  They're both good
pianists and budding composers, but I'm pretty sure neither of them had ever
considered being a technician until we spent time talking about it and
poking around inside pianos together.  And you can bet they've heard a lot
about the PTG and why they should join! <g>

What goes around does come around..........

Annie Grieshop
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