I agree with John. No one can say after completion of any course,
correspondence or otherwise, that one will achieve success in that
particular field. It is an introduction to an entry-level position. You
have to make your own success.
Before we jump on this guy, let's examine the course material he has
produced. Is it going to surpass the full-time technician schools we have
available?Of course not. Will it get a newbie into the field making money?
Apparently, yes it will.
As far as his background, it appears he is an accomplished
writer, as evidenced by his book production. Whether he has other interests
or skills is of no concern, but rather shows his intelligence and broad
scope. Explaining how to accomplish a task in written form is challenging,
and he claims to have the ability to do this effectively. Let's give him
the benefit of the doubt until such time we know otherwise.
My take.
Paul McCloud
San Diego
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of JOHN ROSS
Sent: Monday, February 22, 2010 10:46 AM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Ron Falcone piano tuning course
Any correspondence course, is only as good as what you put into it.
After joining PTG, I learned that the course I had completed, was the worst
course available.
They are still in business, and I did the course in 1975.
It did however give me a course outline to work with.
I have been to approaching 20 conventions, where I filled in the blanks, in
my knowledge.
But had I not started with the correspondence course, even the inferior one
I took, I would not be making a living from it today.
You can have the best course in the world, but if you don't apply yourself,
or just read the answers from the course material, you will fail as a piano
tuner.
You must satisfy, the customer, or your business will fail.
John Ross
Windsor, Nova Scotia
On 22/02/10 10:10 AM, "Brian Trout" <brian_trout at hotmail.com> wrote:
Don't ya just love carefully crafted ad copy?
By reading the part that says, "...tuners who earn an average of $75.00 to
$95.00 per-hour tuning pianos", many people would assume that piano tuners
average $75 to $95 per hour by tuning pianos. Nope.
Most people would very likely misinterpret the part before it that says,
"the small and exclusive list" and reason that to mean an average of all
piano tuners. Wrong again. Yes, there are some who have developed their
tuning skills to be able to tune their average piano in about an hour and
live in areas where a tuning runs around $100(+/-). That would be a "small
and exclusive list", in a manner of speaking, but would not be an accurate
representation of any kind of average of all tuners in North America.
Don't ya just love how they change referrence sources so craftily? They
start out with a blanket statement from the US Dept of Labor Statistics that
says, "piano tuners can earn very good incomes." Doesn't mean ALL piano
tuners WILL earn very good incomes. But some CAN. Not much different than
many other fields. I also notice a specific absense of monetary figures
from official sources.
And then, they immediately go on to quote "a recently published almanac".
Huh??? What the heck is that? It could be a term paper from a fourth
grader. It could be a post on a blog somewhere that these same people put
out just to satisfy this statement. It's a "nothing" statement, and a
"published almanac" can pretty much say anything, BS included, and all
they're doing is saying that it's been published recently. Duh. (I could
publish my story of oceanfront property in AZ, too, and even put a
referrence to it in ad copy somewhere. Doesn't put an ocean there.)
Here's just hoping that people looking to learn about piano tuning will do
enough searching on the internet to find some reputable people to talk to.
Lots of tuner/techs have real websites now and if I were looking, I'd
probably try to find some of these and talk to some real techs for their
take on "schools" like this. And hopefully, some real techs would point
would-be people in more reasonable directions of education.
If I had to start over again, I'd probably join the PTG and look for a place
to start working on pianos. A mentor would be great. If not possible, a
large piano store with a substantial shop would be a place to do some
serious learning. Even just finding access to a decade or so of the PTG
journals would hold a wealth of info for someone willing to do some reading.
These "home study courses", at least of this nature, are totally worthless.
I took one in the early 1980's. Totally worthless. Well, except for the
tuning hammer they sent with it. I still have that, and even use it on
occasion for a tuning pin in a tight location. I may even have a rubber
mute or two, but that's about all I have to show for it. The actual tuning
part of it tried to teach a temperament that was so bad I don't think I ever
got it to work well. I even tried it after learning to tune a good one
years later, still couldn't make it work. (The temperament that finally
"clicked" with me was an adaptation and expansion of the one in a book I
managed to find, "A Guide to Restringing". For me, it never was an issue
hearing the beats, it was just knowing how to organize them.)
I don't know if there are some legitimate home study applications these
days. (Is Randy Potter still doing one?) But this ain't one!!
FWIW... just an opinion...
Brian
> Date: Sun, 21 Feb 2010 21:51:53 -0600
> From: dahechler at att.net
> To: pianotech at ptg.org
> Subject: Re: [pianotech] Ron Falcone piano tuning course
>
> WHERE, in California and New York - most definitely NOT in the midwest -
> like St. Louis, MO
>
> "According to the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics, piano tuners can
> earn very good incomes. In fact, in a recently published almanac on
> career opportunities, piano tuners were listed in the/ *top twenty* /*
> professions* out of a total of/ two hundred/. Probably the best kept
> secret in the world is that now you can join the small and exclusive
> list of tuners who earn an average of *$75.00 to $95.00 *per-hour tuning
> pianos! "
>
> The person that wrote this MUST be on DRUGS ..............
>
> I just LOVE these general statements. (Like the government is trying to
> tell us that the housing market is rebounding - again, NOT in St. Louis,
MO)
>
> DH
>
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