I've been thinking it might be a good idea to develop a FAQ on how to become a tuner / tech. But in order to do so I would need input from everyone interested in creating it.

What I'm thinking is that I could get from each of you your best advice on how you did it yourself (or how you'd do it if you had the chance to do it again).

Once I had this info I can put it all together in a post to pin at the top of the forum list.

I'm debating on how the format should be - should it be written as a single post which incorporates all the info from y'all merged into a single how-to, or should I just do minor editing (grammar, spelling, etc.) on what I get from you and post each of your inputs individually?

When this is decided I will post an email address you can send your contributions to and I'll get to work.

I'm leaning towards posting each of your individual contributions. That way each gets individual credit for your input and it will help newcomers get to know all of you.

When all is said and done we'll have advice from everyone and whoever is thinking of becoming a tuner/tech can have a resource to draw upon and decide which path to take besed on his/her individual circumstances.

Ken

You could also put links to threads in the post.

Great idea. I like the idea of a single post that just grows with input as members post. It would give us all a little insight into each others' paths, and new members an opportunity to get some valuable insight into what makes us all tick. RPD

So, does this fancy new Piano World web-site software have the ability to create a poll?

If so, how about a poll something along the lines of...

How did you learn to tune and repair pianos?

o Family business

o Formal Apprenticeship

o Piano factory

o School-trained

o Correspondence course

o Picked it up along the way

o etc.

It would be interesting to see the percentages.

This is a great idea Ken. I am also leaning towards the testimonials from each contributor. This would give us not only previous experiences with variety of the educational opportunities but a before/ after would develop.

For example; right now we have member #65 who is toiling away at one of the colleges on this continent that is linked to a University Music Dept. Now I don’t know Kenny that well, but he could provide us with an up-to date experience there. A previous experience would be another member who went to George Brown College which became the program that Kenny is at now. This would provide all of us with a view on how courses do change and up-date over the years.

I have also noted other contributors to this forum from other colleges and learning centres. We need stories from them too. We also have members who are taking correspondence courses right now. Some have been mentioned recently.

And other members who are gearing up to do their technical and tuning test at yet again through another learning facility.
The family business is one that would provide interesting reading for many. This is often the way many trades are passed on in history.

Monsters idea of linking to previous threads is a good one that will require a little research of threads. This would help a lot here. It could become a really good resource. An expandable idea too....

How about a brief version (single howto), followed by the personal stories?

I think Erus' idea is a good one, considering that everyone is/has been traveling far different roads to reach the common goal of being a tech. A brief version with links to the schools/correspondence courses, followed by personal experiences will be pretty effective.

I'd be happy to share my experiences as well. Before I joined my program, I came here searching for info. This will no doubt help many people. Good idea, Ken.

It sure can, the poll is here.. As I indicated in the poll, it'll remain open for 30 days and you only get to vote once. You can select multiple choices so e.g., if you have both taken classes and worked in a family business you can select both.

Vote early!

Awesome Greg!

I just voted!!!

Thanks

There should be a dot for taking classes at PTG Conventions. I am self taught from various written sources. I took most of Randy potters Course. I work for a family business, my mentors. I have a mentor, which would be "other". But I couldn't check school even though I have taken over 60 classes at conventions. I consider that a separate catagory in itself. Some PTG members have never been to conventions, so it's not a PTG thing but classes from Steinway and Yamaha and everybody.
Should I just click school too?

Maybe there should be more discussion on what the catagories should be?

I apologize. The list I suggested was only thought up as I typed it. It was meant as a starting point. I'm sure there are other possibilities I missed as well.

Any suggestions for more categories?

I think there does need to be a dot for those who received the majority or a significant part of their training from the PTG and/or PTG conferences.

Hmmmm. With a thread titled "How to become a Tuner/Technician" one would expect to find information on "How to become a Tuner/Technician".

What we have here is a bunch of rag-tag suggestions on how to create a thread entitled "How to become a Tuner/Technician"

School would be the generic term for all of them put together I believe. Any course you might take at a convention would be in a type of classroom setting correct? Universities, colleges, fine arts schools and the PTG are in this category. But we could separate them too if necessary.

Also we could have a list of current, past and upcoming books for “recommended reading”. There could be a list of them provided with the authors name…..maybe even a hyperlink to purchase them on-line here. Frank would have to do some background work on the agreement with the authors on that one.

Lots of good ideas here for creating something out of this……..

Agreed but it usually takes a while for a FAQ to "find it's way". What could be done in this thread some time in the future is some "pruning" i.e., deletion of posts, that are directed at how the thread should be constructed and what its contents should be leaving only those that are appropriate for the FAQ. This would of course only be done with the general agreement of those participating in the thread.

This post, for example, is an obvious candidate for the trash bucket

The question of "How to become a pano techncian" is surely one of the most frequently answered questions here. It has been answered many, many times. It is all in the archives. Instead of all this discussion about "How can we do it", why don't those people who want to see it done simply go into the archives, and cut and paste all the releveant answers together?

Some time ago I did that for another frequent question: "How do I find a piano techncian", This is posted in the tech FAQ. There is not much to it.

I say: "Just go for it"! Stop talking about it and just DO IT

Then, afterward, there can be additions from the techs posting here.


On more thing about the FAQ forum - it really needs to be weeded out. It should contain no more that 10 or max. 15 threads. Everything else is not FAQ and should be in the archives. Once the FAQ forums becomes as large as it is now, with many very specific and infrequent and wrongly posted threads, it becomes very difficult to find what you are looking for. Revamp that forum, I say.

I agree with that. If possible, it should be set so that nobody can start a new topic there. I posted a message that people should not post there, but that seems to have gone missing in the switchover. Of course, there were a lot of people who ignored that message anyway.

Dan Silverwood's idea for a list of books is a very good one, and might deserve a separate thread.

I think a brief review should be written for the books in that list, and that each of these reviews should be written in two parts: one from/for a beginners point of view, and one from/for the more advanced/pro. I don't know if that makes sense...

I honestly had not a very clear idea of what exactly I would be getting when I bought the first books. I found the (very few) reviews available very cryptic, and had very few elements to judge what could be useful, or what I should read first.

Good thoughts - everyone!

I can begin accumulating anything anoone wants to write I guess. When I get them I'll put them in a special folder in my email and work on the FAQ as time allows.

You can email them to kknapp@nepapiano.com. Be sure to include piano faq in the subject line, and make sure you tell me your screen name (and real name if you want - up to you).

Ken

I don't follow the idea of a poll on how someone learned. A voter may have learned at school XYZ, but at the end of it all decided it was time and money poorly spent. The original idea of the thread is to develop "a FAQ on how to become a tuner / tech", not to collect statistics on who did what. The two are very different questions.

Also, the beauty of a FAQ is that it can quickly provide concise answers to specific questions about what to do and what not to do. Links to other more in-depth treatments on topics would be great. But inclusion of the in-depth verbiage itself into the FAQ gets away from "concise". All that other information is great, and well worth researching. A link to it is all that is needed. If things become too wordy, a good number will lose interest and leave it behind.

If I had my time again I would of concentrated more at school and gone into a business with a better future and not been a piano technician, as here in the UK things have gone from bad to worse!

There used to be enough work for 4 of us in one piano business just tuning alone in a 45 mile radius, and most of those clients being in a 20 mile radius. Now days we have to travel up to 150 miles away, and there are no school contracts here in the UK any more, and add to that schools selling their pianos in favor of electric pianos and keyboards you can see why. Private clients also are buying more keyboards and electric pianos than acoustic, you only have to walk into a general music shop to see no acoustic pianos, or a dwindling stock from years ago.

Add to this the amount if newbie technicians being released from colleges not changing with the dwindling pianos, I can see why they have to have a full or part time job to survive.

I have now made my lot as I started sitting down at a piano workshop desk at 3 years old dusting down action parts, and then joining my father when leaving school, and things have got harder not easier since the 1990s and they wont get any better.

Well, the faq idea seems to be dead anyhow - I only received one email about it and that was a suggestion that we include a list of good books to read.

Ken

Why is it dead Ken? You said you could complile the information. The information is all there. Just do a simple archive search. That is what we routinely tell people posting questions here. That is what I did to compile the FAQ for "How to find a good piano technician".

As I said before, it is easy. Someone needs to simply do it. You had volunteered, so I am a bit surprised that nothing has happened to date.

This is no offence to you, Ken. It is merely a continuation of the discussion.

If you can you tell us that the results of your archive search yield insuficient information, I am sure the techs here would jump in to fill in the gaps.

But, as I have said before and was seconded by others, unless the FAQ section is weeded out, placing this FAQ in among others may not achieve the desired results.

I said if people sent me submissions I would compile them into a faq. I was not offering to do a research project.



And:



Like I said, I got one email.

Ken

I just received a submission from Jerry Groot. It's his personal story about how he learned to tune and how he got started in business. Great reading and is a wonderful start to the faq. THANK YOU JERRY!

I'll bet all of you have stories like that to share! Send 'em out to me - and not only will the faq be informative, it will be interesting as well.

Ken