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Get a tuning agreement going with a bar or restaurant that has piano music. Give them a low price and arrange to tune once monthly.

You will learn a lot after one year of seeing the same piano every month and also gain an understanding on how the piano changes w/weather.

As to all your other concerns, it may take 5 years of real world experience before you start to develop your own tuning philosophy.

OK, so I am NOT and never will be a piano technician (disclaimer done).
However I doubt the value of doing tunings in some minimum amount of time, other than pride in achieving efficiency.
I don't think it is generally the case that pianos in need of service are so plentiful and closely spaced that many techs could do 3 a day (including travel time, meet and greet, get paid and depart). Sure, there are exceptions - in house work at large music colleges, store work, etc.
Speedy tuning might allow you to avoid rush hours, have more time with family, catch up on the sales and accounting, but I doubt that it brings in more CA$H.

A potential down side is that customers compare you to the tuner that took an hour longer - UNFORTUNATELY that hour is more tangible than the "quality" of work performed.

if you tune a piano on a regular basis, or find one that was stabilized and is almost in tune when you begin, the tuning is not that long,

The more you manipulate the pins the less the stability, so goping slowly mean only moving the pin more slowly, and certainly not changing the pin posture a lot,

usually correcting the tuning first pass , if 2 are necessary, mean raising only a little more pins that where yet set, the pin and the wire are manipulated as a whole, and just displaced from a "set position" to another "set position"

MAKing a fast but light setting just to install tension on the structure is only necessary with large pitch rises, I think up to 2 Hz once can tune directly and just add some corrections

But , unless in terrible conditions , with too hard hammers, and played brutally, no piano will loose more than 2 Hz in a year if the tuner know what is firm pin and wire setting?

Now with some custiomers you need to be ready to "oblige "them to tune the piano even if they do not hear it out of tune, That is where stopping talking "tuning" and telling them about "maintenance" is useful.



If you wait for them it will tajke 2 years for them to call back, at last, and you will have more work, so if you work that way, you better rise your tuning fee,

Lately I was asked to "tune" a G2 Yamaha that is about 15 years old and was very well maintened by precedent owner

I was there for 3 HOURS and did

Correct the existing tuning
Clean the strings

Regulate the key frame glide bolts (that where excessively screwed)

Regulate sustain and UC pedal
regulate the damper stop rail
even hammer line
Deep needle all the hammers

Fast file them, mostly basses that where really too impacted.

Even, the tone
Voice for the UC pedal

Talcum on knuckles

price paid about 2,5 tunings, and I will be back there probably in 2 years

Just an exemple of what we can do with a frame time

PS if you bang too strong on a tuned note, the problem is may be not the key that may break but the wire deform and loose a little pitch.

It is more useful to play the notes enough so they have moved on all friction points, than to use a test blow in the end

If you have a good pin setting technique (and wire motion control) a test blow should do absolutely nothing,

It can be used to tune, to set the pin, but it is tiring and not very precise, the work is better done with the lever once you are sure the wire have moved everywhere.

With all due respect, I believe this "one pull to pitch" method to be inferior for (long-term) stability. It leaves the embedded part of the tuning pin twisted counter-clockwise (when viewing it into the pinblock), because the embedded part lags behind the free part.

When removing the lever from the pin, the free part of the pin is pulled/twisted counter-clockwise by the string, and the embedded part is also loaded/twisted counter-clockwise. Therefore, only the very top-most lamination of the pinblock is actually holding the tension.

On the other hand, if you overshoot somewhat, and then settle down counter-clockwise, the embedded part of the pin will now be loaded/twisted clockwise. Therefore, all laminations of the pinblock will contribute to maintaining the tension.

I'm trying to say that in my limited experience, the foot of the pin should be twisted somewhat clockwise relative to the pin in the top lamination, so that the whole embedded length of the pin can contribute equally to maintaining the tension. [Edit: this should make the foot of the pin work for stability, not against it.]

You just need to know that the pin acts on all its lenght. This is perceived in the lever when you set the pin.

What is to be avoided is to be obliged to Turn the foot of the pins counter clockwise.

I prefer to raise 2 or 3 times than to overshot too much.

R.B.-
I disagree with you completely. Perhaps a hobbyist won't care how long it takes to tune a piano. However, if you are in this as a profession it most definitely does matter.

Suppose one technician takes three hours to tune a piano, another takes only one hour and they both produce a good quality tuning. The "three hour tuner" must charge considerably more or earn a considerably smaller income. For every service, including piano tuning, there is a limit to what customers are willing to pay. Working too slowly and charging more is equivalent to punishing the customer for the tuner's inefficiency. Working for a fraction of the income is a very poor business strategy.

I am certain there are parts of the world where a technician will not be able to find enough pianos to work on as a full time business. Nonetheless there are many technicians, myself included, who have plenty of work and sometimes have to turn work down.

Your final comment, "Speedy tuning might allow you to avoid rush hours, have more time with family, catch up on the sales and accounting, but I doubt that it brings in more CA$H", makes no sense at all. If a hardware store sells more "widgets" this week than they did last week they will make more money. If I tune five pianos I will make more money than if I only tune three.

Olek stated, "But , unless in terrible conditions , with too hard hammers, and played brutally, no piano will loose more than 2 Hz in a year if the tuner know what is firm pin and wire setting?"

Olek - I guess it depends on where you live. Here in New England (U.S.A.) it is not unusual to have temperature fluctuations of 20-30 degrees or more from one week to the next. The humidity level can also fluctuate quite a bit. A good quality, solidly tuned piano can easily change by 20 cents or more over a six month period of time. This is why many of us simply assume that most pianos will require a pitch raise pass prior to fine tuning. During the more humid summer months many need a pitch "lowering" pass. Yes, there are exceptions. But not many.

But Gerry, are not pianos indoor ?

we have a very forgiving climate here , but air moisture can lower a lot during winter ; less than 26% happen, those pianos do not loose pitch so much

I tune a Shimmel grand sitting literally "under the sun" in a veranda (gllass above and around) on the roof of the house;

that one , after a few years of regular tunings and pitch reinstal, need a tuning once a year and sometime a little more, and I never find it with more than 2 Hz low, in fact I begun to float the pitch on that one so it may be 439 to 441 , but do not lower constantly at that point. (that was the one where the key cover did unglue because of too much warmness when the piano was played, if it can gives you an idea of the hardness of conditions )

The principle is that strings are kept in their elastic condition, apparently even strong heat do not make them deform after some time.

(I had some years with pitch rises indeed, but I also changed a bit my pin / wire setting process)

so the main variable is the soundboard shape, and I think in extreme conditions the soundboard my settle after some time.

Now this is a not too small grand, the very small pianos may have work happening in the case and structure and may be reacting more, I am talking of normal size verticals or grands.

In that music school without hyggrometric control and overly strong heating during winter, I experimented about 2hz motion in the studios (small Yamahas verticals)
the grands keep their pitch way more, and I have seen them after 14 months without tuning (for administrative reasons)
they where still playeable for lessons.

lowering pitch because the place is so cold ? I think I would not do that assuming I have to tune a few months later...

lowering pitch because of high humidity ? I would choose a lower medium pitch as a rule.

even with 2 passes there is no stable tuning when lowering pitch. one must tune again next day or a few days later.

Regards

Another advantage is that the one hour (or less) tuning takes less time out of the day of busy customers. It's less invasive and even though it's music to my ears, customers might like a little less of our steady drumming one or two notes at a time.

this is not the best argument, I think it apply if you are the regular tuner and the job can be done in that reduced time frame.

if not, a decent work is still considered 1:15 hour, whic is not that long.

tuning neglected pianos is another story. Often the customers that did remind that they paid more than the usual price, try another tuner next time, then call back as the resulting musicality differs (often)

I explain them that a neglected piano will not be at its best only with a few hours work so they are willing to pay a little more for some tunings.

But I am attentive to leave the instrument in an acceptable musical condition; some of those old pianos still exhibit some qualities ; well hidden sometime, but some basic regulation, voicing and tone building makes often good surprises.

A cnew customer told me his friend said him to call me but "not expect the piano to be tuned" ! They know why they are calling for , at least a little.

On recent instruments there are here enough good tuner.techs to maintain them in shape with not excessive time spend. Not to say I do not work on them but more for customers expectiong "more" than a tuning (because the usual tuner have a limited time frame even if purposedly asking)

Some customers prefer you to get in and out quickly. Tuning is not a melodically pleasant sound to all. It can be annoying. Tink - tink - tink- tink- tink- tink- tink....

Because of a perfect storm, I recently was tuning 9 pianos a day in PEI.

For me, the best way to be able to tune fast is to learn how to tune with ultra high accuracy. Then, a fast tuning that is a little less accurate than an ultra high tuning, is still a good tuning.

For me, I always have a minimum aural quality that I strive for. I always try to make it higher than the customer's expectation, no matter the time taken.

Hi Mark,

I understand your concern.

I can tell you that I use this method often and specifically, grands pulling up at 3:00. When I return to these pianos months later, the unisons are still clean.

Consider that the band of tension differences across the upper termination point, UTP, (v-bar, agraffe, capo d'astro, etc) is much wider than we think, thereby allowing for some NSL tension drift, especially if you leave it high.

According to my tests, the range of tension differences across the UTP, is 20 cents. (No way for me to measure it in lbs but I think it could be calculated)

20 cents is huge, large enough to allow for pin untwisting, IMO.

tink tink tink is finished for me; that was boring indeed.

Often the customer stay and listen or say at some point "I UNDERSTAND" what you are doing !

That is more pleasing than knowing I am making much repetitive noise.

If what I am perceiving is not perceived by the owner I am a little off subject I think (tactile return is not really perceived if you do not play, but when the touch is nice and consistent, the variations of enveloppe or projection are perceived by someone standing near)

Anyway, any time I ask if the sound of tuning is boring, I have denegative comments.