Piano-Tuner

Job overview
Piano tuners, apart from tuning pianos, repair mechanical defects in pianos, repair barrel organs and service accordions.

What do people do in this job?
Before they can tune a piano, tuners need to determine if the piano needs any mechanical repairing.

They may have carry out the following repairs:

• The felt-covered hammers which strike the steel strings and are held in position by brass pins, can wear out if the piano has been used a lot and, due to the vibrations, reproduce bad sound quality.If so, they will have to be replaced or scoured off
• The tuning pins - the pins to which the strings are attached - sometimes have to be replaced with a thicker set of pins.
• Piano-tuners may also have to replace or scour off the keys, or bleach and treat them with peroxide to regain the original colour.
• When one of the steel strings of the piano breaks, it has to be replaced by a steel wire of the same measurement.

After piano-tuners have cleaned and repaired the piano, they can start to tune it.

The equipment used by piano-tuners to tune a piano consists of tuning-forks, hammers and felt wedges which are pressed between the strings.

For visually handicapped tuners their hands and hearing are the most important aids as their hands must direct them through many wires and pins with which a sighted person has little difficulty.

These tuners will normally count from a specific point to find the pin they are looking for.

What kinds of people are suitable for this job?
Prospective piano-tuners must have a reasonable musical aptitude, although it is not necessary for them to be able to play the piano.

The visually handicapped piano-tuners must be attentive and able to concentrate intensely on their work.

Each part that they take out of the piano must be marked and put aside in such a way that they can easily find it again.

Piano-tuners also need to have a great deal of patience and determination.

What qualifications are needed?
There are no set qualifications.