![]() In short, have to recalibrate at every step. With a chromatic tuner you can tune just about anything, You can use a chromatic tuner to tune a piano, but have to follow a certain procedure (already explained by me in another article). There are two basic types of electronic tuners, the chromatic ones (fairly inexpensive) and the specially dedicated for tuning the pianos used by professionals in general, as we said before, quite dear. The only drawback is its high price and therefore the difficulty to make them worth unless you tune many pianos. However, during the last decade or so, have appeared a new generation of much more accurate electronic tuners and computer programs.Īlthough I always been in favor of aural tuning, (still I am) have to admit that thes days is possible to tune a piano to a reasonable good standard with an electronic tuner. Tuning a piano with an electronic device never has been completely accepted by the community of piano tuners, specially the senior ones, as it was consider poor quality and unprofessional sort of piano tuning. In the world of piano tuning, this current topic has been around for quite a while. With so many pressures on resources, it is understandable that piano maintenance gets deferred.Īll this may help you to see why no-one earns a full-time living with piano work on the West Coast of Scotland.Ĭompare these figures with the published national teacher salary for a teacher at the top of the scale (like me) and you will see why when more than one option is available, for me piano work, however enjoyable, has to take second place.Why learning how to tune a piano aurally when you can use an electronic piano tuner device or a piano tuning software? Aural piano tuner versus electronic piano tuner, what is best? Since the 2008 recession, Councils (with some exceptions) no longer provide this, and leave it to schools to maintain the pianos from their own school budgets. This work was put out to tender and provided "bread and butter" work for tuners. ![]() Even if possible, an overnight B&B stay would be needed as it's impossible to travel there, tune three or four pianos and travel back all in the same day, especially in the months of short daylight hours.Ĭompare all this with somewhere like, say, Hampshire in the South of England, where almost 1.4 million people live within a relatively small radius, with many populous towns an easy drive away.Īn additional factor is that Councils used to have school and other pianos tuned faithfully twice a year, from central budgets. Factor in fuel costs, tyre wear and a £22 ferry fare, and earnings become very substantially below the minimum national wage, for carrying out work which requires great skill, knowledge and concentration.īecause of low population density, it is not often possible to arrange three or more tunings in the same area. That's slightly less than the National Minimum Wage. That adds up to an 8-hour day for a single tuning.Īn average tuning fee in 2023 is around £80 more in London. Allow two hours for tuning, a reasonable time for rural pianos maybe less frequently maintained. So, 6 hours of a day just driving to and from the job. That's 110 miles away from Gourock, and the journey takes about 3 hours. Someone asks about a tuning in, say, the Highland town of Fort William. Let's imagine a piano technician based, like me, in Gourock. There are few population centres - Glasgow is the only large city - and towns are spread far apart. The West of Scotland poses special problems for making a living from piano work. The cost and viability of a Pitch Raise can be discussed when assessing the piano. They are then fine tuned at the right pitch. The strings are tuned sharp by a calculated amount, from where they settle back to approximately the right place. This is a "two-pass" tuning effectively a double tuning. When a piano hasn't been tuned for a long time, it is likely to have dropped below Concert Pitch (the international standard in which the A above Middle C is at 440Hz).Ī piano substantially below Concert Pitch requires a Pitch Raise to get it properly in tune at the correct pitch. ![]() Special rates are available for schools and other institutions with multiple pianos. Additional charges apply for long distances.
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