Local piano tuners find a niche, even in high-tech world

David Huggins hit a key on the piano and winced.

“That is way, way out of tune,” he said.

He studied the movements of the keys and the pedals, and exposed the top and bottom of the upright piano to study its guts. Before long, he was at work tuning the piano, wielding a tool called a tuning hammer to adjust the tension of the piano’s strings  — and relying on a tuning fork and his ear to get the sound of each key just so.

In this age of iTunes, iPods and electronic keyboards, there’s still a place for the old-fashioned acoustic piano — and thus still a need for piano tuners.

“When the electronic keyboards came out, I think a lot of us old piano tuners were wondering if it was going to hurt our business,” said Larry Lohnes, who has been tuning pianos for more than three decades. “And it didn’t at all.”

Electronic keyboards have their benefits, Huggins said — they’re easily transportable, for example. “But people still like the piano. You cannot replace the sound that comes off the vibrating strings. You can’t duplicate the sound and the feel of a real piano.”

Huggins has been in the piano-tuning business for about eight years. Most of his clients are individuals, but churches and schools also offer fertile ground for piano tuners. A member of the Colorado Springs chapter of the Piano Technicians Guild, Huggins recently earned the title of registered piano technician after passing a series of guild examinations on piano maintenance, repair and tuning.

Piano technology is an unregulated trade, and a piano tuner is not required to be a guild member. For its roughly 4,000 members, though, the guild has set its own standards of quality. In addition to registered piano technicians, the guild has associate members who are either studying piano technology and working toward becoming a registered piano technician, or who are piano retailers, rebuilders, refinishers or other specialists who have an interest in piano technology but no desire or need to take it to the next level.

The guild’s Springs chapter has a dozen or so members. Huggins sees guild membership as a way to bring accountability into the field.

“If I walk into somebody’s house and I tune the piano and I walk out, how do they know I did a good job?” Huggins said. “With the guild, our philosophy is if I tune a piano and somebody from the guild walks in afterward and checks it, it’s a good job. We all help each other. We’ve got some guys who have been tuning 40, 50 years. I can call up any of them and ask them something.”

There’s a definite need for a new, younger wave of technicians to step into the business, said Allan Gilreath, president of the board of the Piano Technicians Guild.

“Many technicians, RPTs in particular, have more work that they can perform,” Gilreath said via e-mail. “Those music stores that are growing — and there are some even in today’s environment — are often looking for technicians.”

LEARNING THE TRADE

People train to be piano technicians through formal school programs, correspondence or self-study courses, and apprenticeships. Huggins was introduced to the field by Lohnes, got most of his training working at a piano store and honed his skills through the guild.

Lohnes began tuning pianos in the 1970s while stationed in Panama with the Air Force. He, in turn, learned the basics from another piano tuner.

“I had the ear because I’m a musician, so I took it from there,” said Lohnes, who spent 24 years in Air Force bands.

Though Lohnes turned over much of his piano tuning business to Huggins a few years ago, he describes himself as a retiring — but not retired — piano tuner.

“They keep calling me, so I’m going to keep tuning,” he said. “But I don’t do nearly as much as I used to.”

For Marguerite Lykes, piano tuning is a second career after spending more than 25 years in the hospitality industry, including serving as spa director at The Broadmoor. Her interest in piano technology was sparked when she bought an old piano and hired Huggins to tune it.

“He came to the house and starting taking it apart and I was like, ‘Oh my God, this thing comes apart.’ I couldn’t keep my head out of the piano because I wanted to understand how it all works.”

She chose a formal education as her entry into piano technology, enrolling in a year-long program at the North Bennett Street School in Boston. Lykes graduated in spring 2008 and now works part-time for Reblitz Restorations in the Springs while she gets her own business going.

“As with any business, it’s really slow trying to get started with your own clients,” she said. “You just have to be persistent.”

Most piano technicians are self-employed. That suits Huggins well; he’s a night owl who typically starts his workday in the afternoon and works into the evening.

Gordon Malik, president of the Springs chapter of the Piano Technicians Guild, also has his own business — and there’s good and bad in that, he said.

The good part, he said, “is I am my own boss. And the bad thing is, everybody is my boss.”

For Lohnes, the bad part over the years has been all the traveling required. “I probably know this town better than most policemen do,” he said.

The rewarding part?

“I know it sounds corny, but just making the piano sound good,” Lohnes said.

WHAT'S NEEDED

In making the piano sound good, a musical background is not required. Neither is the ability to play the piano.

Malik has a longtime passion for music and played multiple woodwinds for the Air Force Academy Band. But he doesn’t play the piano.

“I am a technician who can make the piano sound very good, play very fast,” he said, “but I leave it up to the pianist to make wonderful music.”

It helps to have a good ear. An electronic meter can help determine whether a piano is in tune, but neither Malik or Huggins use one.

“I try to stay pure,” Huggins said. “I start with a tuning fork and then go from there, comparing one note to another.”

Lykes does use a meter, but she relies on her ear as well.

“I like to use the electronic tuning device for speed, because you can do it a lot faster,” she said. “But then I like to listen to it and check it, because there’s kind of both an art and a craft to tuning. The craft, I suppose, is the accuracy. The art is listening and hearing. Does this sound the way a human being wants it to sound, as opposed to the way a mathematical formula designates it should sound?”

A tuner’s worst enemy is noise, Huggins said. Most people put their pianos in the living room right next to the kitchen, he said — and when people in the home start doing the dishes, rattling pans and clanking silverware as he’s working, it’s definitely not a help.

“My worst was when this lady started up a power saw in the next room,” he said.

Certain traits make for a good piano technician. Lykes mentions “a need to understand how things work.” Malik cites “the desire and the willingness to learn every day.”

The work can be tedious, Huggins said — but that’s not a problem for him.

“I’m a perfectionist, I’m anal-retentive. I have the patience of Job.”

Piano tuners, he said, are an overly helpful — and sometimes competitive — lot.

“How many tuners does it take to screw in a light bulb? One to put the bulb in, and four others to stand around claiming that their way would have been better.”

THE TRADE

Piano technicians are trained to tune, repair and adjust pianos
to improve their sound and touch.

The average yearly income for a full-time, experienced piano technician ranges from $35,000 to $75,000. Most piano technicians are self-employed. Some go into
the specialty area of reconditioning and rebuilding used pianos.

A core curriculum in piano technology includes tuning theory and terminology,
tuning procedures, action and tone regulation, business practices and piano
history and design.

Normal hearing, patience, average finger dexterity, general physical fitness
and a willingness to learn are needed in the field.

SOURCE: Piano Technicians Guild

STAYING IN TUNE

How often should you get your piano tuned? It depends on the environment, the piano and how often people play it, said registered piano technician David Huggins. But at least once a year is typical, he said. Concert pianos may require tuning before each performance.

The average cost of a regular piano tuning is less than $100, Huggins said. Gordon Malik, president of the Colorado Springs chapter of the Piano Technicians Guild, cautions that costs vary widely depending on the technician, the condition of the piano and other factors.

Similarly, how long it takes to tune a piano can vary drastically. “It takes about an hour and a half to do a normal tuning on a piano,” Huggins said. But sometimes he has been done in as little as 30 minutes while his record is nine hours, involving a piano that hadn’t been worked on in 20 or 30 years.

Changes in humidity are tough on a piano, making the wood of the piano expand and contract and affecting string tension. A constant 40 percent or so humidity is best, Malik said. Plants in the room can help boost the humidity in Colorado’s dry climate, he said. There also are piano humidity-control systems.

To learn about the field of piano technology and to locate a registered piano technician, see www.ptg.org, the Web site of the Piano Technicians Guild. Find the Colorado Springs guild chapter at www.cosptg.com.