PIANO TUNING AND REPAIR: STILL A GOOD CAREER FOR THE BLIND by Buddy Gray From the Editor: Buddy Gray is a member of the Tuscaloosa Chapter and the state board of directors of the National Federation of the Blind of Alabama. He is also a piano technician who is concerned that a good career opportunity is being overlooked by young blind people today. He and other piano technicians met at the NFB convention in New Orleans to discuss common problems, aspirations, and concerns. After the national convention he submitted the following article to the Braille Monitor: Long hours and determination have enabled the blind to venture into fields previously thought restricted to the sighted, but the piano technician career field (a lucrative, respectable, and public-oriented job) may be overlooked too often now as an employment opportunity for the blind. After tuning pianos for twenty years, I have a business that is steady and financially rewarding. Although the electronic music boom has decreased the sales of acoustic pianos somewhat, there are still millions of pianos to be tuned, repaired, or restored. At an average of $45 per tuning in less than an hour, this field can also be a very profitable part-time second job. A technician may set his own hours, own his own business, and thus determine how much money he makes. A well-trained technician needs only a few tools, transportation, and a driver who can assist with paperwork. Some married couples choose to work as a team, tuning and repairing. The skills needed are fine-tuned. Not everyone can hear the difference between right in tune and a little off pitch. Few people (sighted or blind) can put their fingers right on the troublesome part of the hundreds of parts inside a piano. It requires practice, but once you have been properly trained, you will immediately win the respect of a large portion of the human race--music lovers. Perhaps the most important aspect of the piano technician's job is the public contact. People still respect hard work. The blind technician says to the public that he is willing to pull his own weight. Plus, traveling from house to house is an opportunity to meet children who can be influenced early in life to look past blindness. It is also a chance to meet community leaders who can put issues important to the blind before the public. Although we always want to strive for bigger and better lives for the blind, let us not be too proud to consider a career as a piano technician simply because it is a traditional career for the blind. Schools for the blind and rehabilitation centers should take a hard look at this career and ask why a field once dominated by the blind is now becoming a sighted career, while the blind are unemployed or assigned to menial tasks. If anyone is interested in becoming a tuner or piano technician, please contact Buddy Gray or Amye Rice at Buddy Gray Music Center in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, at (205) 345-1296. [PHOTO/CAPTION: The Visually Impaired Piano Tuners International conducted a meeting at the 1991 convention of the National Federation of the Blind. Stanley Oliver, the president of the group, is pictured here seated at the head table. Al Sanchez (standing) is a long-time leader of the NFB of Washington and director of the Emil Fries Piano Hospital and Training Center in Vancouver.] WORLD BLIND TUNERS MARCH TOGETHER by Stanley Oliver The modern blind piano tuner commands one of the highest- earning fields among employed visually impaired. Thorough training and some mechanical skills are necessary. In 1988 a group of successful, determined tuners got together with a purpose in mind-- to preserve and enhance the long established field for newcomers. The Visually Impaired Piano Tuners International was accepted early this year as an active participant within the World Blind Union. Today it has some eighty members and correspondents scattered among several nations. Contacts range from Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Korea, Japan, Canada, England, and Spain to the U.S.S.R. Differences in language have not been an insurmountable problem. An increasing number of tuners use computer equipment to keep track of clients, send out reminder cards, etc. Voice synthesizers and screen readers are very much in the picture. A sizable number of colleges across the U.S. and Canada employ blind tuners for total care of large inventories of expensive instruments. The called-for skills of restringing, new hammer installation, regulation, voicing, and tuning to artists' standards are being done currently to the expressed satisfaction of many educational institutions, dealers, and concert halls. Learning the field well and being continuously updated is an absolute must. The finest school encompassing the technical and business areas needed to earn an excellent living is the Fries Piano Hospital and Training Center in Vancouver, Washington. Of some 200 graduates, some eighty-five percent are very successfully employed. This is a far cry from what regrettably often occurs--terminal rehabilitation and study without the dollar reward at the end. The recommended course could run some eighteen months. Much depends on the learning ability of the applicant. For full particulars, including a print and cassette catalog, contact the school at 2510 East Evergreen Boulevard, Vancouver, Washington 98661; phone (206) 693-1511. The Piano Technicians Guild (the 3,700-member professional body covering the piano field) has around one hundred blind craftsmen and includes all the world's major piano makers. The technical standards for membership are identical for every entrant. In its history, it has had a blind national president, executive director, regional vice presidents, and innumerable local chapter officers. The blind tuner is thoroughly accepted as a competitive equal. A monthly technical journal replete with detailed "how-to" articles is available from the PTG home office: 4510 Belleview, Suite 100, Kansas City, Missouri 64111; phone (816) 753-7747. The periodical is $85 annually and worth its weight in gold for its practical value. The 1992 convention of the Piano Technicians Guild takes place July 22-26 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Sacramento, California. We expect Bo Jung Lee, director of a tuning school, Seoul, Korea; and Enrique Perez Bazan, Madrid, Spain. Aids Unlimited, managed by Hal Bleakley, will have a large exhibit of some of their 300 devices useful for the blind homemaker. Visually Impaired Piano Tuners International is presently involved in updating the data on tuning, past and present, carried in the U.S. Department of Labor publication, Occupational Handbook. The PTG is the source closest to the rapidly changing economics in the field. VIPTI issues a cassette newsletter. If you are interested in entering the field, wish to correspond with tuners in foreign countries, or wish to become a member or exchange technical data, contact VIPTI, 1965 East Outer Drive, Detroit, Michigan 48234; phone (313) 891-9226.