CAUT

  • 1.  Student workers?

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 04-19-2023 10:18

    Do you have student workers in your Piano Tech Dept?
    If so, what are some of the duties they help with?
    We are hiring some student workers for the summer and fall.  But that all stopped in 2020.  So, I'm writing up a new work schedule for new students who want to hire into our Dept.  Besides fixing benches, cleaning practice-room pianos, scheduling studio tunings, and refilling DC tanks, what are some of the regular duties they can help with for about 5-10 hours per week?
    FYI, this is not an apprenticeship program.  I'm not teaching them anything about tuning, rebuilding, or regulating.  Just worker-bees to help with maintaining the dept.  

    Any input would be helpful.



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    Dave Foster, RPT
    Michigan State University
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  • 2.  RE: Student workers?

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 04-19-2023 11:04
    I don't know if this would fall under piano worker's responsibility, but the practice rooms at UNF are always a mess. In addition to cleaning the keys, and making sure the water tanks are filled, and the DC are plugged in and working, could the students clean the rooms, too? Not just the trash on the floor and the pianos but move the pianos away from the wall and remove trash from behind the piano. 

    Wim





  • 3.  RE: Student workers?

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 04-19-2023 11:58
    Hi, Dave,

    I don’t know if you have a shop there. At CSU Long Beach, we had a sizable shop that I shared with the instrument tech. That opens up so many other possibilities, and not just cleaning the shop. Students used to use our buffing and de-burring machines to polish pedals and pedal rods, sort things like screws and parts, and so on. They were limited due to liability from using any large machinery like saws and drills, but with supervision, could use some others. They could assist with taking inventory in the shop. They could strip parts from an action rail that was about to get new parts, box and label the old parts, and the like.

    They were “instrumental” in double-checking our inventory sheets, making sure that pianos and serial numbers in rooms matched those on the inventory. More than once, a student caught a typo that would have made us look bad in the surprise audits. I occasionally had them re-sort benches in practice rooms, since those seemed to move about on a regular basis.

    I know they aren’t studying to be piano technicians, but on one occasion, purely as an experiment, I went around to about 10 practice room upright pianos, tuned center strings and left a muting strip in, taught them how to hold a hammer, and had them pull in all the unisons. It wasn’t too bad! And the student said it was “kinda fun”.

    Just some other ideas.

    Kathy




  • 4.  RE: Student workers?

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 04-20-2023 09:22

    HI-

    I have to say I'm impressed if you successfully used students to schedule studio tunings...  I just had to do that myself. I wouldn't have trusted them to repair benches either, but sent those to one of the guys in the carpenter shop.  I get that the students are busy but in our situation we were lucky to have one student who would reliably keep the DC systems filled. For a while we had them cleaning keys but that wasn't too reliable either.  I like the idea of having them check inventory lists to confirm serial numbers, and wish I had thought about that.  I tried to get one with computer skills to help refine the data base, but that never materialized.  Good luck---

    Dennis Johnson



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    Dennis Johnson, R.P.T.
    St. Olaf College
    Music Dept.
    Northfield, MN 55337
    sta2ned@stolaf.edu
    (507) 786-3587
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  • 5.  RE: Student workers?

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 04-20-2023 09:35
    When I was at Alabama, I had a female student help me move a couple of pianos. All of the practice room uprights had been neglected for years. So I brought each one, one at a time, into my shop for a complete make over. I made a block of wood that would fit under one end of the piano. I lifted it up and she would put the block under the piano. Then I would lift up the other end and she put the dolly under the piano. Then I would roll it down the hall to my shop, and she would open the doors. 

    I guess even that much work was too much for her, because after 3 moves, she told me she couldn't help me anymore because she was on her period. That was the last time I hired students to help me. (sigh). 

    Wim





  • 6.  RE: Student workers?

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 04-20-2023 17:18

    Hi Dave,

    I'm wondering why you would not want to introduce shop work, simple regulation, and some basic tuning skills to your students.  I do understand that there is a significant time commitment to train, but we have found the investment worth it with the right students.  It does not take much to discern interest and aptitude, which we do during the hiring process.  Finding students who are interested in learning the trade can be challenging, but you end up hiring motivated learners, as opposed to underpaid worker bees who will leave for the first job that pays more.  Speaking of pay, the Federal Work Study program is a significant financial resource. Most work 12-15 hours per week. Not all our student workers go beyond the simple projects, but they lighten the load and are enjoyable to be around. Occasionally one will not work out and we part ways.  Some rise to the occasion and become great entry level technicians.  To date, 5 of our previous student workers are in the beginnings of or are already established in successful careers.

    Rick



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    Rick Florence RPT
    Gilbert AZ
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  • 7.  RE: Student workers?

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 04-21-2023 00:38
    I second what Rick Florence said. At BYU we had many students who ended up with careers in piano technology. Some are top level technicians, like Jason Cassel, Hyrum Weibell, and others. It’s only about an hour per week training, and some follow up.







    Sent from my iPhone




  • 8.  RE: Student workers?

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 04-21-2023 01:21
    Rick and Jim's experience reveals what is a hidden secret within PTG-the college and university environment and influence. I've had student workers who went on to have extremely successful careers. But there's more to it than that. Although I went to Western Iowa Tech to get started, I had to improve my chops when I took the University of Nebraska gig. My own training and abilities were stretched and improved far beyond what I thought I could ever accomplish. I was in a position to help other technicians and saw many work hard to pass their RPT exams and build successful private careers. There's nothing more rewarding than that.

    University influence in our profession often goes under appreciated and unrecognized. As a result university work gets overlooked as a resource for generating and training people at about any stage of professional development.  Technicians who apply for university work don't always understand what they are getting into. When they find themselves in over their heads, it's a sink or swim learning experience. For student workers and outside technicians, a university shop space provides educational opportunities unlike any other. 

    Anything PTG can do to encourage and support these educational communities would be of great service to PTG and piano service in general.

    Richard West





  • 9.  RE: Student workers?

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 04-22-2023 07:31
    Can I get an " Amen" to Richard's post? For me, I found out about piano technology because Moody offered a class in it, but access to such a class is spotty around the country. However, there are Colleges and Universities all over the country, members of NASM, who have a vested interest in having access to good piano technicians that want the opportunity to get better while working on quality instruments. I have always thought of NIU as a Piano Tech lab where I could try out new ideas from the piano world. Some worked, some blew up 4 minutes after launch. All are learning experiences, and last I checked, the point of a school is for all involved to learn, including faculty, staff and administrators, not just the students.
    The Introduction to Piano Technology course I am teaching next Fall at NIU is one way to pique student's interest, and pass on some knowledge gained in 40+ years. Out of that, I hope to get a group that will dig into learning how they can become piano techs. I would certainly want some of those students, while they are studying, to do work around the music building, including cleaning, string repair and replacement, touching up unisons of new strings.
    I do want to repeat my request from some time ago for any ideas any of you might wish to share of things I should try to cover in the introductory course. Once the final details of the class and its syllabus are complete, I will put a link on CAUT so any interested in this endeavor can check it out. I hope this effort at NIU can spawn similar efforts around the country, so a new generation of piano techs can start filling needs at all levels of the piano world.

    David Graham
    Graham Piano Service, Inc.
    512 S. Main St.
    Sycamore IL 60178
    815-353-5450