RSSMay 2024 Chapter Meeting
Apr 19
Chapter Meetings Comments Off on May 2024 Chapter Meeting
Technical Program:
TBD
Date: Tuesday, April 14, 2024
Time: 7:00 pm
Location:
TBD
Description:
April 2024 Chapter Meeting
Apr 05
Chapter Meetings Comments Off on April 2024 Chapter Meeting
Technical Program:
PianoSens: New technology in electronic tuning — Innovative piano string sensor for ETD’s.
Seven Norsworthy
Date: Tuesday, April 9, 2024
Time: 7:00 pm
Location:
Zoom Meeting
Description:
An overview and demonstration of the PianoSens electronic tuning sensor
2024 Southeast Regional Conference Review
Mar 12
Journal Comments Off on 2024 Southeast Regional Conference Review
** Draft copy of upcoming PTG Journal Article **
2024 Southeast Regional Conference Review
By Michael Pitts, Indianapolis IN Chapter
You never know where you might end up. In my case, I’ve moved from over 30 years in information technology (IT) to deciding to start a second career as a piano technician.
I have a small musical resume: Growing up in a musical family (my Mom played piano for church), I started piano lessons starting at age five and played saxophone from fifth grade through college. So, I have had music in most of my life. In early 2023, I made the choice to “Live a consistently musical life!” (credit to Adam Maness of Open Studio for stating this on the “You’ll Hear It” podcast) and started playing piano again. By December, I found myself wanting something different than IT work and fell into the idea of becoming a piano technician.
In January 2024, I started my piano technician journey by signing up with the Piano Technicians Guild, starting the online Piano Tuning and Repairs course from the Piano Technician Academy (PTA), attending an all-day PACE Repairs workshop organized by the St. Louis MO chapter, and getting a 1918 Thompson Piano, built in Chicago, free from Facebook Marketplace, to work on.
While looking through the educational materials on the PTG website, I found the Events page, which listed the Southeast Regional Conference (SERC) in Jacksonville, Florida, and thought it would be very valuable in starting my training due to the number of classes and other interesting activities. I was intrigued by Maggie Jusiel, RPT’s classes on “Music Theory for Piano Tuners,” Tim Barnes, RPT’s class on Gazelle, and the hands-on activities in the PTG Playground. I jumped in head-first, getting flights, hotel room, and solidifying plans to attend.
After landing in Jacksonville and getting checked into my room, I met Wim Blees, RPT, who was pleased to see a first timer. The next day, early in the morning after breakfast, I met John Parham, RPT, who was part of group leading the PTG Playground, and who encouraged me to complete as many stations as possible. On Parham’s advice, I changed my morning schedule to stay in the Playground until lunch. I ended up completing six stations, including Creating Tuning Coils, String Splicing, and the Vertical Damper stations.
After lunch, I attended the class, “Preparing for the PTG Written Exam,” with Ricki Klos, RPT. This discussion helped get information on what information I need to be studying as foundational material and basics as a piano technician.
At the end of the first day, I saw an overview of the Gazelle software with RPTs Tim Barnes and Luke Ehresman. As an IT guy, I was very impressed with the platform Tim and Luke have developed to assist in documenting customer data, and especially the automated notifications about next tuning and appointment reminders. For a first day, I had a wonderful time digging into technical hands-on tasks, foundational piano technician study, and how to think about customer interactions though a software platform.
For day two, I spent my morning with Maggie Jusiel, and her class, “Music Theory/Applications for Piano Tuning.” This class was broken up into two sessions, with the first half more theory, and the second practical applications. Some of Maggie’s presentation brought back my college engineering courses from years ago, which talked about frequency, harmonics, and nodes. We next moved into partial sequences and how partials match up in octaves, fifths, fourths, etc. During the second half, I learned about how to use the coincidental partial comparisons as aural tuning tools that Maggie expanded upon. This method uses check notes to compare the beat speeds between intervals, i.e., M3 to M10, m3 to M6, etc.
By the end of the two sessions, my brain was full of music theory and coincidental partials. While I’ll need to go back and review this many times, Maggie’s classes gave me a wealth of information about tuning and the aural tuning tools to use to get to a solid tuning.
After lunch and letting my brain cool down from music theory, I went back to the Playground to continue my hands-on activities. I completed four more stations, including Hitch Pin Loops, Vertical Action Aftertouch, Measuring Bass Strings, and the second Vertical Damper Adjustment station. I really enjoyed working through the station on hitch pin loops, which utilized electrical wire to practice making the make the coils tail correctly. The station on making tuning pin coils was also very helpful.
Day three started with Wim Blees’s discussion about pitch raising, and what is/is not a pitch raise. I especially enjoyed his description of a comparison of two pianos. One needed a basic tuning and the other needed a pitch raise. The test was to see how the pitch raise would hold over time after a single tuning compared to the regular tuning on the other piano. Wim’s results with the two pianos were fascinating. Not only did the pitch raise hold, it even held after the piano was moved to a new house.
Right before lunch, I went back to the PTG Playground to complete the Grand Aftertouch and Grand Damper Alignment stations. I spent the most time on the Grand Damper Alignment station, the last station for me, and it was fascinating to see what wire bends and rotational alignments were needed to get the damper to move smooth and straight. Part 1 wasn’t too bad’ only slight adjustments to the wire to get it aligned. However, Part 2 needed a full overhaul. The Playground leads had mis-bent the damper wire everywhere. These were extremely challenging to get back into shape.
In Emily Townsend, RPT’s class, “The Comma of Pythagoras,” we delved into partials, interval relationships, and why some intervals are tuned wide and some narrow. The class listened to three recording of the same music and had to guess which was equal temperament, quarter meantone, or Prelleur’s temperament. The tonalites were very different, and it was great to hear different historical temperaments from the same performer/piece of music.
The highlight of the closing banquets was a piano performance by Dr. Erin Bennet from University of North Florida, whose program of Schubert, Price, and Reinhardt was dynamic and lyrical.
I can’t give enough to thanks to everyone that I met. I definitely want to thank Bill, John, Joel, and Dale in the PTG Playground. Their encouragements and quiet guidance were major highlights for me during the event. I can’t say enough good things about how much benefit the Playground gives, especially for someone new.
The SERC was a wonderful way to build new skills, learn new things, and most importantly, meet others on their own piano technician journey. While I have much to practice, the knowledge gained at the conference will build a strong foundation for my future piano technician career. Who knows where I might end up next — maybe in Reno Nevada at the PTG National Convention?
March 2024 Chapter Meeting
Feb 26
Chapter Meetings Comments Off on March 2024 Chapter Meeting
Technical Program:
“Glues, goo-es and Potions”: Chemicals – what goes where, and when?
Presented by Maria Pollock, RPT
Central East Regional Vice-President from Chicago
Date: Tuesday, Mar. 12, 2024
Time: 7:00 pm
Location:
Northside Baptist Church
3021 E. 71st Street
Indianapolis, IN 46220
Description:
An overview of the basic classes of glues, lubricants and solvents.
The class provides information of where to get chemicals, how to store them, and demonstrates how to safely handle and apply them.
** Please welcome Maria on her visit to our chapter – she has a great program planned on the chemicals we typically use on piano parts.
We plan to meet Maria for supper at 5:00 pm at Sahm’s Restaurant, 65th & Keystone Ave.
Chapter meeting begins at 7:00 pm. Hope many of you will attend.
February 2024 Chapter Meeting
Feb 09
Chapter Meetings Comments Off on February 2024 Chapter Meeting
Technical Program – Tools, what’s in your toolbox / tool bag? ** Show and Tell **
Date: Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024
Time: 7:00 pm
Location: First Church of Christ, Scientist
11580 Haverstick Rd, Carmel, IN 46033
- Bring your favorite tools – share your expertise.
- Do you need this tool? Does this tool really work? Don’t spend your money or yes it’s worth it.
- Have questions about tools?
- Which tools make your daily work easier?
- What tools are necessary to carry to the piano?
- Plus so much more to explore
January 2024 Chapter Meeting
Jan 20
Chapter Meetings Comments Off on January 2024 Chapter Meeting
Technical Program – Taxes
Date: Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024
Time: 7:00 pm
Location: Zoom
Taxes discussion lead by John Gallen
Service Manuals added
May 19
Service Resources Comments Off on Service Manuals added
I haven’t posted anything here for quite a while but we have some pdfs of service manuals from Steinway and Kawai that may be useful to you all. Click here