The Value of Being a Piano Tuner

Have you ever wondered if your job is valuable? “Isn’t there something else I should be doing for my career?” you might have thought to yourself. “I’m sure I can be making more money, or have a higher profile job, or change the world in some (grandiose) way.” I have had these thoughts. When I meet those who appear to have more than me, sometimes I have gotten down on myself for “just being a piano tuner.”

But let’s turn the tables for a minute and look through a new lens.

Who is our customer? The hopeful mother. The nervous student. The anxious accompanist. The frustrated musician who is trying to create music but is ripped out of their flow because of that one double-striking key! They might even be able to tell that the piano is out of tune. But whether they can or can’t they know something is wrong. And if that something is not quite right it inhibits them from being able to enjoy their piano; to create music. If they can’t enjoy their piano, they stay away from it. If they stay away from it, the opportunity to receive the JOY from playing is gone at that moment. If they can’t find the joy from playing, they may even feel barred from having the opportunity to connect to God and to receive personal inspiration and revelation for their life.

Music is powerful. I don’t think there is one person on planet earth who does not feel the power of music from the very time they are born to the very moment we are standing on death’s doorstep. WE FEEL MUSIC! We remember things from our past, experiences that were impactful in our lives when we hear certain sounds.

Now think about how frustrating it is to sit down at a piano that doesn’t work right. “Ug, that pedal squeaks again!” – it frustrates the musical experience. A note doesn’t play as quickly as you want it to – it makes you mad. There’s a ding on the piano, and it frustrates you to look at it, so you don’t even want to sit down and play the thing!

When the piano looks beautiful, you want to look at it. If it draws you in, you want to sit down and be close to it, to enjoy how it looks. If the keys look and feel beautiful, you want to touch them. When you touch and depress the keys, which even the most beginner of us can do, a sound comes out. If that sound is ugly, in spite of how beautiful the piano may appear, that ugly sound stops your musical experience. You don’t want to play anymore. Your ability to feel joy in that moment is damned, stopped dead in its tracks. Days, weeks, months or perhaps even years go by without being able to enjoy your piano.

You are finally able to secure an appointment with your top rated piano technician. They come out, greet you with a smile, then proceed to fix that ugly sound and repair that squeaky pedal.

You once again sit down because the piano is calling to you. You love how it looks. You love how it feels. You love how it sounds – and now the pedals finally work right! You are now enjoying a musical experience…

Do you think this beauty happens spontaneously? The beautiful touch, tone and appearance? It does not!

As piano technicians, we have the ability, YOU have the ability, to serve your clients and to bring their piano to a level that draws them in. You, as a piano technician, have the ability to make that piano sound good, to feel good and to look good – you have the ability to bring JOY to your clients.

Because of you the musician is able to open themselves up to experience joy and to connect with God on a level that they never perhaps even realized previously…all because of YOU! Even if you don’t believe in God – call it the Universe, call it your “sixth sense”, call it whatever you will. If you have the ability to play music, to play any sound on a piano that draws you in visually, that draws you in by the touch, that draws you in by the tone, you will experience JOY. You will experience inspiration. You will experience guidance in your life that could change your life.

This is the value of being a piano tuner.

So, you see, remember and know that “just being a piano tuner” is NO SMALL THING. It is so simple, yet incredibly powerful.

Now go out and serve your people, and be proud to call yourself a piano tuner!

-Duncan Peterson

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