Not in some ivory tower, but from the people who do the work daily on the factory floor or in the concert hall.Īlso during this time I took the action from a World War I-era Hamburg Steinway B to David Stanwood's shop on Martha's Vineyard to learn his proprietary method of action balancing. There 3-5 piano technicians spend a week with an instructor learning Steinway's methods of tuning, regulation, damper installation and concert preparation. Going back to the same few pianos to keep the tuning, regulation and voicing in top shape day after day teaches a kind of patience and self-criticism available nowhere else.īesides learning to do rock-stable tunings at CCM, I also learned the craft of action rebuilding-replacing the hammers, refurbishing keys and wippens, and regulating and voicing in circles of refinement until the piano was not only playable again, but musically responsive, even beautiful.ĭuring this time I went away to one-week seminars at the Steinway factory in New York to complete the four sessions of the C F Theodore Steinway Technical Academy. There we spent about a third of our time preparing concert instruments for recitals and concerts. For 10 years I was one of two full-time piano technicians at the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). Later I again worked for Baldwin as the Cincinnati area service co-ordinator. factory in Cincinnati, bending grand piano rims around the gluing press. I have been playing the piano since third grade, and doing piano work since 1978, when I was hired at the Baldwin Piano & Organ Co.

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