Diversity in Piano Tech

Photo by Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels

This blog post was adapted from an email correspondence between NolaPiano owner Ryan Peterson and a young piano tuner in South Carolina.

I am always glad to meet other young piano techs, especially ones who are cognizant of the growing issues we collectively face in 2021.

I wrote a blog post a few years ago that touched on the lack of diversity in the piano tech industry in the US. That short blurb was a result of the frustration I felt over my years tuning in the US, watching the spread of the #MeToo movement as well as rampant racial injustice perpetrated by police. As I looked around at the industry around me, I started to worry.

Basically, during my time actively tuning in New Orleans, I noticed that piano technicians (in the US) as a whole are a fairly homogeneous bunch. Of all the tuners I met at various PTG meetings and through personal interaction, the vast majority were white men over the age of 45. This is in a city that is 60% Black, 52% women, and half of all businesses are owned by BIPOC. In my time there, I met a single woman tuner, who was also one of 3 tuners in town below the age of 45 (including me). I did meet several other young people who were learning the trade, (some of them women, all of them white) but as far as I know all of them have since moved on to other professions.

I consider this to be a huge problem for a few different reasons:

1. On the topic of people of color working in classical music, I consider it to be an absolute travesty that in a place as brimming with musical talent as New Orleans, where the black kid who plays the sousaphone in the marching band is more fervently worshipped than the quarterback of the high school football team, that an entire genre of music is still not seen as an option for kids in this community. In the place that spawned world-class Black pianists like Jelly Roll Morton, James Booker, and Jon Batiste, the fact that area schools are not using these musical revolutionaries to show kids their potential in the field is disheartening. I believe that the path toward diversity in the piano technician field starts with improving access to the piano itself in these communities. I can only assume that the situation is far worse outside of the musical Eden that is New Orleans.

2. On the topic of women working in technical trades, despite the attempted refutation of many male technicians, women still face huge barriers to entry into a mechanical field such as ours. Whether it be on claims of physical strength, sexual harassment and power dynamics in master-apprentice relationships, or facing old stereotypes about the ability of women to do technical work. On top of that there is also an extreme lack of women role models in the field. There exists a chicken-or-the-egg problem of "Well, if there is no-one who looks like me already in this field, it must just not be for me."

According to Zippia, the level of diversity in the piano repair field has either stayed the same or slightly decreased in several metrics since 2010. BIPOC classical musicians report regularly facing hurdles that their white counterparts do not. And while representation of Asian and Pacific Islanders in orchestras has been trending upward, other ethnic groups are still vastly underrepresented.

I have previously attempted to approach this issue in the piano technicians listserv (pianotech@googlegroups.com), and was each time met with an outright denial that the issue exists. I have since given up on that approach and resigned myself to the fact that said listserv is just an old-boys club and is not interested in confronting the flaws in their industry in a way that would bring it into a new age.

One thing that does give me hope is that over the past few years while I haven't been actively working as a piano technician, many people around the US, Europe, and Canada have contacted me through my blog, and I have found this subset of tuners to be astoundingly diverse. As such, I have been doing what I can to encourage them and help them stay the course and prevent this profession from fading into old white obscurity.

I believe apprentice programs are a huge piece to this puzzle. This is not an easy industry to break into for anyone, especially with the old-timers vehemently holding on to the status quo that has and still benefits them, for fear of losing control over their hand-full of zip codes. This is a losing battle as we all drown in the death of the analog piano. In my opinion, the best way for this industry to survive the digitization of society is to make both the artistic and the mechanical sides of the piano more accessible to all people, regardless of age, race, gender, or social status.

Anyways, that's my rant for now. I'm curious to hear my readers’ takes on this topic.

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A Long Overdue Update

Taichung Zhongshe Flower Garden - photo from elinchow.blogspot.com

Hello dear readers,

My apologies for going almost two years without a new blog post. I’ve got a good reason I swear! Last July my now-wife and I got married and promptly escaped the current pitiful state of affairs in America to the relative paradise of Taiwan.

Although I did bring a few piano tools here, I have only used them a few times, as most of my time has been dedicated to studying Mandarin.

All this is just to say, I’m taking a break from the piano industry and so have also taken a break from my writing. However, I have been thinking a lot lately about the general state of the industry in America and how it is (or isn’t) adapting to to modern society. Specifically in the realms of gender, age, and racial disparity. There might possibly be new blog posts in this vein in the near future, so stay tuned.

Otherwise, my wife and I plan to return to the states in Fall 2020, so expect to see technical posts resume sometime shortly after.

-Ryan

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Brave Payments Update

Hello Readers!

Just wanted to give a little public service announcement; www.nolapiano.com is now a Verified Brave Payments Publisher!

This means that by browsing my website using the Brave web browser, you can automatically make small monetary contributions in exchange for the quality content and ad-free experience that you get on nolapiano.com.

This type of support will allow me to continue creating a unique and valuable piano tech blog for anyone to enjoy.

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How to Deep Clean an Upright Piano

It is not at all unusual for me to open up a client's upright piano in preparation for tuning only to discover a thick layer of dust, a handful of pencils, old business cards, and assorted trinkets that have somehow fond their way into the piano cabinet.  The enormity of dust bunnies contained inside an old upright can horrify the unsuspecting.  This is an area of the home that can go decades without being exposed to daylight.  Although the inside of an upright piano is rarely seen, this kind of debris inside the piano can adversely affect your piano's function. Because of this, I recommend a yearly deep clean of any upright piano.

If your piano is particularly dusty, I highly recommend wearing a dust mask or respirator.  If you find any rodent droppings in your piano, please read my post about Hantavirus before continuing.

No two upright piano models will disassemble in exactly the same way, but most tend to come apart in the following sequence:

Lift the lid.  Some pianos will have a hinged half-lid like this one.  Some will have a hinged full lid that you can lean against the wall behind the piano.  Very occasionally, I will come across one that has the lid hinges at one end of the cabinet, instead of in the back.  Often times upright lids will have a small "catch" that will require you to give a firm pull upward on the lid in order to pop it loose.

The front panel of the piano can now be removed.  Both the left and right sides of the cabinet will have either a protruding metal pin covered by a small wooden latch, or a protruding screw secured by a small metal latch.  Open the latch and tilt the front panel toward you.  Grab it by both ends and lift it out the piano.

Some studio uprights won't have any latches.  The front panel of these pianos will simply lift up and out of the cabinet.

Using a vaccum, remove any accumulated dust from on top the the hammers and dampers.  You can also vacuum around the tuning pins.

The next step is where there will be the most variation between pianos.  A spinet piano may be sufficiently disassembled for deep cleaning at this point, while an older studio upright may still have several steps to go.  If you can vacuum the tops of and in between the keys, you have disassembled far enough.  If not, you will need to remove more cabinet parts.  

Some large upright have a decorative column on each end.  Remove the two large screws holding these columns to the cabinet, and set the columns aside.

The next part to remove is what I like to call the "sill".  This is the horizontal board just above the fallboard (the piece that covers the keys when the piano isn't in use).  This will also often be secured with a large screw on each end. Remove the screws and remove the sill.

No matter what kind of upright you have, you should at this point be able to see the full lengths of the keys and be able to remove any debris that has accumulated on top of them.

The next step is to remove the lower panel.  This is usually secured with one or two metal springs. The piano in the photo actually uses a wooden spring.

Push upward on the spring(s) and pull the lower panel towards you.

Once the lower panel is removed, run the vacuum along the strings, bridges, and hitch pins. 

Remove any large debris from the bottom board of the piano and continue vacuuming around the pedal brackets and into the corners of the cabinet.

That's it!  Re-assemble the cabinet and your piano can play smoothly for another year

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How to Amplify a Piano

I recently tuned a baby grand piano for a local, well-known performance art venue. The venue was about to host a multiple Grammy Award winning artist, and called me in to tune and check over the piano. The piano wasn’t in the greatest shape, but the tuning went smooth enough. As I was finishing, an employee of the venue walked over to the piano with a vocal microphone in hand, stuck the mic in a random spot inside the piano, and asked me to play something so that they could sound check.

I looked at him quizzically, played a quick tune, and then started to gather my things. Before I left, I found my contact person at the venue and attempted to explain to him that “That…. is not how you mic a piano.” I gave him a few tips and left. I returned later that night to see the show and was wholly unsurprised that anything outside a small range in the treble section was practically inaudible, not to mention being able to hear the vibration of the plate that was being transferred directly to the mic.

A piano is a very difficult instrument to amplify well. There are many reasons for this. Pianos are not built with amplification in mind; they work best as a solo instrument in small to meduim size spaces. When playing along with other instruments or in very large spaces, the sound of an acoustic piano can very easily be lost.

The area that a piano’s sound is emanated from is almost as large as the piano itself. There is no obvious placement for a microphone like there would be for a guitar or a trumpet. Additionally, high and low frequencies are located at opposite ends of the instrument and cannot both be captured well by a single mic. During performances with other amplified instruments, the piano, even at close range, may be quieter than the ambient noise in the room which will basically cause any acoustic microphone to amplify the room instead of the piano.

I am not a sound engineer so I won't get into all of the ways that professionals amplify their pianos, but many other piano technicians that I’ve spoken to recommend the Helpinstill piano microphone. This system utilizes multiple magnetic sensor bars placed in close proximity to the strings that act similar to an electric guitar pickup. This system results in zero feedback and clear sound from the full length of the keyboard.

Since a Helpinstill system is not cheap, it can be cost prohibitive to install one. Luckily, there are plenty of resources out there describing ways to get good sound out of a piano using a type of microphone you are more likely to already own. This website has an almost-overwhelming amount of information on the subject.

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