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Brian Lawson, RPT

- Master Piano Technician from South Africa

PM: Does the "T" in RPT stand for Registered Piano Technician, or Tuner?

BL: When people ask me what I do and I say "I'm a Piano Technician" I then get, "oh, you're a piano tuner" - well, yes, but being a piano technician means I can do more than just tune. In my training some 20+ years ago I was taught how to strip a piano down and repair it and then rebuild it. So, yes, I am a Piano Technician.

PM: How did you get interested in your trade, how did you learn it? Who inspired you?

When I was about 8 years old my father, who was trained as a classical pianist in his early years, tried to teach me to play the piano, but gave up on me. He tried again later, when I was about 16, but again of little success. Around this time I was leaving school and my initial career choice (a TV studio cameraman) was stopped due to failing at the required exams. My father suggested I take a look at becoming a piano tuner, as I did have the interest in music and was mechanically adept from taking things apart and repairing them, making model construction kits etc.

My enquiries at the career office led me to applying at the then London College of Furniture where after an interview I was accepted. Their single most important criteria was hearing. I was tested for hearing high frequencies at different volumes. It was towards the end of 1977 that I began a 3 year college course being taught the basics of piano tuning and repairs. I say the basics, as even today I am still learning new techniques and ways to apply skills.

I graduated there in 1980 with City & Guilds certificates in Stringed Keyboard Instrument Manufacture - they look nice on my wall. I then spent 3 years at a London piano workshop where I re-learnt what I had been taught to get up to speed in doing things more efficiently.

After that I emigrated to South Africa. Being young, I wanted to leave rainy cold England for a sunnier place, the oppotunitiy arose and I left on an impulse. I live in South Africa to this day. I worked for various local piano dealers as an employee and it was only in the 1990's that I started off on my own. Since then I became a member of the PTG Piano Technicians Guild, MPT Master Piano Technicians (of America) and SAAPPT South African Association of Professional Piano Tuners (a relatively new local organization).

PM: Do you play the piano yourself?

BL: Well I don't. It is not a necessary skill to be able to play the piano so as to tune it. For instance, the aircraft mechanic doesn't have to fly a plane to fix it - or, F1 drivers are not supported by pit crews of failed drivers.

PM: What are the mechanics of piano tuning, the physics, the science behind it?

BL: As far as tuning itself, to answer "how do you tune a piano?" well there are some various answers to this, some are "the way I've been taught", or "from middle C", or "with a tuning lever"...

Actually a basic datum of piano tuning is that it is a process of comparing one frequency to another. Be it one string to another or one note to another, which in tuning an interval of a 4th, 5th and checking (comparing) those with associated 3rd's & 6th's.

Simply (for me anyway) I start at C (although some at A) and tune in a cycle of 4ths & 5th's. C down to G, D to A, A - E, E to B, B - F#, F# - C#, C# - Ab, Ab - Eb, Eb - Bb, and finally Bb to F which then meets up with C again.

Now the trick is to tune an error into all intervals so that they all sound even, unlike pure 4ths that a violinist may like, for equal temperament each of the above is slightly flattened to its pure sound otherwise the error comes out at the last interval. That gives the basic scale from which octaves are tuned from. Of course, the condition the piano is in determines how many times it has to be tuned to get it on pitch. The Standard being A440 (C523.3 equivalent) for concert pitch, though some orchestras in Europe like A442, A443 or A444 saying it makes music brighter.

PM: What is the day to day life of a piano tuner?

BL: I spend my time tuning and repairing customers pianos. For the most part I tune in a domestic situation, people who have had their piano for years, people who haven't had their piano tuned for 10 years or more, people who have just bought a second hand piano who want to learn or want their children to learn and I must tune or repair their "wonderful piece of furniture".

On occasion I tune at recording studios, where the pianos there are generally in better condition. I usually schedule about 3 a day which leaves time open for the odd emergency request or time to come back to home where I have my workshop, to catch up on repairs or to do some office administration. There is no wife or girlfriend to that for me, I really am a one man show.

PM: Tell us about piano construction. How is it made?

BL: A piano is basically made from wood, metal and wool. There are different woods used throughout the piano, depending on whether they are for structural or tonal purposes. There are many good resources on the internet (manufacturers sites) and books that describe how one is made.

In terms of a medium size grand, the back is made, a structure of posts that are made to strengthen the design in relation to the rim. On this the soundboard (with bridges) is made and secured to this, the casework rim put on and from there the pinblock and the frame (or plate) secured and then strung. The action is assembled and fitted, the piano tuned, regulated and voiced. That said in a paragraph, in what takes days to do.

PM: What makes a good piano?

BL: In buying a new or a second hand piano the reputation of the manufacturer has something to do with it like Steinway, Yamaha, Kawai and other, i.e. is it a make that has survived the years or is it a modern one that gained reputation (like Fazoli). At the point of sale, the deciding factor for one person might be the price range, for a pianist it is what sounds good to him/her. For a beginner the decision is usually based on advice of a piano technician, and sometimes too heavily on taste in furniture.

How should the piano be cared for? How does it age? How does it die?

BL: For owners, the piano care is simple: avoid dramatic changes in climate. The weather of course changes, but the most important thing is not to have your piano in direct sunlight or near a window blowing a Gail on to it. Have it away from radiators or open fires or air conditioning ducts.

As for age, the wood in piano can dry out and the parts in the Action (mechanism) wear out, at some time (or many times). During its life repairs are needed, depending on its usage. A grand of 50 years or more can benefit from a restringing and a new set of hammers which will probably last the current owner his lifetime, though compared to concert pianos in heavy use, they can get the same repairs every 10 - 15 years.

Thinking more in terms of uprights I've seen, some are just so old that the wood has dried out, so that putting in a new pinblock, so it can be tuned, becomes more expensive than the cost of buying a better second-hand piano. This of course is not good news for the piano owner if they are sentimentally attached to it.

PM: Any interesting anecdotes, histories, experiences connected with the business?

BL: Recently, which should not surprise me, but it does each time it happens, how people will spend and spend on everything else in the house and basically nothing on the piano.

It was my second tuning for the day, a new customer, lived in one of the most expensive suburbs of the city. Driving through the security gates of suburbs borders, (lately put in place since the extinction of the oppressive apartheid system forced home owners into some control or their areas) I saw house, grander house, and even grander house as I reached my appointment. So exclusive it had its own traffic light outside to let the owners in and out, I turned in on green.

The house's own security guard was walking around the little wall that enclosed a little grass embankment, I pulled up, he got out his clipboard, asked my name and business, and wrote in my details. As the electronic fenced gates opened I drove into the available designated parking bay. I got out and walked up the path, covered by the angled glass awning protecting walkers from sun and rain (when it does, not often) to the door and rang the bell.

The maid greeted me, but, although she expected me, she called the madam on her phone to make sure. As I waited, I stood on the tiled marble floor, looked at the cut glass crystal chandelier in the hall, and the view of the garden through the glass wall. To my right was the kitchen, breakfast bar and one of the lounges. To my left the stairs up to the first floor and down to the lower floor, where I eventually was led.

There, in a side guest room was the piano of my call. In this magnificent house, upholstered with the finest cloth, carved woods and furniture of the most expensive available, there was a piano of the least cost and expense available, locally made, one they had got from a relative who no longer used it, a thirty year old instrument, internally covered in that many years of dust.

The maid was horrified as I opened it to see the thick layer of dust covering the keys and action. I don't think dust was a known word in that house before then. After I dusted and she came back with wet and dry cloths and did a proper job of cleaning I tuned it. It was a quarter tone flat, but not too bad condition for what it was. In a house of such wealth, this was the cheapest single item in it...

One day I'm sure the little girl who plays will get a grand for her birthday, but for now at least she has something that sounds like a piano should.

© Brian Lawson. Used by permission.
Brian's website: www.lawsonic.co.za.

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