I once heard a desperate student describe piano tuning as trying to split an atom (to which some smart alec replied ‘splitting an atom is not all that hard’!) Each ignoramus I meet who is confused by our vocation and assume we should be blind, I challenge simply to tune a perfect unison (i.e. two strings at exactly the same pitch). Ignoring the other 186 strings including the middle scale, perhaps the ignoramus might comprehend the pain and frustration of being locked up in a sound proof piano booth for three hours wrestling to equalize 15 tonnes of string tension to an exact decimal point of a Hertz by ear (yes, it is loud)!
After my seven years of full time education I give my envy to those who have cracked it. For me tuning is more a test of psychology and perseverance; no kind of last minute cramming will do. Why choose piano tuning though? After long wonderings and musings in music including an unrelated 4 year-waste-of-time-degree (after which I managed to get a pretty good job), my bohemian blood finally clotted. So you need money to live, but am I happy and why can’t I have a job I enjoy in this day and age?
No matter how amateur a musician is most will admit that their instrument is their pride and joy, their only relief, comfort and pleasure in life after a hard day’s work or after whatever tribulation fate has brought. What more satisfying than striking the opening and haunting pianissimo chords of Rachmaninoff’s 2nd? Tchaicovsky's 1st, Debussy or Beethoven perhaps. If I can make someone happy (including myself) by improving someone’s piano then I will have done something lovely and appreciated (which doesn't pay too badly)!
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