An in depth review of Piano technician master classes for piano technicians
Are you a piano technician looking for professional training to improve your skill set and increase your income? It's no secret that finding professional training as a piano technician is frustrating and difficult!
While it's always recommended to find a good mentor to work under that is not always possible. And you could go to the piano technicians convention every year but cost really ads up!
What you need is an on demand system that you can use to sharpen your skills 24 hours a day. This is where Piano Technicians Master Classes come in.
What are piano technician master classes?
Piano Technician Master Classes
Piano Technician Master Classes are an online learning resource bringing you cutting edge instruction from piano industry masters. Each class is led by seasoned experts Each bringing a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table.
With expertise ranging from concert tuning, regulation, voicing, soundboard design and piano design these courses will provide you with an unparalleled opportunity to deepen your knowledge, sharpen your skills, and most of all drastically increase your income! It is a privilege to learn from these industry giants, and their guidance will be invaluable in honing your skills.
If you are attending a national convention, you can spend as much as $3,000 on travel, lodging, registration, rental cars, etc. And you're likely to miss out on several hundreds or thousands of dollars in missed work opportunities too.
You might end up spending hundreds per class, even if you can fit in 15 or more lectures. And what if you forget a valuable step in a new skill you just learned? You can't go back and view the class again unless you have a time machine. This is not the case with Piano Technicians Master Classes.
With Piano Technicians Master Classes, you will:
- Enjoy a massive sweet of high quality lectures accessible 24 hours a day.
- Each lecture closely mirrors real-world scenarios and you may ask questions of the instructors if you are attending live.
- View the video recording from any mobile device, at any time
- Can be used even while you work on a client's piano. How many of your existing DVDs and Books are you able to view from your smart phone?
- Enjoy a complete, searchable video transcript
- Waste no time finding the information you need when you need it! Looking for a specific term or portion of video? Locate exactly when they are discussed with a searchable transcript! This is a very cool feature and much needed on other platforms!
- Sit and watch comfortably from your home
- Avoid the frustration of sitting at the back of the room or crowding to the front as is typical in conference presentations. Every participant has the exact same, up-close, loud-and-clear access to these engaging lectures
- Make valuable new professional connections and friends throughout the world. begin to build relationships with and recognize a whole new set of techs worldwide that are friendly, helpful and serious about learning. Although it's not the same as grabbing lunch at the convention, the barriers of space and time are broken down and professional relationships become a whole new experience.
Piano technician Masterclasses offers three different levels of membership or you may purchase just one lecture. But you will find a monthly subscription will give you far more bang for your buck.
The piano tech radio hour
With every membership level of PTM, you also have access to Pianotech Radio Hour. Every Saturday at 2 PM PTM holds weekly Zoom sessions with an experienced piano technician. These classes are free to join for all and will give you an excellent insight of what the full membership lectures are like.
If you are on a tight budget but would still like access to over 170 previously recorded episodes you can sign up for the pianotech radio hour membership without a PTM membership for only $16 a month.
I Want Access To Pianotech Radio Hour
Even though the content provided is free every Saturday, don't be fooled in to thinking it is fluff content with nothing to offer! You will be making an investment in yourself by listening to a discussion of our trade given by master technicians all from the comfort of your home!
When Radio Hour was just getting started, I had volunteered to edit one of the lectures on "pricing your services." This recording single handedly changed my outlook on pricing my own services and was responsible for future growth of my business.
Each episode is around an hour in length and is excellent for listening to when doing your own work on pianos. (Besides when tuning of course.) :)
Click here to get access to Pianotech Radio Hour
Apprentice subscription
is great for those who are on a tight budget or would just like to see what the higher levels of PTM are all about. Although you only have access to recordings from 2018-2021, they are packed with cutting edge instruction and tons of income increasing power at a very reasonable rate.
You will find lectures on Tuning, voicing, soundboard design, regulation, rebuilding and even piano design. Each lecture runs around 2 hours in length and includes a Q&A section.
The lecture on Dampers from the ground up by Steve Brady was worth the price of a membership by itself as it carried me through a pretty important rebuild project. I had an Ibach grand piano come in to my shop that well... was used as a litter box by a cute furry cat or 3.
The cat pee was responsible for rusting most of the treble wire, agraffes, and plate. The piano needed new strings as well as dampers. While I had done some damper work and adjustment in the past I had not replaced the entire set.
This lecture left no tuning pin unturned and took me all the way from damper selection, removing old dampers, gluing in the new ones, installation, understanding every damper bend in great detail, damper pedal regulation, sostenudo pedal regulation and how to deal with noisy dampers when they are old and crusty.
Each lecture will introduce you to at least one nifty tool to save you time in the future! We techs do have a tool problem don't we?
Click here to sign up for the apprentice subscription
What lectures are included in the Apprentice subscription?
When you sign up for the Apprentice subscription here are some of the amazing lectures you have instant access to.
- Voicing with Boaz Kirschenbaum
You will understand the tools, techniques, and artistic sensibility needed to transform a piano's character. You will learn exactly how a seasoned, Steinway-trained, voicing expert produces that concert level piano sound and how you can apply the same concepts to every piano you service.
- Concert Prep with David Anderson
When a good piano is brought to its maximum efficiency via regulation, tuning, and voicing, something magnificent happens; it starts to “sing,” to bloom, to sustain. Players are ecstatic, checks are written, everybody’s happy. You are empowered, and respected by your peers. If a piano technician can master these skills, success in our business is assured.
- Touchweight with David Stanwood
Finally, a worthy and welcome approach that supersedes the unreliable old world model of setting key leads with down weights. The most simple, comprehensive, and time saving system for creating reliably perfect touch with replacement hammers.
- Action Balancing with Mario Igrec
Explains how the grand action is balanced, covering concepts such as action leverage, hammer "strike weight," downweight, upweight, balance weight and friction. The class explores how these aspects interact, how to measure them in a way that is compatible with the Stanwood and Practical Touch protocols, and why understanding them is useful.
- Voicing with Steve Brady
Learn to evaluate a piano for voicing issues and correct common voicing problems. You will learn how to voice for evenness of tone for both hard-pressed and soft-pressed hammers. Learn to voice for softness or brilliance & power.
- Under the Bridge: Matching the Rib Scale and the Down-Bearing Dale Erwin/ Ken Eschete
Take the mystery out of down bearing and the rib scale of a piano. Understand the balance between forces exerted by strings and resistance to the force by sound board. Understand how to measure down bearing and set down bearing. Understand how to Analyze and alter an existing rib scale.
- Piano soundboards with Del Fandrich
Everything you ever wanted to know about soundboards including the things you never knew you wanted to know!</li>
- Concert tuning David Andersen
A Radically Simple method for tuning a piano with singing results.
- Designing a piano Del Fandrich
Equipped with first-hand experience of the design optimization, and budgeting process, Del can answer some of your deepest questions about the pianos you encounter every day, why and how they got to be the way they are.
- Tools with Steve Brady
Careful not to drool on your computer as you discover, make and modify game-changing tools that will radically improve your craft.
- Action Balancing David Stanwood
Demonstrates the basic method for replacing grand hammers and balancing the action to a medium inertial playing quality using the Stanwood New Action Protocol also known as SNAP! The SNAP! method is a calculation free work bench approach for matching hammer weight and action ratios.
- Concert Prep Sally Phillips
Learn time saving tips and protocols for commercial and institutional work.
- Surviving and Thriving as a College and University Tech Mario Igrec
You will be leagues ahead of your competition when applying for, negotiating, and stepping into institutional work.
- Voicing' Concert Prep Alex Kerstan
Understand how to Create the right touch and tone tailored to each unique pianist.
- Grand Rebuilding Tear Down Debbie Cyr
Debbie shares a step by step procedure for disassembling the piano before starting the rebuilding process. Having the right protocol when tearing down a piano for rebuilding will save you hours of time and frustration!
- Swift solutions for known issues in concert grand preparation Sally Phillips
Learn to communicate with the pianist and how to define and solve their concerns in a high stress concert situation when the clock is ticking!
- Refurbishing Soundboards with Epoxy Del Fandrich
An innovative and cost effective approach to resurrecting dead sound boards when replacement is not an option.
- Packing specialty tools/parts/supplies for unique field and shop repairs Isaac Sadigursky
Isaac shows his ideas about packing specialty tools, parts and supplies to do specific, not-so-common field or shop repairs
- The relationships of hammer weight to inertia and voicing, touch and tone David Stanwood
- Dampers from the Ground Up Steve Brady
Take the mystery out of replacing damper felts, regulating dampers and all of those crazy damper bends!
- Turbo-charging a grand action with an emphasis on, and explanation of, balance weight as a defining target Jude Reveley
Has a client ever asked you, “what can be done to make this piano action play better?” Most of us have asked ourselves this question on a myriad of occasions even after the piano has been regulated, and it all starts with Balance Weight.
- Increasing Speed & Income with techniques for efficient full-day grand or vertical spiff ups Arlan Harris
Learn concepts, techniques, and some advice to increase your speed while maintaining accuracy, resulting in a day that offers your clients great savings and a massive boost to your income!
- Tuning the Pure 12ths Temperament David Andersen
Protocol to guarantee a highly idealized pure twelfths tuning. Excellent for smaller pianos.
- How to sell Extended Service work, and specific service work to always cover Bill Monroe
Dive into some of the most common areas of service that all pianos will need at some level or another. some of the less commonly thought of service needs of pianos, and pitfalls to avoid with some of the work we sell are also discussed.
- Caring For The Fortepiano Paul McNulty
Provides information useful to technicians faced with a fortepiano.
- The Sources of Sound & Touch - Since Mozart Until Today Alex Kerstan
What do we learn from the past 300 years of piano design and how can we make the piano fit for the future?
- The Evolution of Klavins Pianos David Klavins
- Learn all about the innovative pianos from David Klavins Covers David's unique brand of pianos with a specific focus on the single string Una Corda model.
- The Secret to Understanding All Hammer Voicing Nick Gravagne
Theoretically and practically, what actually happens when a hammer strikes a string? And what does information suggest to us when we needle hammers?
- The relationships of hammer weight to inertia and voicing, touch and tone Rick Baldassin
- How to Think About Voicing Eric Johnson
Tips and techniques for finding the best "voice" for a piano.
- Precision Key Service Fred Sturm
Efficient techniques to size and lubricate key bushings and balance holes, including precision ironing and using steam to rejuvenate compressed bushings.
- The full shebang: from shop to fieldwork to triage & customer service Wayne Ferguson
Three segments: 1. setting up a home-based workshop 2. increasing income 3. specialty kits.
- The Secrets of Aftertouch: The Keys to Success David Andersen
Learn how to set aftertouch, one of the most crucial points of regulation, by feel, by using the mastery of your own body. During the class, there will be complete videos of us taking the steps necessary to set excellent, expert aftertouch so that every single key feels exactly the same with a firm, crisp, satisfying feeling
I want to sign up for the Apprentice subscription
Craftsman subscription
includes everything previously discussed plus many other high quality lectures and limited access to live recordings.
Artisan subscription
is the highest subscription offered by PTM and comes with some amazing benefits that will surely help your business grow! Along with all benefits of the other subscriptions, you will be able to join an exclusive pianotech mastermind group. This is a group of no more than 15 individuals led by a respected industry expert dedicated to everyone's success and professional growth. Having access to technicians that are more experienced than yourself will help your business grow faster than ever before.
Make an investment in yourself today
Whether you are a novice technician seeking to build a strong foundation or an experienced professional looking to refine your craft, these master classes will undoubtedly propel you to new heights in the world of piano technology. when you sign up for a membership you will be making an investment in yourself to increase your skill set and income, making you a highly valued technician in the eyes of every client.
Blake Hardin
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