The church secretary asked me one day if I could call a piano tuner, and get the church piano tuned up. No problem, I replied.
I was given a church key, address and a phone number of a tuner. I noticed he lived about a hour north of our little town. I called him, set up a time, he came and tuned the piano.
A couple of weeks later, I was at my buddys house, and commented about having the church piano tuned. He had a piano, and his wife taught lessons. He commented that his piano needed tuned also.
"Call this guy up", I said. "He does a pretty good job." "We use someone else." he commented. "Where does he live?" I asked. About a hour east was the reply.
A light bulb came on! If there were no piano tuners nearby, then maybe someone local, could grab a lot of business.
This was in the days before personal computers. I remembered seeing a ad about piano tuning in Popular Science, or Mechanics or some magazine like that. I went to the local library, and did some research. I found a ad, and sent for some information.
The course cost me around 300 dollars. I checked in a local free ad paper, and found a free piano. When I went to pick it up, I found out why it was free. It was a old piece of junk. Keys were missing. But it was perfect for practicing tuning and replacing wires.
My first wife, refused to let me put the monster in the house. So I placed it in the back of the garage. I studied every day.
It was autumn, and the days started turning colder. The last couple of lessons I did, I could see my breath. Then my son was born. The decision was a no-brainer. Stay inside and play with my newborn son, or go out in the garage, freeze and practice tuning. I figured I would pick it up in the spring. When spring arrived, I had moved on to bigger and better things.
I saved my study manual, and all my tuning equipment. My new wife plays the piano, and is interested in getting a low cost, or free piano. She checks Craigslist from time to time. If she ever finds something, I'll go pick it up....and maybe pick up tuning again.
How about it? Are there servicemen coming from long distances to your area? Can you fill a void?
