A growing need

The skills necessary for tuning and servicing the piano are notoriously difficult to teach and there have been no formal courses in piano technology in Australia since 1993 when courses ran at the Conservatorium in Sydney and in Melbourne. Since then, the resulting shortage of trained piano technicians has led to an influx of poorly trained tuners in an attempt to meet the demand. Accompanying this shortage has been a decline in technical standards and this has raised concern from both the APTTA (Australasian Piano Tuners and Technicians Association) and the piano importing members of the AMA (Australian Music Association).

The APTTA has a current membership of 250 piano technicians in Australia and New Zealand, 65% of whom are working full time. Almost all of these active technicians are over 50. In the next 10 – 20 years, there will be an increasing need for younger technicians to be trained, as many existing technicians will retire or reduce their activity. It is estimated that there are currently over 1,000,000 pianos in homes and institutions in Australia.

The AMA provides annual figures for new piano sales in Australia and these show that in 2007, around 5,000 new pianos were sold. These pianos alone would provide sufficient work for an extra 5 piano technicians each year. Many piano retailers are now finding it difficult to locate reliable, well-trained technicians to service the pianos they sell.

Recent research findings have shown the general educational benefits for young children who learn music. In Australia, the numbers of people, young and old who are learning piano and attending grade exams with the AMEB continues to steadily increase. Despite long working hours and computer games, playing the piano is still popular!

All these factors point to the need to re-introduce piano technician training in Australia. Geoffrey Pollard has been the piano technician at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music for 20 years and is one of the many successful graduates of the Piano Technology course held there between 1975 and 1987. He found willing support from the Dean of the Conservatorium, Professor Kim Walker, to teach a Piano Technology course. After a successful trial in 2006 which produced 6 graduates, both the APTTA and the piano importer members of the AMA have agreed to support this training for a further 3 years.

The Australian Music Association is the trade body for the music products industry, representing wholesalers, manufacturers, retailers and associated services for musical instruments, pro audio, print music, lighting and computer music products.

The Australasian Piano Tuners and Technicians Association was formed in 1984 and consists of branch associations in WA, SA, NSW, QLD, VIC and New Zealand with a membership of 250.