Career in tuning pianos sounds good to local teen
By Christine Haines
chaines@yourmvi.com
Even as a toddler, Karl Jamison found the sound of an out-of-tune piano irritating.
The 18-year-old Elizabeth Forward senior has been tuning pianos for three years already and is building a client base. He’s now considering piano tuning as a career.
“As a little kid, it just bothered me, the sound of an out-of-tune piano,” Jamison said. “I was told that when I was about 2 ½ years old I watched a television show and was just mesmerized and calculated the pitch the person was singing.”
Even though Jamison has what is known as perfect pitch, he still uses a tuner when adjusting piano strings.
“There are over 200 strings on a piano, so it needs to be very carefully done,” he said.
A routine tuning job takes Jamison about an hour and a half to complete. Since he’s just starting out in the profession, he charges a lower rate than more experienced professionals and is just starting to learn basic piano maintenance.
He tries to be flexible with his clients, sometimes scheduling a tuning within an hour’s notice as long as he’s not in school and the job is close to the Elizabeth area.
Tuning pianos started as a bit of a hobby after watching the professional tuner work on his family’s piano.
“I practiced on a piano at a local church that wasn’t being used,” he said. “It’s used about once a week now.”
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