Enterprise: Piano tuners blend art and science in their holistic approach

HANOVER — All kinds of big machines need to be serviced where they sit, but pianos are their own category.

Unlike technicians who repair furnaces or appliances, piano tuners say there is a social aspect to their work that seeks an understanding of both the instrument and its relationship with the owner.

“It is not like having a broken dishwasher,” said Adam Patridge, owner of Upper Valley Uprights, a piano tuning service in Lyme, who was in Plainfield in early September to tune Devan Tracy’s piano.

Patridge and Emerson Gale, owner of Gale Piano service in Strafford, said tuning is only a piece of their approach.

“I see the piano technician’s role as quite holistic,” said Gale one August morning as he cleaned the piano in Phyllis Deutsch’s Hanover living room. “It is a place where art and science can meet. There is the art of conversation and the social connection. The story of the piano: ‘Who is it for, who is playing it?’ But there is also the science of tuning and repairing.”

As he enters Deutsch’s home, Gale remembers to wipe his feet then asks if he should remove his shoes.

“The shoes’ moment is important to me,” Gale said. “It is one of the little ways I can show respect and build trust with the owner.”

Rather than move items in preparation for his work or decide for himself where he will place pieces of the piano he has to remove to clean it, Gale asked Deutsch to help him take a small stereo off the top of the piano and, before placing boards on the floor in the hall, again asked Deutsch for approval.

“I don’t want to put anything where people will step on it,” Gale said. “Because the business is mobile, I am in a foreign environment so I need to read the space.”

Gale, with a headlamp and two small tool boxes, worked slowly and carefully, pausing frequently to explain his work and interest in pianos, while Deutsch watched and listened, sitting on her sofa. He encourages clients to ask questions.

“I don’t want to be a tuner who says I’m in and I’m out,” he said.

Deutsch has owned the Ivers and Pond piano, built in the 1880s, for 29 years.

Gale, who books his clients online, describes the instrument before him with a brief history lesson on the company that built it. Years ago pianos, the “communal fire” as Gale calls it, were in almost every home and Ivers and Pond of Boston was a renowned maker. The “story” of the piano is an important one, he added.

“Understanding the background is important. One of my goals is to help foster a relationship with the instrument,” he said. “The more comfortable the owner feels with the piano, the more likely they will play it and take good care of it.”

Both Gale and Patridge said that scheduling no more than one, maybe two tunings a day is the best way to ensure there is enough time to complete the job and correct any other problems they might find. Tuning and cleaning prices begin at around $200, then increase from there depending on the amount of service needed.

“I don’t want to feel rushed,” Gale said. “I want to connect with the client, connect with the piano.”

When Patridge arrived at Tracy’s home on a warm September morning for a tuning assignment, he was in no rush to begin. Before entering the home, he and Tracy stood in the driveway and talked about pianos, her playing, the harmful effects of humidity and what makes pianos unique in the instrument world.

“The fact that something so mechanical is so delicate is what is so transcendent about pianos,” Patridge said. “They have some 12,000 parts and are just a bunch of levers but are so delicate and can be so soft and loud, which is what piano means. That is really the magic of it and why they need to be tuned.”

It was his first appointment with Tracy, an engineer and part-time musician with a few albums to her credit. Patridge learned about her piano, which she bought used in 2020 and moved a couple of times. It was her first time getting it tuned.

Inside Tracy’s home, with the levers, strings and pins behind the keys exposed, Patridge explained the mechanical structure of the piano and the tuning process. The lower notes hit just one string, but the number of strings increases for the higher notes.

“What you need to decide when you tune a piano is how to compromise the tones so they all work together,” Patridge said.

With a “hammer” that looks more like a socket wrench, Patridge tests the sounds as he turns the pins which loosens or tightens the tension on the strings. He uses both his ear and a tuning device to get the sound of each key precise.

Patridge grew up playing instruments. When his older daughter was nearing kindergarten in 2016, he looked for work that he could arrange around his family schedule and turned to the piano that he and his wife bought for their daughters.

“I became fascinated with learning how to tune it,” Patridge said. “I read and studied and practiced on our piano and then mentored with Eric Roberts of Apex Piano in Nashville remotely.”

Beyond his family piano, Patridge tuned pianos of neighbors and friends then the pianos of his daughters’ teacher. He began his business in 2022 and besides tuning, buys, sells and leases pianos.

“Tuning pianos is a wonderful combination of being very focused and very relaxed, engaging your sight, hearing and touch simultaneously,” Patridge said. “While you cannot rush, you also need to keep moving and not fixate: it is an exercise in paradoxes. You are compromising, organizing, and tidying the tones so that the entire instrument sounds pleasing.”

Both Gale and Patridge estimate pianos in the Upper Valley number in the thousands, so they regard each other as colleagues, not business competitors, with plenty of work for themselves as well as others who tune.

The number of tunings a year varies, but for most pianos, Patridge said, twice a year is sufficient. He recommends a tunig after the humidity of the summer ends.

“It is all about the humidity,” he said. “Not much happens during playing. It is more temperature and humidity affected.”

Beyond the technical aspect of his work, Patridge likes building relationships with clients.

“I really enjoy the clients, the variety of people that love playing piano and appreciate the wonderful marvel of the mechanical piano,” he said.

Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.