Piano Tuning

In 1980, after four years of working as a darkroom technician in a commercial lab, I got to a point where my health no longer permitted me to do shift work. With employment being very difficult to find, especially for blind and visually impaired people, the only thing I could think of was to become self employed. I then, with the help of a friend, contacted the Montreal Association for the Blind who helped me put together a grant proposal to enable me to receive the appropriate training in piano tuning. Little did I know that another person wanted to do the same thing and we were able to secure a grant from the Quebec Government to allow us to hire a teacher and purchase the necessary equipment and tools.

The course outline included one thousand hours of training in piano tuning and repairs. It took a full year and more of full time training to finally get to examination day. We were tested by a few of the finest musicians in the Montreal area and were given our certificates.

After visiting a notary and going through the procedure of registering a business name, I was ready to go out there and make a living working for myself. Thus "Entreprises Ronald Pelletier Enterprises" was born. I thought working for myself would all be honey and roses until I realized that, in the first few years, I would have to work eighty hours and more in a week in order to make ends meet.

This was 1981 and, little did I know that a recession was about to hit us. I survived the first setback with a lot of work and determination but, in 1987 things got even worse. Many jobs were lost and families began to run very tight budgets. People who had their piano tuned twice a year began to have it tuned once every two years. Also, by that time, electronic pianos, although not seen by me as real pianos, began to take their share of the market. The fact that they took less space needed tuning only if they became faulty and allowed children to practice scales wearing headphones made them popular.

I then saw the writing on the wall and decided that I would not leave my love of tuning pianos but I would have to look at another source of income if Chris and I were going to make it financially. When I started my piano tuning business, I saw the need for a blind person to be able to keep track of all aspects of his work. That is when I got interested in learning about what computers could do for me. In 1983, when they were one of the newest things on the market, I took an "Introduction to Computers" course at Concordia University. When I saw that my interest in this was unlimited, I went on and took a course in what was known as BASIC language programming. I was very successful at this language but found it to be exceedingly stressful. I then turned my interest to computer accessibility for the blind which was at its beginnings and growing fast.

In 1988 while I was at the Montreal Association for the Blind for a visit, I was asked to take a look at a Braille printer that was not working properly and got it going within 24 hours. Then a few more problems came up in the Braille department and I was able to solve them. A few weeks later I was asked if I would work one day per week to help maintain the computers which were becoming the fastest most convenient way to transcribe text into Braille. Since I was self employed anyway, I accepted the offer.

Two years later, I was asked to join the Visually Impaired Employment Program. Another two days per week where my main activity was to go around and demonstrate to potential employers that, with the use of computers, blind and visually impaired people can do a great job in an office. To this was soon added the responsibility of evaluating job sites and making recommendations as to what was needed to adapt the site. Then the need to train blind clients in accessibility software and also the use of popular office programs. In 1998, the work load was so large that the MAB posted a full time job and, of course, I put in an application. I love every minute of it. The job changes every day with the new versions of software and new hardware which both keep me very busy trying to stay on top. I suppose this will take me into retirement some day before I realize what has happened.

All this did not make me lose my love for piano tuning. I continue to tune pianos in the evenings to keep my ear and arm in good shape and probably will be doing this well into my retirement years. I have not yet known any piano tuners to stop tuning until their health made it impossible for them to do so.

If you are looking for a piano tuner and are prepared to provide transportation to and from your house, you can reach me by e-mail simply clicking on the "Contact Us" link or call: 514-484-1349