Carroll is the first in a new set of articles that will feature the piano tuning certification successes of our graduates. Signing up for formal instruction can be a daunting task. We just can't be sure if the training will actually make a difference in our lives. These features will show you that not only do successful students learn to tune, regulate, and repair pianos, but they make a mark in the piano tuning world as some of the best concert level tuners for clean and stable unisons, and consistent pure singing treble intervals.
Carroll came to IPTS after his Mentor, Peter Poole suggested the school. Peter had taken part in one of our free webinars and liked what he saw. At the time Carroll signed up he was a music teacher. He could play piano but didn't know much about piano tuning. He was looking for a career change and piano tuning called out to him.
At IPTS our focus is on clean and stable unisons. Every unit is marked not only on the interval sizes that you are asked to set, but students also are required to tune those intervals with full open unisons meaning good interval sizes mean nothing if the unisons aren't clean. To prove this point, we want to share with you the amazing thing that happened to Carroll after only six months of lessons.
Carroll was tuning for customers but using an ETD while at the same time submitting units to be marked at IPTS. As mentioned, each unit is marked on how clean and stable the unisons are so while Carroll could not tune a whole piano by ear, he had a lot of experience tuning clean, stable unisons.
He told us the story of how after six months he tuned a piano for a concert pianist using his ETD. After the tuning, the concert pianist was extremely happy. You see, not only are clean and stable unisons important, but they are also hard to find in a tuner. So when this concert pianist found Carroll and his clean, stable unisons, not only was he so happy that he told Carroll he wanted Carroll to be his personal tuner from now on, he also gave Carroll all his students as customers!
Fast forward two years. Carroll has graduated from IPTS. He has been working with Peter for a year and Peter, who was trying to wind down his tuning business a bit, asked Carroll to tune for a very important international classic music festival. Peter warned Carroll that the musicians were very picky and would leave him many notes after every performance.
The first night of the festival they did leave Carroll a note about one of the bichords being out of tune a bit, but for the remaining performances, Carroll received no notes!
Schumann Piano Quintet in Eb Major, Op. 44, III - Halcyon Music Festival - Piano Tuning by Carroll Stevens, APTU.
It is expected that technicians can only reach this level of tuning after many years of tuning, often decades, but with the unique and focused instruction at IPTS, Carroll, as well as many other graduates who we will introduce you to in future articles, have been able to break out of the standard pathway and jump start their career ahead years by being able to produce high quality tunings usually only expected from seasoned veterans.
We are excited to welcome you into IPTS and watch you grow as you work your way through the focused units just like Carroll did and hopefully experience the same success.
For more information, go to https://howtotunepianos.com/new-ipts-programs/