Name: Charlie Terr
Position: Piano Tuner
Years: 31
Q. How did you become a piano tuner?
A. In a pretty unusual way. I took a correspondence course. At that time [1971] it was probably the best one available. It was the only one approved by the Piano Technician’s Guild. You bought the course book and got a piano and learned how to take it apart and put it back together again. As soon as I finished the course I started working for Marshall Fields, which had a piano turning service. I worked half time for them and half time for [piano tuning service owner] Ken Sweet of Evanston.
Q. How’d you start working on your own?
A. Sweet got an emergency call from a recording studio downtown, their piano tuner couldn’t make it. So he sent me over there, and as soon as I finished tuning the piano they said, “You’re staying.” In those days, there were people doing jingles every day, and they recommended me to the other studios, and in a few months I was working at all the major recording studios. I became self-employed about two years after I started.
Q. Who are your current clients?
A. The Chicago Symphony, WFMT, the Jazz Showcase, the major recording studios in town, the major downtown theaters, and Grant Park in the summertime. Also the area’s only Steinway dealer, “The Beautful Sound” in Burr Ridge. I share symphony tuning responsibilities with four other piano tuners. There was one fellow doing it for seven years, but the work load got to be too much for him.
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Q. How do you go about tuning a piano?
A. The first thing I do is take out a tuning fork and check the pitch of the piano. If it’s very high or low, it’s going to take twice as long. I start setting a temperament, which is setting one octave in the middle of the piano, so it’s correct, and from there tuning all the other notes by octave. I play the notes with one hand and I’m tuning with the other hand by tightening or loosening the corresponding tuning pin. Then I lock the tuning pins in place so that they’ll stay in tune during the performance.
Q. Do you tune by ear?
A. lot of tuners use electronic devices, but I’ve never used one. There are tuners who do excellent work with machines, and there are even computer programs for the laptop, but for me it puts a third party in between me and the piano. I prefer to focus one-on-one with the piano when I’m tuning it.
Q. How long does it usually take?
A. About an hour for each tuning, although I’ve done it in 10 minutes when that’s all the time I’ve been given.
Q. In arranging this interview, it was obvious that you work a lot of hours and that your schedule keeps changing. What’s your workload like?
A. About 65 hours a week. A lot of people work a lot of hours, it’s not terribly unusual. What’s really crazy is the running around, getting from one place to another in snow and traffic, parking in alleys and getting parking tickets [laughs]. The schedule changes at the whims of the performer, it can change because of the delays of a hotel staff, it can change because a recording date changes, it can change because piano movers don’t show up. For the last 30 years, my schedule’s been totally blank for the next two weeks, but it fills up every single day.
Q. Do you get bored tuning pianos day in and day out?
A. I love it. Even though the motions can be thought about as repetitive, I think I understand enough about pianos to appreciate that each situation is different. The difference might be in the way the piano has changed from the tuning you did last week, there might be something you can learn about how temperature and humidity changes the sound of the piano. It’s meeting the top performers. It’s standing on the stage at the Auditorium Theatre and looking at the beautiful architecture. It’s being on the stage at Grant Park at 11 in the morning with the sun beating down on you with and the birds chirping overhead, or going into Orchestra Hall and talking with the guard at the door about her family at Christmas time. I couldn’t stand sitting in one place. What I like is the movement, and the traveling around Chicago. Just being out there is really what I like.
Q. Do you play the piano yourself?
A. Not that you’d want to listen to. I know where all the notes are, but as far as reading piano music or interpreting or improvising in any way, it’s not me at all. The top performers understand that some of the better piano tuners don’t play. I’ve learned enough playing to do exactly what I need to do, and that’s what I do.