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Becoming a Piano Technician

Hearing Loss in Piano Tuners

 September 1, 2014

By  Mark Cerisano, RPT, B.Sc.(Mech.Eng.)

From http://marshallchasinassociates.ca/faq.htm: Question: "I am a piano tuner. Can piano tuning lead to hearing loss and should I be wearing ear protection?" Answer: "Indeed many piano tuners do suffer from hearing loss. Recall that it is not only the intensity of the sound that causes hearing loss, but also the duration. A piano tuner can spend many hours each day with various pianos and like most musically inclined people, tend to also visit nightclubs and other loud venues. The total exposure can add up quickly." I would like to comment on this. Many piano tuners use hard blows to settle the strings so they will stay stable and not drift when the pianist plays hard. It is this loud playing, or "test blows" as they are sometimes called, that can cause hearing damage for the piano tuner. As well as damage to the ear, this loud playing can also cause joint pain in the hand, wrist, arm, neck, or shoulder. As well, they may place excessive strain on the piano's action. To protect hearing, a tuner may choose to use ear plugs. However, for me, I find ear plugs to be uncomfortable, and they change the tone of the piano. But tuning with excessive test blows is not necessary. There are other ways to tune the piano with a minimum of test blows. A "soft blow" technique is one which combines a more theoretical understanding of how friction, force, and elastic deformation in the tuning pin/string system are affected by the force of the tuning hammer on the tuning pin. Also, the tuner can use a "lean test", where they massage the pin in the direction of the string, thereby testing if it is ready to go flat at the first hard blow, without having to use a hard blow at all. Hard blows can still be used occasionally with the soft blow technique, but because they are not the only way the tuner creates stability, they are not used as much, and the tuner's hearing is protected, without the use of ear plugs. Warning, do not think you are not damaging your ears because you "think" you are not using hard blows that much. Any hard blows can be damaging. Have your hearing tested now, as a base line, in order to gauge hearing loss, if any, in the future. Soft blow tuning technique also has the following benefits: - Less joint pain - Less ear fatigue - Less wear on the piano - More endurance. (It can be easier to tune for longer periods of time because the ear and the hands are not being overly strained.) Be also warned that it is not easy to develop the sensation of how the pin and tensions respond to certain hammer forces, especially if the tuner does not have a strong grasp of the forces at play. I have been using soft blow tuning technique since I started tuning. My stability has not always been 100% and it has taken me a while to develop a system that is relatively easy to explain and use, but the biggest benefit to me from using this technique, is my hearing. Below are two audiograms. One taken in the early years of my tuning career, and the second one: eight years later. I was relieved to find out that my hearing had stayed virtually the same since that time of tuning full-time, without any hearing protection at all, but always being careful not to use an excess of test blows. If you are interested in more information on the soft blow tuning technique, please leave a comment below or use my contact page. In the audiograms below, you can see a slight dip at about 6000Hz in my right ear, but it has not increased appreciably, if at all, in eight years. The slight decrease in my left, the audiologist said was typical with age. I do remember I had just tuned a piano that morning and could hear some ringing in my ears as I took the test. Piano tuners or anyone tuning pianos should not use this article as evidence that hearing protection is not needed when tuning pianos. But if you want to reduce the strain on your ears, joints, and the piano, you can by using less hard blows, which can be effected with the Soft Blow tuning method. Evidence of no increase in hearing damage over eight years of tuning with a soft blow technique: Mark Cerisano. Audiogram 2004 Mark Cerisano. Audiogram 2012

Mark Cerisano, RPT, B.Sc.(Mech.Eng.)

Instructor and Founder, howtotunepianos.com

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