I’m in my fourth year of apprenticeship now as of yesterday.
So that means I’ve been here for three years now and it was actually a coincidence. It was actually luck
and fate, however you want to call it.
At my high school graduation, I met a colleauge who also works here. His son was also with the same
piano teacher, and we got to talking a bit about whether piano building might be something for me.
A week later I sent an application here. Now I’m here exactly and almost finished learning.
Yes, I am currently regulating pianos. You start by looking at the keys: Do I have enough play? Then you
have to weigh them out so that you always have the same touch and so that they go up evenly.
Then check the damping again and make sure that all the dampers lift off at the same time.
Yes, basically what was previously roughly adjusted because it was simply installed, I fine-tune that.
This can roughly summarize it like that.
With the task here, I find it totally exciting.
You have a jumble, so to speak, and then you make something like a line out of it and you slowly
regconize how the instrument takes shake a little bit.
And that, I think, is a very beautiful, satisfying task.
The day actually begins in such a way that I’m usually one of the first to come in here and then it’s first
of all a matter of getting the instrument ready so that you can continue working where you left off
yesterday.
Since I’m still in training, I usually ask my instructor if he can check the things I’ve done in the evening
before leaving.
And then the next work step starts.
I find working at Steinway is often a challenge, because you really have to work one 100%, usually 110%.
And yes, it is a very nice job.
The important thing is to be open-minded, to be open to what your colleauges are telling you.
Ask as many questions as possible.
That’s so, that would be the tip that I would give.
It’s something extraordinary, not everyone does it, and above all it’s also: You‘re part of a big picture,
you participate in it, and at the end you see and hear above all what you’ve done and can proudly say: I
helped with that.
