current occupation: piano tuning lawyer?
Job description: Piano is easily influenced due to its own characteristics, which leads to pitch deviation and tone variation. Piano tuning lawyer is the person who is engaged in pitch correction and tone debugging for these "out-of-tune" pianos in the process of piano production, sales and maintenance. In addition, the tuning lawyer is also responsible for the adjustment of piano parts and the maintenance of parts.
People in this issue: Fan Zhongyun? Yan Wei
Zhou Yanling, a reporter from Shenzhen Business Daily
The tune should be fast and accurate
The piano is a complicated and fragile instrument. The complexity is because there are more than 8, parts and more than 2 strings in the piano, and the tension of each string varies from 9 kg to 15 kg. "Every move" will affect the pitch and timbre of the piano, and the fragility is due to the fact that the piano is easily affected, the weather is wet or. Even if it remains unchanged, the piano will be out of tune for a long time. Therefore, in order to keep the piano pitch accurate and stable, and the timbre is smooth and natural, it is necessary to adjust it regularly.
Fan Zhongyun is a tuning lawyer of Shenzhen Xile Musical Instrument Store Tuning Service Company. At the age of 33, he has been engaged in this industry for 11 years. Every day, he has to carry a heavy toolbox and travel to and from schools, training centers, concert halls and other occasions to tune various pianos. On the afternoon of April 21st, in his musical instrument store, Fan Zhongyun stood in front of a grand piano, opened the piano cover, and stuck a 5cm wool felt strip between the strings. "The piano has three strings in each tone, and the wool felt strip can stop the two strings beside it, only making the middle string vibrate, so set the pitch of this string first." At this moment, Fan Zhongyun took out a tuning fork and struck his hand, then stood the tuning fork upright on the piano panel, and compared the pitch of the tuning fork. Adjust one of the strings, and then adjust the other strings in turn according to the adjusted strings.
tapping the keys, listening with your eyes closed, holding a wrench and bending down to tune, the piano tuning lawyer's job seems simple, but it's not. Fan Zhongyun said that to judge which piano string is out of tune, you must pay close attention to the sound discrimination when striking the keys, and the sound discrimination can be accurate before you can adjust it. Therefore, it is not easy to adjust the lawyer's brain for a long time, and the same action is repeated dozens or hundreds of times every day. In addition to a high degree of concentration, the tuning lawyer must distinguish the tone strings quickly, because the tension of the strings is an important factor in pitch accuracy, and the strings interact with each other. Therefore, if the tuning speed is too slow, it will happen that "one string is often tuned well, but the other one is out of tune". Therefore, the tuning lawyer must be quick and accurate when tuning the piano.
Although tuning is fast, it takes a long time. "It takes at least two to three hours to tune a piano well." Fan Zhongyun told reporters that tuning is divided into three procedures: adjustment, accurate tuning and tone tuning. Adjustment refers to the renovation of the structure and parts of the piano. Whether the piano soundboard is cracked, whether it is cracked, whether the chord shaft is matched with the hole, and even whether there is a focus in the hole will affect the stability of pitch. Therefore, before tuning, the tuning lawyer must check and repair the piano. If the piano is tuned directly without renovation, it may be tuned today and out of tune tomorrow.
tuning is a technical activity, but also an artistic activity
As a tuning lawyer, Fan Zhongyun often paints the piano that has lost its paint, "works" on the strings with a wrench, and sticks a hammer head with a tool needle. In many people's eyes, these jobs are purely technical activities, but Fan Zhongyun thinks that the art of tuning is no less than technical. Because the tuning lawyer should not only be proficient in tuning techniques, but also have certain artistic skills. The deeper the tuning lawyer is in the art of playing music, especially the piano, the more perfect the tuning and timbre of the piano will be.
"Although intonation has technical parameters, there is no uniform standard for pitch and timbre. To some extent, it can be said that intonation is technical and timbre tends to be artistic." Fan Zhongyun said with a smile, "Different styles of playing tracks have different requirements for piano tuning." In the musical instrument store, Fan Zhongyun stood on a grand piano and played a Beethoven piece. He told reporters that, like this piece, pianists usually ask the tuning lawyer to turn up the volume of the keyboard before playing, so that the timbre is relatively heavy to adapt to the passionate atmosphere style of the piece when playing, while the impressionist style such as Moonlight requires the timbre to be "elegant and soft".
Every pianist has different playing habits and styles, and has different requirements for piano tuning. Fan Zhongyun was once a piano tuning lawyer appointed by Yin Cheng, a famous pianist, who specially tuned his piano before the performance. Because Mr. Yin Cheng is old, people's hearing ability will decrease with age, and his head is relatively small and his fingers are relatively short. According to his playing habits and styles, Fan Zhongyun must lighten the depth of his keyboard to facilitate the span of fingering, and within a certain range, try to brighten the timbre in the high-pitched area as much as possible, and the timbre in the low-pitched area is low-key and soft to adapt to his hearing range. Therefore, the tuning lawyer must tailor the "tuning style" for the piano according to the occasion of piano performance, which comes from the long-term artistic accumulation of the tuning lawyer.
Tune every piano to its best condition
During his tuning career of more than 1 years, Fan Zhongyun has handled more than 3, pianos, some of which are Steinway pianos in high-class concert halls and some of which are disrepair in ordinary families. But as soon as the piano cover is opened to tune the piano, there is only one idea left in Fan Zhongyun's mind, that is, to tune each piano to its best state.
in April 1998, due to family changes, Fan Zhongyun, who had not yet graduated from high school, had to drop out of school to work as an apprentice in a musical instrument store in Guilin. At that time, a college student graduated from a conservatory of music was in charge of piano tuning. Two years later, college students left the piano shop, and the piano shop suddenly lacked tuning lawyers. Fan Zhongyun, who had been eager to learn tuning, was sent to Guangzhou Zhujiang Piano Factory for piano tuning training. After the training, Fan Zhongyun returned to the musical instrument store and began to formally serve as a piano tuning lawyer. In his day-to-day work, Fan Zhongyun became more and more skilled in tuning, but he felt that his tuning level seemed to be stagnant and could not be broken. At that time, there were several experienced masters in Guilin who were famous for their tuning level. Fan Zhongyun visited them many times and wanted to ask them about the problems encountered in the tuning process, but the other party kept evasive. Knowing that he couldn't improve himself in Guilin, Fan Zhongyun left the musical instrument store in August 23 and took the train to Guangzhou. Under the recommendation of his sister and friends, he became an auditor of Professor Liang of Guangzhou Xinghai Conservatory of Music. This audit lasted for three years.
During the period, under the introduction of Professor Liang, Fan Zhongyun worked as a tuning lawyer in Guangzhou Steinway Piano Store, which rented and sold pianos for performers to perform. Fan Zhongyun often followed the performance team and tuned the pianists before playing. Steinway is a world piano brand, which originated from and enjoys a high reputation in the global music industry. At that time, on average, every three months, the manufacturer would arrange tuning lawyers to Guangzhou to tune and repair the piano, and at the same time, they would train Fan Zhongyun and other tuning lawyers. Obviously, the method of tuning is similar, but why the pitch and timbre of the piano will be particularly accurate and beautiful after being tuned by a lawyer has always puzzled Fan Zhongyun. One day in class, Fan Zhongyun summoned up his courage and asked his own questions with his lawyer. The tuning lawyer saw Fan Zhongyun, and then said meaningfully, "As a tuning lawyer, no matter whether you are facing a piano like Steinway or an unknown piano with a different brand, you should have such a sense of responsibility in your heart when you start tuning, that is, every tuning process should be done to the extreme, and in the long-term tuning process, you should be familiar with each piano and tune it to its best state.
recalling that he devoted himself to Steinway's piano tuning, but he was half-hearted in tuning the ordinary brand piano, Fan Zhongyun finally understood the gap between himself and the tuning lawyer. If the theory of Xinghai Conservatory of Music and the practical experience of Steinway Store have raised the level of piano tuning to a new height, then Fan Zhongyun's remarks have given him a new understanding of piano tuning. At the end of 25, Fan Zhongyun came to Shenzhen and started a musical instrument store and a tuning service company. In his later piano tuning career, Fan Zhongyun will remind himself to tune it to the best condition, no matter whether he is faced with millions of famous pianos or brand pianos that have been in disrepair for a long time.
Senior tuning lawyers earn 2, to 3, yuan a month
There are about 12, pianos in Shenzhen, but there are only more than 5 tuning lawyers, which is far from meeting the needs.
There are generally three ways to become a piano tuning lawyer: first, an apprentice learns from a master; Second, the factory provides short-term training for piano sellers; Third, the conservatory of music was born in a professional class of tuning. Before 23, the training and examination of piano tuning were organized by professional associations. However, with the increasing number of pianos, the piano tuning market often experienced the phenomenon of poor tuning quality and high fees. In order to standardize the team of piano tuning lawyers, in August 23, the Ministry of Labor and Social Security of China incorporated the profession of piano tuning lawyers into the "National Professional Ceremony" and implemented a unified national assessment. The assessment is divided into five grades, namely: primary (national vocational qualification level 5), intermediate (national vocational qualification level 4), advanced (national vocational qualification level 2), technician (national vocational qualification level 1). Attorneys who have passed the training and examination will obtain the qualification certificate issued by the Ministry of Light Industry and the Ministry of Labor and Social Security of China, and hold relevant certificates.
According to the statistics of Shenzhen Piano Society, the number of pianos in Shenzhen has exceeded 12,. According to the standard that one piano is tuned twice a year and one tuning lawyer tunes four pianos a day, there must be at least 2 piano tuning lawyers in the whole piano market to meet this market demand, but there are only more than 5 qualified tuning lawyers in Shenzhen at present. This makes piano tuning lawyers become hot talents in the piano market. At present, the price of piano tuning in Shenzhen is 15 yuan ~ 5 yuan/time, and the monthly income of ordinary piano tuning lawyers is 6, ~ 8, yuan. The monthly income of experienced and high-level tuning lawyers can reach 2, ~ 3, yuan.
But at the same time, due to the huge demand of tuning market and the poor qualified tuning lawyers, the piano tuning market is mixed and uneven. Yan Wei, a piano tuning lawyer, told the reporter that once he received a phone call from a client and asked him to tune the piano quickly. It turned out that the daughter of the client had to take the piano exam in a while and needed to find a tuning lawyer. It happened that there was a "senior tuning lawyer" in the mailbox downstairs of the community, so he called the tuning lawyer to tune at home. When the tuning lawyer arrived, he opened the piano cover, fiddled for half an hour, and then left in a hurry, but the client's daughter found that the piano was the same after tuning. Yan Wei opened the piano cover and found that there was still a deviation in every pitch. "There must be something wrong with the tuning lawyer who finished tuning a piano in half an hour. It takes at least 1 ~ 1.5 hours to tune all the steps. If the piano is out of tune and the tuning is difficult, it will even take 3 hours." Because the piano market is a pay-per-view, the tuning price in Shenzhen piano tuning market ranges from 15 to 5 yuan each time. However, in practice, due to the great difference in the legal content, tuning difficulty and tuning time of each piano, some tuning lawyers often "cut corners" in order to make more money in the shortest possible time, for example, they only tune accurately and don't adjust the timbre.
Although piano tuning lawyers have been appraised and certified by the state, many problems in the piano market have not been solved, because there is no special institution and no specific regulations to govern the team of tuning lawyers. Professor Liu Xiaowei, director of Shenzhen Piano Society, told the reporter that consumers often complain that piano tuning lawyers' tuning level is not in place or even chaotic, but at present there is a lack of special institutions and regulations to supervise and punish these illegal tuning lawyers for consumers.
The piano needs regular maintenance
With the improvement of living standards, the piano has entered the homes of ordinary people. According to the statistics of Shenzhen Piano Society, at present, the number of pianos in Shenzhen has reached about 12,, and there are 11, people who take the piano examination every year. The popularity of piano is so wide, but the public's awareness of piano tuning is not strong. Yan Wei is a piano tuning lawyer in Shenzhen Art School Yayue Musical Instrument Store. Every year in March, April, September and October, he calls to remind customers that the piano needs regular tuning and maintenance. "Many people know that cars need regular maintenance, but they don't know that pianos also need regular maintenance," Yan Wei said. "Among the pianos sold, only about 3% piano buyers know that pianos need regular tuning, and take the initiative to ask lawyers to come to the door to tune them."
The piano is a delicate and delicate musical instrument. The change of temperature and humidity and the decrease of the tension of the strings all year round will not only lead to the pitch out of tune, but also cause various faults such as loose parts, ineffective keys and poor touch. To keep the piano in an ideal state, "generally, pianos should be tuned at least twice a year, and pianos that are often used should be tuned once a quarter, but even if they are not used for a long time, they should be tuned once a year." Yan Wei said, "Many families think that pianos don't need to be taken care of for a long time, which is a wrong understanding. Once the piano is out of tune for a long time, it will be difficult to adjust all pitches to the standard. "
if the piano is out of tune for a long time, the pitch will be out of tune. Many parents are willing to spend a lot of money to buy expensive pianos for their children, but in normal times, they are not aware of the change of piano pitch and neglect debugging. Yan Wei told reporters that once he went to a client's house to tune the piano. As soon as he touched the piano, he felt that its pitch was extremely poor, so he tuned it string by string. After three hours and two adjustments, he finally got each pitch right. At this time, the child who played the piano came back from school. Yan Wei asked him to try the piano he had just tuned. Who knows that when he pressed the keys, the child turned around and said, Why is the tone of the piano not accurate? The child's mother told Yan Wei that the piano at home has not been tuned for more than two years. It turns out that the child has always regarded the wrong pitch as the standard pitch when practicing the piano. The wrong pitch has damaged his hearing, and this damage is irreversible.
The importance of professional tuning lawyers to piano tuning is self-evident, and the daily maintenance of piano by piano users can't be ignored. When citizens buy a new piano, they should put it at home in a dry, cool and bright place. Yan Wei said, "Many people like to put the piano by the window, and it seems to be a pleasant thing to look out of the window while playing the piano, but in fact, putting it by the window is huge for the piano, because direct sunlight or wind and rain will affect the internal structure of the piano, which will lead to unstable intonation. In addition, some people like to put a bottle of flowers on the piano, thinking that it will make the piano more elegant, but in fact, once the vase is broken, water will flow into the piano, which will lead to serious consequences such as rust of metal keys and deformation of the string striking machine. Moreover, putting heavy objects such as flowers on the piano will make the piano produce noise, because the piano has a wide range and is prone to vibrate with other objects. " In addition, when the weather is wet in spring, Yan Wei citizens put desiccant into the piano to prevent moisture. When it is dry in autumn, they use a humidifier to keep the indoor humidity and put a water container. They often clean and keep the piano clean. These daily maintenance details are not only