Occupation: piano tuning lawyer?

Career description: Piano is easily influenced due to its own characteristics, resulting in pitch deviation and tone sandhi. Piano tuning lawyer is the person who is engaged in pitch correction and timbre 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 tuning and maintenance of piano parts.

People in this issue: Fan Zhongyan? Wei Yan

Shenzhen Business Daily reporter Zhou Yanling

Tuning should be fast and accurate.

Piano is a musical instrument with complex and fragile structure. The complexity lies in that the piano has more than 8,000 parts and more than 200 strings, and the tension of each string varies from 90kg to 150kg. "Every move" will affect the pitch and timbre of the piano, but the fragility lies in the fact that the piano is easily affected, and the tension and pitch of the strings will be affected by wet weather or dry weather. Even if it doesn't change, the piano will be out of tune for a long time. Therefore, if you want to keep the piano pitch accurate and stable and the timbre smooth and natural, you should adjust it regularly.

Fan Zhongyun is a tuning lawyer of Shenzhen Xile Musical Instrument Store Tuning Service Company. I am 33 years old and have been engaged in this industry for 1 1 year. Every day, he carries a heavy toolbox and travels to and from schools, training centers, concert halls and other occasions to tune various pianos. On the afternoon of April 2 1, in his musical instrument store, Fan Zhongyun stood in front of a grand piano, opened the piano cover, and put a 50cm wool felt strip between the strings. "The piano has three strings for each sound. Wool felt strips can block the two strings next to it and only make the middle string vibrate, so set the pitch for this string first." At this time, Fan Zhongyun took out a tuning fork, struck it with his hand, and then stood upright on the piano board for comparison. Adjust one of the strings, and then adjust the other strings in turn according to the adjusted strings.

Playing the keys, listening with your eyes closed, holding a wrench and bending down to tune, the job of a piano tuning lawyer seems simple, but it is not. Fan Zhongyun said that to judge which string is out of tune, we must pay close attention to the sound discrimination when hitting the keys, and only when the sound discrimination is accurate can it be adjusted. Therefore, the lawyer's brain is not easy to adjust to a high degree of concentration for a long time, and the same action is repeated dozens or hundreds of times a day. In addition to high concentration, the tuning lawyer must also quickly distinguish the strings, because the tension of strings is an important factor in the accuracy of pitch, and strings interact with each other. Therefore, if the tuning speed is too slow, there will be a situation that "one string is often well tuned and the other is out of tune". Therefore, the tuning lawyer must be quick and accurate when tuning the piano.

Although the tuning speed is fast, it takes a long time. "It takes at least two to three hours to tune a piano." Fan Zhongyun told reporters that tuning is divided into three procedures: adjustment, accurate tuning and tuning. Tuning refers to the renovation of the structure and components of the piano. Whether the piano soundboard cracks, whether it cracks, whether the chord axis matches 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 not modified and tuned directly, it may be tuned today and out of tune tomorrow.

Tuning is a technical activity as well as 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 pricks the hammer with a tool needle. In the eyes of many people, these tasks are purely technical, but Fan Zhongyan thinks that the art of tuning is no less than technology. Because tuning lawyers should not only be proficient in tuning skills, but also have a certain artistic foundation. The more deeply the tuning lawyer plays 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 Zhongyan said with a smile, "Different styles of playing tracks have different requirements for piano tuning." In the musical instrument store, Fan Zhongyan stood on a grand piano and played a Beethoven tune. He told reporters that, like this piece of music, pianists usually ask tuning lawyers to turn up the volume of the keyboard before playing, so that the timbre is heavier to adapt to the passionate atmosphere style when playing the piece, while impressionist styles such as moonlight require the timbre to be "elegant and soft".

Each pianist's playing habits and styles are different, and the requirements for piano tuning are also different. Fan Zhongyun used to be a piano tuning lawyer hired by Yin Cheng, a famous pianist, and specially tuned him before the performance. Because Mr. Yin Cheng is older, people's hearing ability will decline with age, and his head is smaller and his fingers are shorter. According to his playing habits and styles, Fan Zhongyun must make the depth of the keyboard shallow to facilitate the span of fingering, and within a certain range, try to brighten the timbre in the high-pitched area and keep the timbre in the low-key and soft area to suit 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.

Put each piano in the best condition.

During his tuning career of 10 years, Fan Zhongyan has handled more than 3,000 pianos, some of which are Steinway pianos in high-class concert halls and some of which are in disrepair in ordinary families. But as soon as the piano cover was opened to tune the piano, there was only one idea left in Fan Zhongyan's mind, that is, to tune every piano to the best condition.

1In April, 1998, Fan Zhongyan, who had not graduated from high school, had to drop out of school to be an apprentice in a musical instrument store in Guilin. At that time, a college student who graduated from the Conservatory of Music was in charge of piano tuning. Two years later, college students left the music store, and the music store suddenly lacked tuning lawyers. Fan Zhongyun, who has been eager to learn tuning, was sent to Guangzhou Zhujiang Piano Factory for piano tuning training. After the training, Fan Zhongyan returned to the musical instrument store and began to formally serve as a piano tuning lawyer. In his day-to-day work, Fan Zhongyan has become more and more proficient in tuning, but he feels that his tuning level seems to be stagnant and unable to break through. At that time, there were several experienced masters in Guilin, and their tuning level was very famous. Fan Zhongyan visited them many times to ask them about the problems they encountered in the process of tuning, but the other party kept evasive. Knowing that he could not improve himself in Guilin, Fan Zhongyan left the musical instrument store in August 2003 and went to Guangzhou by train. Under the recommendation of my sister and friends, I became an auditor of Professor Liang of Guangzhou Xinghai Conservatory of Music. The audit lasted for three years.

During this period, under the introduction of Professor Liang, Fan Zhongyun worked as a tuning lawyer in Steinway Piano Store in Guangzhou, which rented and sold pianos for performers. Fan Zhongyan often follows the performance team and tunes the pianist 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 factory would arrange tuning lawyers to tune and repair the piano in Guangzhou, and at the same time, they would train tuning lawyers such as Fan Zhongyan. Obviously, the tuning methods are 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 Zhongyan summoned up his courage and asked his own questions with his lawyer. The tuning lawyer took a look at Fan Zhongyun, and then said meaningfully, "As a tuning lawyer, whether you are facing a piano like Steinway or an unknown piano of different brands, you should have such a sense of responsibility when you start tuning, that is, every tuning process should be done to the extreme. In the long-term tuning process, you should be familiar with each piano and tune it to the best state.

Recalling that he devoted himself to Steinway's piano tuning, but he was half-hearted about the tuning of ordinary brand pianos, 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 2005, Fan Zhongyan came to Shenzhen and opened a musical instrument store and a tuning service company. In his later piano tuning career, Fan Zhongyun will remind himself that no matter whether he is facing millions of famous pianos or brand pianos that have been in disrepair for a long time, he should tune them to the best state.

Senior lawyers have a monthly salary of 20,000 to 30,000

There are about 6.5438+0.2 million pianos in Shenzhen, but there are only more than 50 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 tuning class. Before 2003, the training and examination of piano tuning were organized by professional associations. However, with the increasing number of pianos, the phenomenon of poor tuning quality and high fees often appears in the piano tuning market. In order to standardize the piano tuning lawyers, in August, 2003, the Ministry of Labor and Social Security of China included the piano tuning lawyers' profession in 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) and technician (national vocational qualification level 1). Attorneys who pass the training and examination will obtain the qualification certificates 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 exceeded1.2000. According to the standard that a piano is tuned twice a year and a tuning lawyer tunes four pianos a day, there must be at least 200 piano tuning lawyers in the whole piano market to meet this market demand. At present, there are only more than 50 qualified tuning lawyers in Shenzhen. This makes piano tuning lawyers a hot talent in the piano market. At present, the price of piano tuning in Shenzhen is 150 yuan ~ 500 yuan/time, and the monthly income of ordinary piano tuning lawyers is 6,000 ~ 8,000 yuan. The monthly income of experienced high-level lawyers can reach 20,000 ~ 30,000 yuan.

But at the same time, due to the huge demand in the tuning market and the poor qualification of tuning lawyers, the piano tuning market is mixed and uneven. Wei Yan, a piano tuning lawyer, told the reporter that he once received a phone call from a client asking him to tune the piano quickly. It turns out that the client's daughter has to take a piano exam in a while and needs to find a tuning lawyer. It happened that there was a "senior lawyer" in the mailbox downstairs in the community, so I called the lawyer at home to adjust. After the tuning lawyer arrived, he opened the piano cover, fiddled with it for half an hour, and then left in a hurry, but the daughter of the client found that the piano was still the same after tuning. Wei Yan opened the piano cover and found that each pitch was still biased. "There must be something wrong with the tuning lawyer who tuned a piano in half an hour. It takes at least 1 ~ 1.5 hours to tune all steps. If the piano is seriously out of tune, it will be difficult to tune, even for 3 hours. " Because the piano market is pay-per-view, the tuning price in Shenzhen piano tuning market ranges from150 to 500 yuan. However, in practice, because the legal content, tuning difficulty and tuning time of each piano are far from each other, some tuning lawyers often "cut corners" in order to make more money in the shortest time, for example, only tuning the tone, not tuning it.

Although piano tuning lawyers have been recognized 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 tuning lawyers. Professor Liu Xiaowei, director of Shenzhen Piano Society, told the reporter that consumers often complain that the tuning level of piano tuning lawyers 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 who serve consumers.

This 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, the number of pianos in Shenzhen has reached about 6.5438+0.2 million, and the number of people who take piano exams every year is 6.5438+0.65438+0.00 million. The popularity of piano is so wide, but the public's awareness of piano tuning is not strong. Wei Yan is a piano tuning lawyer at Yayue Musical Instrument Store of Shenzhen Art School. Every year in March, April and September, 65438+ 10, he will call 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," Wei Yan said. "Among the pianos sold, only about 30% piano buyers know that pianos need to be tuned regularly and take the initiative to invite lawyers to tune them."

The piano is a delicate musical instrument. The change of temperature and humidity and the decrease of string tension throughout the year will not only lead to pitch out of tune, but also cause various failures such as loose parts, invalid keys and poor touch keys. To keep the piano in an ideal state, "in general, the piano should be tuned at least twice a year, and the frequently used piano should be tuned once a quarter, but even if it is not used for a long time, it should be tuned once a year." Wei Yan said, "Many families think that the piano does not need long-term maintenance, which is a wrong understanding. Once the piano is out of tune for a long time, it is difficult to adjust all pitches to the standard. "

If the piano is out of tune for a long time, the pitch will be off. Many parents are willing to spend a lot of money to buy expensive pianos for their children, but in normal times, they don't realize the change of piano pitch and ignore debugging. Wei Yan told reporters that he once 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 every sound right. At this time, the child playing the piano came back from school. Wei Yan asked him to try the piano he had just tuned. Who knows that he pressed the key, and the child turned around and said, why is the tone of the piano not accurate? The child's mother told Wei Yan that the piano at home had not been tuned for more than two years. It turns out that children have always regarded the wrong pitch as the standard pitch when practicing the piano. The wrong pitch damaged his hearing, which is irreversible.

The importance of professional tuning lawyers to piano tuning is self-evident, and the daily maintenance of piano users can not be ignored. When people buy a new piano, they should put it in a dry, cool and bright place at home. Wei Yan said, "Many people like to put the piano by the window, and it seems to be a very pleasant thing to look out of the window while playing the piano, but in fact, it is huge for the piano to put it by the window, because direct sunlight or wind and rain will affect the internal structure of the piano, leading 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 rusty metal keys and deformation of the percussion machine. Moreover, putting flowers and other heavy objects on the piano will make the piano make noise, because the piano has a wide range and is easy to vibrate with other objects. " In addition, when the weather is wet in spring, Weiyan citizens will put desiccant in the piano to prevent it from getting wet. When it is dry in autumn, they use a humidifier to keep the indoor humidity, put a container for water, and often clean it to keep the piano clean. These daily maintenance details are not only conducive to keeping the piano in the best condition, but also the most important thing is to extend the trial life of the piano.

(Zhou Yanling)