Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrew Daniel.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I learned how to tune pianos when I was an undergraduate music major at the University of Southern California in the late 80s. One of my professors tuned as an extra source of income and he taught it to the music majors as an ear-training exercise. When I completed my Master of Music degree from USC in 1992 I moved to Europe and toured as a classical guitarist for ten years.
During that time, I did not tune at all. I decided to move back to the States in 2001 to be near my family. My dad had recently bought a ranch in East Texas, and when I visited him, I realized that I wanted to live in that rural community. The local college offered me an adjunct faculty position, and to supplement that income, I started teaching private guitar lessons. One day when I was in the music store in between lessons, their piano tuner stopped by to visit. We became fast friends and he offered to reacquaint me with the techniques of the piano tuning trade.
Repair is often a component of the job and I had not had any training in that area. To rectify this, I spent a summer with Mr. Oldeheide (my new mentor in the field), as an apprentice building and re-building all parts of the piano action. My piano tuning and repair business grew fast as did my faculty position at the college. During this time, I went back to school to earn my Doctorate in Music from the University of North Texas and was offered a full-time faculty position running the music department at Northeast Texas Community College. I now live in Rockwall with my wife and eight kids. I am still teaching in East Texas and my piano tuning and repair business has grown to include several hundred clients.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I have been fortunate in my career with music. However, when I first moved to Europe, right after I finished my Master’s degree, I had minimal resources. I settled in Hamburg, Germany, not knowing anyone or how I would earn a living. I had enough saved to live in a hostel for several months and that was my window to make it work. I wrote letters to more than one hundred churches and asked for the opportunity to perform for a modest honorarium, or just for donations. I did have a CD that I produced and was able to use it as a promotional tool; within a few months I had an agent and my window of a few months turned into 10 years.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Andrew Daniel Piano Tuning and Repair story. Tell us more about the business.
My piano tuning and repair business consists of several facets. The bulk of the work is standard tuning maintenance. These are returning clients that are on a 3, 6 or 12 month schedule. There is another type of client where the piano has been neglected for decades and needs substantial tuning work to bring the instrument back into a healthy condition. I also do all repairs and stringing. Very often some part of the whippen (the 50+ part mechanism that transfers the energy from the keystroke to the contact of the hammer on the string) needs repair or adjusting. We call this regulating the instrument. I am also the technician for many concert venues and recording studios. There is a bit more stress in those environments because of high profile nature of the professional recording or performance.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I was very lucky to have had an amazing training in music with phenomenal teachers and institutions. While I was still a student at USC I was able to meet so many of the major classical guitar players from all over the world. One of those guitarists was Eliot Fisk. It was a great stroke of good luck when he asked me to spend two weeks with him as his driver on a West coast concert tour. We became friends and I was able to do the same the following year in an even longer tour of the Western United States. It was through the encouragement of Eliot that helped me believe that I could make my European adventure successful. On the piano tuning side of my career, I have had many lucky encounters with potential clients. I was in the green room waiting to go on stage for a concert when the director of keyboard studies at a major university asked me about my tuning experience (they were looking for a new tuner and she heard that I also was in that business). I ended up with the contract that demands more than 100 tunes per year for that single client. I have been tuning for them since 2005. I have also had the great good luck to meet many touring pianists through my work at concert venues and it is always a pleasure to work with such successful musicians.
Pricing:
- Standard tune is $95.00
Contact Info:
- Address: Andrew Daniel
2350 Shoal Creek Lane
Rockwall, TX 75087 - Website: www.andrewdanielpianotuning.com
- Phone: 903-466-6024
- Email: andrewdanielpianotuning@gmail.com
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCglXwVA4y0QTWx2NAmXJmIg
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