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Biography

I began my training for this profession in 1977 and completed the college course at Newark in 1980 with the City & Guilds diploma. 

At the beginning of my career, I worked for a couple of years in Sheffield before moving to Nottingham where I applied for a job in a Department Store – well, 2 jobs really as they were advertising for a salesman and tuner but I fulfilled both although the selling side was fairly new to me.  I didn’t receive 2 salaries..  It was a great way to mix with new instruments as up until then I’d only ever tuned older pianos.  Through the parent company (Chas. Foulds & Son of Derby) I met trade suppliers and went on a couple of factory visits, the most interesting one up to June 2007 was to the Fazer factory in Helsinki, a very modern factory producing a range of upright pianos.  This June (2007) I went to the Fazioli factory in Sacile in Italy which is a revelation in small-scale grand piano production (100 units per year).

I applied for Membership of the PTA in 1987 and passed the examination and within quite a short space of time I was elected onto the Executive Council.  I have held the post of Tuning Test Co-ordinator for the north of England and have done Test Examining as well.

I organised many trips and visits for the PTA during the 1990’s but a lot of manufacturing has now ceased or gone abroad.  For a long period my responsibilities to the PTA have been in maintaining the ‘PList’ – a discussion forum for our tuners which is often very lively.  I also do the liaising between the Council and the PTA’s website designer who is one of my customers in Derbyshire.