I take real pride in my shop 1 Difficult 2 Eccentric 3 Rewarding
Gordon Bell sells and tunes grand pianos from his family-run store in Aberdeen.
Sum up your job in 3 words:
I Twas my mum who suggested I study piano tuning. I went to Stevenson College in Edinburgh when I was sixteen and did a specific course in the tuning, servicing and restoration of pianos.
It’s all I’ve done ever since.
After three years at college, I realised that experience was everything, and I wasn’t ready to be self-employed, so I worked at various businesses over the years and had mentors throughout.
In 2003 I was ready to go it alone.
Every day is different. It can change dramatically – it might be a last-minute hire for an event or a sale.
A piano might need to go out quickly to anywhere in the UK to meet a customer’s demands.
That can turn my day around, as I could be anywhere from down to Manchester or up to Thurso.
There’s no average customer, either.
I’ve been to some amazing homes to tune or deliver, but it’s not just the wealthy who have pianos.
A lot of the rich won’t buy the best pianos, then there’s the ordinary family where Granny and Grandad put money in to buy the piano because they want their grandkids to have the best.
The downside of what I do is people expecting us to fine-tune dead bodies of pianos and make them work again.
It can be soul-destroying when you see people buying a wreck of a piano and thinking that it will do for their young children.
It’s better to seek advice professionally before you buy an old piano.
My job is often rewarding. I had a sale recently from a young blind boy who’s sixteen. He’s been trying to get into the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the music academy in Glasgow.
He was born blind and is an absolute genius – his parents just bought him a very expensive piano.
That’s money well spent to give him that extra push to get into the academy.
He’s got a piano for life
– a working machine that’s an investment in his future.
The highlight of my day is loading my van with nice pianos and taking a trip to the west coast of Scotland.
Regardless of the weather conditions, the perk of my job is being able to travel around Scotland and be a tourist. I love the scenery.
The best thing about my job is preparing my shop for a customer to come in for an appointment.
The pianos are tuned, everything is spotlessly clean, and for every customer that comes in I’m hoping to have the best selection, as they’re only having this chance once to buy a nice piano.
I want to make it special for customers, regardless of who they are or how much money they are spending. I take real pride in my shop.
I rarely play the piano myself, but enjoy tuning them for customers.
Pianos are complex machines with over 10,000 moving parts. They carry a tension of over 10 tonnes of pressure on the frame from the strings, and will gradually drop in pitch over a period of time.
It takes around an hour to tune a piano if it’s in good condition.
It’s a yearly event, but should really be done twice to allow for climate change, as pianos are made from natural materials.
To maintain pitch of
440 hz, to match other musical instruments, they must be maintained professionally.
I’m probably one of the final generation of fully qualified piano tuners in Scotland. There’s nobody else coming through, although there will always be the hobby people, who learn online.
I’m forty-five now. Still one of the youngest piano tuners and certainly one of the last. ■
For more information, visit www.gordonbell
pianos.com. Gordon Bell Pianos Ltd., 45 Rosemount Viaduct, Aberdeen AB25 1NQ. Tel: 01224 658584.