How the Course Works
The Butler School of Piano Technology is a fully interactive course. Our Online Distance Learning School is designed to be highly interactive. You can submit as many emails and videos as you wish and have personal online Zoom sessions without any additional fees. This interactive nature of the course ensures that you always feel engaged and connected to your instructors and peers.
I would suggest you carefully consider any claim a school makes that most of their students graduate within a few months and then go out and build a profitable business. That’s like saying that you’ll take piano lessons for a few months and then get a job playing the piano professionally. Really? It makes it sound so easy!
Learning to aurally tune pianos is complex and takes concentration and practice. Could you purchase a tuning app and learn to use it in a few months? Maybe, but I even find that suggestion misleading.
And what about “Certification?” Do you view someone who correctly answers the multiple-choice questions of an online school as “Certified”? Apparently, some consider that if you answer all the questions correctly, you can be “Certified.” Is that what you really want?
But consider this: to qualify as an RPT, the Piano Technicians Guild's professional certification, you'll spend more than a few months developing your skills! Yes, they, too, require you to pass a written test. But you also have to sit down and tune a piano. Three examiners will judge and score your tuning. You must also perform various repairs and demonstrate your vertical and grand regulation skills. Once you have completed all three exams to professional standards, then—and only then—will you be “Certified” as a Registered Piano Technician (RPT).
Ask yourself if the instructors at the school you choose will actually listen to your tuning. Will they watch how you maneuver your tuning lever? Will they listen to the intervals you’re tuning? Will they give you aural tuning exercises and review them with you once you've practiced them? Without someone to guide you, how will you know if you’re doing what you’re supposed to do? Are you doing it correctly? Will they guide your development?
We will do our best to give you exactly that kind of guidance. As mentors, we’ll oversee your progress, and when it comes time to take your certification exams, we’re going to help you prepare and develop a strategy for passing those exams.
And what about when you finish the course? As mentors, we’re here to help you continue your journey as a professional and respected piano technician.
How does our course work? Each lesson has a reading component, a video component, and a feedback component. We explain and demonstrate the exercises that develop both the physical and intellectual skills needed to succeed at each particular task.
Each lesson has at least one written exam, usually several. These written exams are not online multiple-choice questions. We ask you questions, and you write us answers. We read them. Then we write back. These written exams often generate some interesting conversations.
We're known for our step-by-step aural tuning exercises. We provide specific instructions for each exercise; you practice until you think you’ve accomplished the objective and then submit a video of that exercise. (Most students use the video component of their smartphones to record it. Then they upload their video to YouTube as “Unlisted.”) We watch the video and provide you with feedback to address your distinct needs. Did you do it correctly? Were you listening for the correct partials? Were you using good tuning lever techniques? Were you using proper fingering?
Often, exchanging videos isn’t sufficient. Sometimes, we need to meet with you via Zoom. We need to give you moment-by-moment feedback while you work at your piano. This is incredibly helpful. This is the kind of program you find at brick-and-mortar schools!
The Lessons
Lesson 1: Making a Good Start
Lesson 2: The Other Masters of the Piano
Lesson 3: The Piano - A Brief History
Lesson 4: Basic Designs of Pianos
Lesson 5: The Environment and the Piano
Lesson 6: Basic Music Theory
Lesson 7: The Nature of Sound
Lesson 8: Introduction to Tuning
Lesson 9: Unisons and Octaves
Lesson 10: Fifths and Fourths
Lesson 11: Closed Group Intervals
Lesson 12: The Major Third
Lesson 13: Tuning Chromatic Thirds
Lesson 14: The Major Sixth
Lesson 15: Tuning Contiguous Thirds
Lesson 16: Aural Gauge Tools Part I
Lesson 17: Aural Gauge Tools Part II
Lesson 18: The minor third
Lesson 19: Aural Gauge Tools Part III
Lesson 20: The Fifth Dimension Tool
Lesson 21: The Sixth Dimension Tool
Lesson 22: Equal Temperament
Lesson 23: Tuning Below the Temperament
Lesson 24: Tuning Above the Temperament
Lesson 25: Dynamic Unisons
Technical Lessons
Lesson TL1: Introduction to the Grand Piano
Lesson TL2: Introduction to the Vertical Piano
Lesson TL3: Action Geometry
Lesson TL4: Regulating the Grand Action Model
Lesson TL5: Regulating the Vertical Action Model
Lesson TL6: General Repairs
Lesson TL7: Full Grand Regulation
Lesson TL8: Full Vertical Regulation
Lesson TL9: Grand Voicing