All-Day Wednesday Classes! (extra $95)
Again this year, SCRC is offering all-day-long classes on Wednesday. These extra cost classes allow for extended learning.
- Working with the WNG Action with Zack Hardy
- Upright Hammer Hanging: Hammer Boring and Preparation - with Josi Davis
You will have to choose the one most important to you!
Check for updates periodically.
Working with the WNG Action with Zack Hardy: Full Day
All-Day-Wednesday Class - Extra Cost
Zack Hardy
Working with the WNG Action (Periods 1 thru 4).
Upright Hammer Hanging: Hammer Boring and Preparation with Josi Davis
All-Day-Wednesday Class - Extra Cost
Josi Davis
Upright Hammer Hanging: Hammer Boring and Preparation (Periods 1 thru 4).
For each hands-on task (hammer removal, sample setting, glue & leveling), I will demonstrate on a section, and then we will collaborate on the remaining sections, giving each tech present an opportunity to try each step of the process hands-on:
- New hammer prep
- Old hammer removal and shank prep
- Setting samples
- Using the Upright Leveling jig (These will be available for purchase at the Brooks LTD booth)
- Gluing new hammers to shanks, checking levels, fine adjustments
End of Extra Cost Wednesday Class Descriptions
Thursday - Saturday Classes
Grow With Gazelle
Timothy Barnes
Learn how you can use Gazelle to save time, wow your customers, and grow your piano service business. In this class we will bring decades of business experience together to help you grow your business using the tools Gazelle offers like online scheduling, automated reminders, invoices, payment solutions, estimates, and Quickbooks Integration.
Pricing Your Services
Timothy Barnes
Most piano technicians ask all the wrong questions when it comes to pricing their services. By the end of this class you will have the confidence you need to make better pricing decisions. We will cover pricing strategy, industry trends, and best practices for navigating price adjustments. Actual prices will NOT be discussed and are not relevant to making great pricing decisions.
Installation of the Grand Pre-Crowned Soundboard
Christian Bolduc
Shop not set up for full grand rebuild but you're interested in replacing a soundboard? Christian introduces us to the Grand Pre-Crowned Soundboard with ribs glued and new bridge capping ready to carve. Step by step learn how to take the proper measurements and references before removing the original soundboard and ordering your new board. This class provides an overview of proper measurements for duplication and requirements for a successful installation.
Recapping the Vertical Bass Bridge w/o Removing the Plate
Christian Bolduc
Is having to pull the plate putting you off? Christian demonstrates an easy way to replace split bridge caps on uprights without using epoxy or other glues to fix bridge pin problems. Learn how to build a jig over the plate to remove the old cap and glue the new one on. This technique can also be applied to grand pianos.
Introduction to the Piano Life Saver
Kenny Brown
Struggling with tuning stability related to humidity fluctuations? This is a great course to check out, whether you are new to Dampp-Chaser's Piano Life Saver System or just looking to brush up your skills and knowledge. We will provide a broad overview of product functions, system selection, basic installation, and service.
Piano Life Saver System Troubleshooting and Service for Older Model
Kenny Brown
Enhance your skills in servicing older models of the Piano Life Saver System. Discover how components have evolved over the company's 75-year legacy of promoting pitch stability. Gain expertise in supporting these systems and understanding compatibility, from historic to current models.
Tune a Spinet Like a Concert Grand
Wim Blees
Even though we would like to tune nothing but concert grands, most of us tune spinets, consoles, and an occasional small grand. If you're using an ETD, tuning these instruments can be done very effectively by following a few basic concepts of tuning, including bulls eye tuning, "one of these is not like another", and listening to expanded intervals.
Time Management Secrets
Wim Blees
Service is the name of your business, but how are you managing your time in this service? Learn some secrets of time management, how to manage your business, how to effectively promote yourself, and what customers think about the service industry as a whole.
Business Savvy
Melanie Brooks, Brooks LTD
Defining practical strategies to make savvy business decisions will help you realize your goals. Focusing on technical skills, we often lose sight of the costs of doing business. Join in a group discussion as we define what your time is really worth and build a roadmap to a successful business plan.
Judge Not That Ye Be Not Judged
(An Appraisers Opinion of Evaluations)Gary Bruce
Anyone in our profession of servicing pianos will eventually be asked to assess the condition and value of someone's piano. This class will discuss the shoulds and should nots regarding the practice of evaluating and appraising and the difference between those two. We'll explore the questions you should ask yourself and your piano owner before offering your opinion to them of it's worth. We'll clarify some of the necessities and options that are involved in evaluating the piano's value. Bring your questions and concerns about the topic and you'll be well-informed on the subject at the end of the class.
Vertical Hammer Shaping
Norman Cantrell
Vertical pianos need love too! Just like their Grand cousins, their hammers get tired and worn. This can affect the tone, the alignment and the overall enjoyment of the piano.
We will be learning different techniques to shape hammers both inside and outside of the piano. We will present an overview of a variety of tools to use to accomplish this task. We will look at which approaches are most effective inside the piano for those quick touch ups in the home as well as a full hammer shaping. The desire is to provide the end-result for the best consistent tone and shape.
Grand Action Reconditioning
Norman Cantrell
Older pianos wear out and sometimes the matching new parts are simply not available. What do you do at this point? Having a plan to refurbish the existing parts is what will be covered in this class. We will cover the most obvious things like wippen cushion felt replacement to a factory approach to rebushing and repining flanges. Learn how to take felt and cloth from sheet form and get things covered.
Grand Hammer Hanging
Josi Davis
Join the team at Brooks LTD for GRAND HAMMER HANGING – a discussion of available action parts, hammer selection, addressing touchweight and weight control, taking proper measurements, preparing for and the process of hammer hanging, tools, materials and time saving services that can increase your profit and grow your business.
Polyester Finish Repair
Mike Ello
UV (Ultra Violet) polyester is now available for finish repair. Mike Ello, author of "Master Guide to Piano Finish Touch Up" will be teaching an overview of basic polyester finish repair. He will also be discussing when UV cured polyester can be used to make difficult repairs much easier.
Prioritize II
Kevin Fortenberry
Whether working on Institutional pianos, churches, or private pianos, there is nearly always SO MUCH work that needs to be done! Along with dozens of proven techniques, time-saving ideas, this class will cover how to be practical and efficient in handling MANY of the most common problems and areas needing improvement.
Caster Disaster
Jim Geiger
Why "disaster"? Why do pianos even have Casters? What goes wrong and how do they get damaged? Rust? Animal issues? Bent, Broken? Stripped screws? Come and learn almost everything you will need to know about caster repair and Maintenance, along with MANY time-saving, and "Tried &True"techniques.
Repair and Preventative Maintenance for the Piano Technician
Nick Litterski
Working on pianos (and tuning especially), is a repetitive, often stressful job. Drawing from a range of disciplines including Alexander Technique, Hatha Yoga, Physical Therapy, Trigger Point Therapy, and more, we will explore techniques for avoiding injury and maintaining a healthy balanced approach to this work. There will be an overview of ergonomic tools and leverage enhancing tools, strengthening exercises for shoulder, wrist, and core, and stretches that can be done in a client's home without attarcting unwanted attention.
If you are currently experiencing a RSI, this class will include a discussion of how to get back to work in an optimal way. One key to working safely is being fully engaged with the process while maintaining body awareness. Nick will share a few tuning techniques that have kept him present in the room, and excited about the work.
Partial Hearing: Your Greatest Asset
Jack Stebbins
What are partials? What are beats? What is inharmonicity? In our business, PARTIAL HEARING is, indeed, your greatest asset. What's it all about? Come find out.
A Revised Approach to Piano Technology Pedagogy
Corbin Sturch
Deep diving into the curriculum and curriculum development in place at the University of Houston, and in it's partner High School piano technology program with Ft. Bend ISD; instructor and program founder Corbin Sturch will dissect the approaches currently in use to train apprentice piano technicians. This will include a comparison to previously used approaches in other institutional settings for piano technology training - where they are alike and how they differ. Discussion will also be had on the philosophical and pedagogical approaches used at University of Houston and why this would be beneficial as an approach for apprentice training for the working field technician. This class will be hands on in some sections; bring your tuning hammer if you are comfortable participating.
Grand Action Prep: Period One: Keys and condition
Fred Sturm
The key bushing procedures used on uprights apply to grands as well, but there are some additional items to address: Keybed and keyframe surfaces, knuckles, hammer tails and a few other grand-specific areas for cleaning, conditioning, and lubrication. Techniques for efficient and lasting pinning of a set of shanks will be demonstrated.
Grand Action Prep: Period Two: Voicing and its basis
Fred Sturm
Traveling, squaring, and filing of hammers, to lay a solid basis for voicing. Deep needle voicing to open up shoulders, hammer filing to have consistent shape and precisely horizontal crowns. String leveling, hammer alignment and hammer mating. Shift adjustment, shift voicing.
Jim Watson's Amazing and Informative Pinblock Replacement Class
Jim Watson
This two-part class (covering 2 class periods) examines pinblock replacement in a variety of piano styles, including a typical, fully-fit Steinway pinblock, pinblocks that are mortised into case sides (e.g. Bechstein, Hardman, Bosendorfer, etc.), open-face pinblock replacement with veneer application, and square grand and upright pinblock inlays. Topics covered in this class also include when and why to replace a pinblock, as well as how to accurately record plate location before pinblock removal, and techniques for fitting the pinblock to the plate.