“My clients love his tuning.”Ī century ago, pianos were more prevalent in American homes.Ī living-room focal point, the piano provided the soundtrack for in-home entertainment and family gatherings for generations. It is completely a scientific art,” Hayden said about piano tuning. Aikens has a “master musician’s touch” in piano tuning, Hayden said. Also a piano tuner and technician, Hayden at that time had decided to focus on teaching piano playing. Roger Hayden, of Hayden Piano Studio in Clarks Summit, several years ago began calling upon Aikens as a contractor to tune and service clients’ pianos. While there are occasionally a few slow weeks, this time of year, with some clients gearing up for the holidays, tends to be busier, he said. “I do this five days a week nonstop, and sometimes it is nonstop,” Aikens said. He also has tuned pianos in New York City and the Catskills. ![]() Bigger jobs, including rebuilding, refurbishing the action mechanisms, or restringing a piano, are priced individually.Īikens sets a general boundary of about a one-hour radius around Scranton, a footprint that includes Wilkes-Barre, Stroudsburg, Milford, Towanda, Tunkhannock, Binghamton, and all points in between. A typical tuning costs about $100 to $150 and could take 60 to 90 minutes. I blinked and here I am, 18 years later.”Īikens has turned piano tuning into a full-time job. He sent me out one day to do some of his work in the field. He felt I had the aptitude to be successful at doing this,” Aikens said. ![]() He was amazed at Aikens’ self-taught skills and ability and encouraged him to pursue piano tuning as a hobby or even a vocation. While living in California about 18 years ago, Aikens, now 40 and of East Lenox, Susquehanna County, was visiting Northeast Pennsylvania when a friend of his father’s, who happened to be a piano tuner, paid a visit. As pianos continue to remain a centerpiece of classical and modern music, opinions differ on whether piano tuning is reaching its swan song.Īfter graduating from Mountain View High School in Kingsley, Aikens attended Berklee College of Music in Boston and traveled the country as a working, recording guitarist. Twenty-five years later, Aikens is one of the few remaining piano tuners in the region.
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