KB -- COME ON DOWN!!!
Don't worry, we'll be gentle.

Uhhhh.... what do I do?

quote:

Originally posted by KlavierBauer:
Uhhhh.... what do I do?

We get to ask you any sort of bizarre/embarassing/off the wall questions that come to mind and you are obliged to answer them. (okay, so you can refuse to answer if you want. we'll just hold it against you forever )

I'll start off with some easy stuff to get things going.

So as I understand it, at one time you worked in your family's piano business, but now you've moved on to a very different career.

Do you miss being in the piano business? How did you choose your new line of work (or did it choose you?)

And on a completely different note, how was RAGBRAI?

Ok - I think I can do this.

Yes - I worked in my family's piano business for many years - as long as I can remember really. After doing a 4 year apprenticeship in our rebuilding facility, I did an apprenticeship at the Schimmel factory in Germany, and also briefly spent time in several other factories either observing, or picking instruments (Grotrian, Bösendorfer, Sauter, Steingräber). After 9/11 business tanked, and really never fully recovered. We refused to sell any low-end inventory, feeling that it took more work/money to get to our standard of performance than we could make selling it, so once even Young Chang sales started drying up it became very hard. We became sort of "boutique" at that time, working appointment only on retail stuff, and focusing on high-end rebuilds, reconditions, and complete re-manufacture. Those few years exploring the math of the piano design, and making improvements on it were awesome. I was finally using the science I enjoyed in the work I loved. After doing several really mind blowing Model A remanufacturing jobs, I started thinking about trying out my other passion - technology.

Soon after I struck off on my own, working freelance web design and development jobs, until landing my first fulltime web job. That was a couple jobs, and several years ago. I now manage web operations at a major-market public radio station, and get to head up projects developing applications for our internal, and external web sites. I love it.

Yes - I miss piano work dearly. Unfortunately it became clear that it was an industry I didn't want a part of anymore. My dream was to take over the family business, but it became such hard work to evangelize a high standard, when even the folks with high standards were just blowing smoke, that I thought it best to move to something completely impersonal.
Recently with my father's health concerns I've thought about going back, but then I remember that there's no future there - or at least not one that I can see.
So in technology I remain, until I get the dream prog-metal drummer gig.


RAGBRAI was awesome. It was an intense experience that I'm glad to have finished, and something I may even consider doing again in the future, but not camping each night. I've now re-cast the mid-west as the mid-south, as it has much more in common with the south than it does the west. It was nye unbearable, but the ride itself was challenging, and great.
475 miles (roughly) on the odometer, and about 21,000 feet of vertical climb. 3 of the 7 days were just continuous rollers for 60 miles or so. The other days were longer, but less hilly.

quote:

Originally posted by KlavierBauer:
Uhhhh.... what do I do?

Why, a song and a dance, of course!!!

Do you play? What kind of music?

What do you have for a piano?

How did you get interested in long distance biking. Sounds grueling to this non biker.

I do play - but not as frequently as I'd like. I'm hoping the next new chapter in my life (currently beginning) affords me the luxury of more "me" time at the piano.

I play mostly classical, and enjoy lots of different things. I have tons of "parts" or pieces I've remembered from times past, so there's a section of the Liszt Sonata I like to play, and sections from several Rachmaninov preludes. There are a few Chopin Preludes and Etudes that come up frequently, as well as parts of Beethoven sonatas. I sometimes learn new music, and often enjoy learning new Bach, as it seems to absorb much faster than other music. When not playing classical music, I enjoy improvising, and that accounts for at least half of the time I'm at the piano. I've recorded some stuff in the past, but beyond that, have never taken the composition of new music seriously.

I'm looking for drums now, and look forward to recording some improvisations where I collaborate with myself.

I have a Sauter 220 in the living room, and am extremely blessed to have it. Mark said it was one of his favorite pianos ever when he stayed with me a couple months back.

Biking - well, I mountain biked a lot years ago before I was sick.
I've never been athletic, and hate exercise, so I can only exercise if it's something I already enjoy doing. So far, that's been rock climbing and cycling. Both calm me down, and occupy my mind - they slow its contant racing down, and so I enjoy doing them. After my transplant, Mark talked about doing a long ride, and so once I decided I was in, I decided to get a road bike and begin training. Turns out I enjoy riding on a road bike even more than I enjoyed mountain biking, and so a new love was born.
The distance just naturally comes as you do more of it, so I'm not a long distance biker per se, I'm just a cyclist who has happened to do some longer rides.

so glad to have you here with us, kb.

the sauter 220--AWESOME! a dream piano.

can you tell us a bit more about what it was like to apprentice in germany? how long were you in braunschweig? are you fluent in german?

I was in Braunschweig about a year, and spent several weeks in each department within the manufacturing process from polyester application to bending/installing/regulating dampers.

On other trips I spent a few days here and there in other places - nothing like the year I spent in Braunschweig though.

As most of you probably know, my family is German/Swiss. My Grandmother emigrated from Germany, and her husband (whom she met here in the U.S.) emigrated from Switzerland. So growing up I was in a very German family, and even studied the language with Oma.
When I moved to Braunschweig though, I had a rude awakening as to what it means to truly speak and understand another language. I spent several weeks not understanding much, but somewhere between two months and three months immersion began to pay off, and sounds became words, and words began to develop meaning. After 3 months I was speaking conversationally OK, and after 6-9 months, it was easier for me to speak in German to the other "Azubis" than for them to speak "school English" to me.
So in no honest way am I fluent - but conversationally I do okay, and when I can spend a week or so there I very quickly get back into a comfortable place, and am okay speaking it primarily. That's usually when I begin dreaming in German - then I know my brain's made the switch again.

why were you allowed to apprentice there if you weren't going to stay on and become a permanent worker at the company?

is it because your father carried schimmel? do the offspring of dealers get special dispensation?

(pk--who is envious of getting to soak up all that knowledge!)

do you and anna have a dog now? if so, please tell us about him/her. if not, do you plan to get another?

are you back to rock climbing? where have you gone to climb recently?

Piqué:
No - very few "Azubis" (apprentices) stay on to work in the factory.
The way it works in Germany, is that to be a piano technician one has to go to school in Ludwigsburg for 4 years. This consists of 2 months stints at the school, followed by 2 month stints in the factory who is apprenticing them. Then they take their final exams, and are "Klavierbauer" (hopefully).
At that point the factory may extend an offer to them, but most likely they go do something else like work independently, or in their family's business, or whatever. My closest friend at the factory, Heimo went to his family's piano shop in Graz Austria, who was also a Schimmel dealer, and he never had any intention of working in a factory setting.

I have "Izzy" currently, who is a Rottweiler of about 5 years old. Unfortunately I'm at a loss as to what to do with her. I'm pretty good at reading dog behavior, and even training, but am not sure I am a good "leader" for this one. In the last couple years she's suddenly become very hand-shy when people want to touch her head, and has even nipped a couple of times. I'm really not OK with that, and she's only stuck around here because Mrs.KB wanted to keep her - but things are "changing" right now in the home life, meaning Izzy is mine to worry about right now, and I'm not sure how I can be a good single father to her, and I'm still NOT ok with a dog that nips. Not sure training is the key either - so I'm really at a loss.
She's been an absolutely sweet dog for several years, and gets along great with other pooches, and is an absolute love for the humans in her life she knows (great with my nieces, nephews, etc.).
So yes - have a dog, and wonder every day how long I will have one. I think if I knew there was a place I could take her I'd do it, but I don't have the heart to just be a cold SOB and put her down.

Climbing ...
After my heart surgery I was told no climbing. I need to be careful of anaerobic exercise where I vastly increase pressure inside of the heart (i.e. heavy muscular exercise).
I joined a climbing gym last year though, and did fine climbing again - so I think I'm clear heart wise - Thankfully I did it long enough that my body still remembers how to move efficiently, and it isn't as strenuous muscularly as heavy lifting. I stopped at the gym because of the post-transplant weight I had put on. Now that I've lost most of that with time and cycling, I may take out the top-roping gear and setup a route somewhere one day soon.
The last climbing I did was a day of some simple top ropes up Boulder Canyon, at a place called Happy Hour Crag.

you might want to consult a good behaviorist for izzy. is there a rottweiler club near you? networking with dog people familiar with your breed is the best way to get a referral to someone who actually knows what they are doing.

i'm probably stating the obvious but

1. has there been some sort of change in your household right before izzy started nipping? dogs are more sensitive to change than we often think and she may be expressing resentment or insecurity through the nipping.

this happened with a dog of mine who had been a therapy dog and was deemed reliable enough with children and the elderly to be insured by the delta society for $1M in liability insurance. but when we brought home a new puppy, he started biting strangers. some changes we made in the household changed him back into the very sweet dog we had known.

2. have you taken her to the vet to rule out health problems? thyroid issues can cause this behavior. so can undiagnosed and untreated pain.

i'd start with a complete workup at the vet. she's at a good age for a complete blood workup for a baseline as she gets older anyway. there are some excellent clinics in your area affiliated with CSU. a good vet will have insight into what is causing her behavior even if it isn't health related, and may also be able to refer you to a gifted behaviorist.

i guess it is different at different piano factories. at grotrian i asked about an apprenticeship for myself, and they said that among the criteria for selection is who is most likely to stay with them for their career.

and they have many people working there who are not on the klavierbauer track. in fact, i think only kaemmerling is a klavierbauer there--or maybe he's just the only one i met.

oh, i just thought of one other resource for izzy--if you haven't checked out cesar millan's book "cesar's way" i highly recommend it. i gave it to a friend whose dog was one bite away from a death sentence by the county, and he says it saved his dog's life.

but go to the vet first to make sure there isn't something healthwise going on.

i'm not clear on this--is the family business still going? or has it been shuttered? forgive me if i missed this somewhere.

I knew a few azubis at Grotrian while I was at Schimmel (I actually lived closer to the Grotrian factory). Since all of the Azubis go to school in Ludwigsburg together, they all know each other fairly well, so I used to go out and party a bit with the Grotrian kids as well.
The factory doesn't hire take on the apprentices directly, but works in conjunction with the school in Ludwigsburg. So the factory is really just a temporary place for students at the school, and this was true in all of the German factories I worked in or visited. You're right that most working in the factory aren't Klavierbauer - but they also aren't going through the apprenticeship program via Ludwigsburg - they're simply hired on for their particular job, be it dampers, or hammers, or what have you. At Schimmel, each department head is a Meister Klavierbauer, and most of the people doing regulation QA, tuning, or voicing are Klavierbauer. Thankfully they have at least that minimum standard, unlike here where passing the PTG exam requires about 3 weeks of training, and being a PTG member isn't even necessary to work as a technician.


The exception to this are people like me who come for extended (or short term) stays to learn a bit. This is typically done for peopel who are already piano technicians though, rather than starting from scratch. The Schimmel factory for example, had a constant stream of various technicians from a store in Oslo that would come in for a month or two at a time.

Thanks for the advice on Izzy. I really like her, and she's a great pet - but I don't like not being able to have people over, for fear that they'll break the rule of interacting with her. I want to be comfortable having her around people again.

The family business is still running, but not much is happening there right now. My Dad is in the process of selling off inventory, and trying to prepare to close at some point. Their main rebuilder is no longer there, and I'm no longer there, so nobody's doing that sort of work right now on a daily basis. Still pianos for sale, but not much going on in terms of daily showroom or rebuilding facility. Everything's appointment only now, as there isn't someone at the shop on a daily basis anymore.

berry interesting kb (and pique)