When you listen to a jazz musician or watch a marching band in a parade,
do you ever wonder who fixes the instruments when they're damaged or
can't be played in tune?
Musical instrument repairers do. They're members of a highly skilled
profession who clean, tune, repair and maintain the instruments that amateur
and professional musicians use.
Like many repair technicians, John Vossos began his career as a professional
musician. After several years of traveling around North America with his saxophone,
Vossos realized that his musical career wouldn't last forever.
So he went to school to study machine shop practices. After a year, Vossos
knew he hated factory work, so he went to a repair shop in a music store.
"[I] got started in instrument repair by serendipity," he says. "The owner
had a manual telling you how to repair woodwind instruments. I read the manual
and I immediately recognized that I had the required skills, plus I could
play the instruments. I took to it like a duck to water."
Vossos began training himself. He had to understand chemicals and metallurgy.
He also had to know how to solder with a torch, how to use a lathe -- and
how to use various other tools. Fortunately, his machinist trade had already
taught him how to do those things.
Many years later, Vossos runs his own repair business. "On a typical day,
I grab a coffee and I wander out to my double garage that is converted into
a shop. I sit down and work hard on the bench to get as many repairs done
as possible."
In the afternoons, Vossos picks up supplies, does some banking and delivers
stuff. Then he returns for more repairs.
Vossos also makes phone calls in between repairs. Some of his phone calls
are to the shipper "to arrange a pickup later on in the day."
He even does some bookkeeping and invoicing one or two evenings a week.
Vossos works nine or 10 hours a day. Sometimes he even works half days on
weekends.
Vossos gets to see the results when he chats with happy customers. He believes
that people who play wind instruments are generally nice people -- intelligent
and talented.
"It's a good industry to work in. It can be very social, too. Once
in a while, some musicians come to my shop and we blow horns together to have
some fun. Then every now and again, a famous musician graces your shop, and
that can be exciting."
If you're considering this career, Vossos has some advice for you
-- take your time and don't be in a hurry. "It takes a long time to reach
a point where you have enough experience and skill to do what needs to be
done. As in everything else, nothing good comes easy or cheaply."
Joan Mamanakis works for a music store in Seattle. "Be willing to relocate
yourself," she says. "There are lots of jobs available, but you probably have
to move somewhere to get one. It'll help if you're a detail-oriented
person."
She advises people to "go to one of the schools because you can learn a
lot. That'll serve you well to get you started."
Repairing musical instruments is Mamanakis' second career. "I wanted
a job where I'd be able to see what I'd accomplished at the end
of the day."
Since she lived only a few miles from one of the three musical instrument
repair schools in the U.S., Mamanakis enrolled in the course. She discovered
she really liked it. She landed her first job before she graduated from the
two-year training program.
Surprisingly, Mamanakis wasn't a musician, although she studied music
in junior high. "It's very important to know how to play competently
as a way of testing the instruments, but it doesn't require me to be
musical," she says.
"While I was training, I had to learn to play the clarinet, the flute,
the piccolo, the trumpet and the saxophone. I still have trouble with the
tuba."
Mamanakis enjoys looking at instruments and figuring out how to fix them.
She enjoys "being able to take something that doesn't play and is broken,
and bringing it back to the best it can be."
On a typical day, she figures out her plan for the day when she gets to
work. She might work on a clarinet, then clean a trumpet, take the dents out
of something, then solder a saxophone.
"There's repetition, but there's variety within that repetition.
Sometimes I talk to customers, but usually the other people in the store do
this instead. In my first job, customers brought their instruments directly
to me."
This job can be very fast paced -- band instrument repair technicians often
face tight deadlines. "September's really busy because band is starting
and everybody brings their instruments in. I know they all need their instruments,
but I can only go so fast if I'm going to do it right!"
Despite the tight deadlines, surveys and research indicate that this is
one of the least stressful occupations, according to Michael Durocher. He's
been teaching musical instrument repair since 1996.
Durocher, who has his own repair shop, developed the musical instrument
repair program "hoping that a college would pick it up and I'd be able
to hire one of the first graduates."
A former trumpet player, he bought a repair shop about five years after
graduating from high school. Then he attended a training program in Battle
Creek, Michigan. After graduating, he returned to his shop and began working
in the trade.
One of the first things Durocher did was to "arrange for members of the
[local] orchestra to play-test my instruments. They also taught me how pros
set their horns up. This arrangement solved a couple of problems: my youth
and my marketing needs. As I improved, the...members liked what I did and
they started telling people about my work."
Durocher then moved and set up shop again. Gordon Beadle, a blues musician
from Chicago who has played with B.B. King, is one of his customers.
"When you're working with international pros like these people, you
see what a true master can do with a horn. The instrument is like an extension
of themselves. And when that instrument is set up properly, it's amazing
what they can do. It was like a million bucks to see the way their eyes lit
up after I had set up their instrument properly.
"Most musicians don't even know what we can do for their instruments.
Because there's such a shortage of really skilled technicians, musicians
just sort of put up with having instruments that aren't properly repaired
or maintained. They're often surprised when they realize what a difference
a good technician can make."
And Durocher enjoys proving himself. "I like seeing the joy of the students
when they discover they can work on a defective horn and make it brand new
again. I like taking an instrument that people believe is beyond repair and
seeing it come back to life.
"Last year, we repaired a euphonium that had saved a life
in a car accident. The euphonium took the impact instead of the musician.
It was written off. We amazed the school board by bringing it back to brand-new
status."
If this craft interests you, Durocher recommends that you stay in school
and try to get as much musical experience as possible. Studying mechanics
and trying to figure out how things work is useful, too.
"This is an old-world craft that's dying and is in desperate need
of new people to carry on the skill. It's listed on every government
short list. It's not a job where you'll become rich, but it provides
tremendous satisfaction."