SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — The Christmas concerts and large church services in the days leading up to the holidays mark a very busy time of year for the technicians at Bob’s Piano. They are among the very few professional piano tuners in the KELOLAND region.
Scott Rogers and Ben Watkins barely had time to meet with us, on this day both were hitting the road, driving hours to work on pianos in need of their talents.
“I love everything about the piano,” said Rogers.
“It’s the essence of music the keys are the scale right in front of you,” said Watkins.
Both men started working for Bob Schoppert shortly after High School, eventually taking over the business as co-owners. They can tune anything, from spinets to uprights to consoles and grands, they’ve done it all.
“So this A was tuned already, so I’m going to tune this D to this A and once I hear where that is I’ll go down to that G and then it just keeps progressing from there,” said Rogers as he showed us how he tunes.
“I always tell people there is a reason I tune pianos because I can’t play,” he said chuckling.
Watkins has a great way of explaining the tuning process to those of us who don’t have that musical ear.
“In tuning when you have unison and they are slightly off, its like two light towers and their lights are going like, this is off and this is off and then also sudden the blink together, that’s the same thing with tuning.”
For Watkins, tuning pianos to perfection is a joy, and it comes naturally.
“Always as a little kid, tuning drinking glasses around the table you know drink a little bit of that ding dong ding dong trying to make a song, just tuning everything,” said Watkins.
“My favorite is when I get done tuning a piano and I play a little something like that and people ask me, so do you play? I guess not,” said Rogers laughing.
When Watkins and Rogers are done tuning a piano, they each have something special they like to play to make sure everything sounds right to them. For fun, Watkins plays a little bit of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s classic Freebird. It takes a few notes but it’s easy to recognize. At Bob’s Piano, not only do they tune pianos, they store them and even repurpose them, like this wine rack made from a piano. Pianos often come with emotional attachments for families, so many memories center around them.
“So this is a 1916 Steinway Model O,” said Rogers.
The baby grand belongs to a woman from Elk Point.
“Her dad passed away and this was sitting in his old living room in his farm house and she decided she wanted to restore it and keep it in the family,” Rogers explained.
Some restoration projects take more work than others and some are very satisfying.
The keys and the case are original but just about everything else has been replaced.
“A brand new action so it plays like a new piano. Essentially it is a new piano except for the outside. She decided to leave it,” he said.
Rogers admits there is a sense of achievement that comes with being able restore something that means so much to the owner. Over the years these two have had their brushes with fame tuning pianos for some big stars.
“Back when bands traveled with pianos at the old arena we’d go and tune so like Alabama on and Amy Grant used to travel with a piano,” said Rogers.
“Ray Charles, Barry Manilow, Kenny G, John Denver, Dr. John was at the Jazz Fest, Aretha Franklin, got to tune for her too,” said Watkins reading from a list.
“A lot of the people we tune for are just very, very accomplished pianists whether they are famous or not, I’m kind of in awe of how they’ve mastered the keyboard,” said Rogers.
Both say what they love about their job is being around others who appreciate music and the piano as much as they do.
Bob’s Piano website can be found here and his Facebook page can be found here.
Like the rest of us, the Ben and Scott are celebrating the Christmas Holiday and enjoying a little time off. But come next week, they will be hitting the road again.
By the way the baby grand featured in this story is up for sale, so if you are looking for a last minute Christmas gift give them a call.
