| Important Core Job Duties (in order of importance) For the Top 5 most important - How can you build experience and skill doing these? This will help now, to begin preparing for this type of occupation. |
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| Importance (%) | Description |
| Importance: 100 (%) | Description: Play instruments to evaluate their sound quality and to locate any defects. |
| Importance: 100 (%) | Description: Disassemble instruments and parts for repair and adjustment. |
| Importance: 100 (%) | Description: Repair or replace musical instrument parts and components, such as strings, bridges, felts, and keys, using hand and power tools. |
| Importance: 100 (%) | Description: Reassemble instruments following repair, using hand tools and power tools and glue, hair, yarn, resin, or clamps, and lubricate instruments as necessary. |
| Importance: 100 (%) | Description: Inspect instruments to locate defects, and to determine their value or the level of restoration required. |
| Importance: 100 (%) | Description: Shape old parts and replacement parts to improve tone or intonation, using hand tools, lathes, or soldering irons. |
| Importance: 95 (%) | Description: Mix and measure glue that will be used for instrument repair. |
| Importance: 91 (%) | Description: Compare instrument pitches with tuning tool pitches to tune instruments. |
| Importance: 91 (%) | Description: Polish instruments, using rags and polishing compounds, buffing wheels, or burnishing tools. |
| Importance: 82 (%) | Description: Repair cracks in wood or metal instruments, using pinning wire, lathes, fillers, clamps, or soldering irons. |
| Importance: 73 (%) | Description: String instruments, and adjust trusses and bridges of instruments to obtain specified string tensions and heights. |
| Importance: 73 (%) | Description: Adjust string tensions to tune instruments, using hand tools and electronic tuning devices. |
Music Careers and Jobs
Select, Find and Prepare for Music Careers and Jobs - all on one page
For musicians who want to understand the realistic mix of performance, teaching, and production income paths. Use the tools below to see which music roles fit your background and goals.
Music careers combine performance, teaching, production, and business, and rarely follow a single linear job-title path. Use the tools below to explore Music-related job titles sorted by growth rate, salary, or required education. You can start with entry points like Session Musician, or look ahead to advanced roles such as Music Director or Recording Producer. Along the way, you will see specific certifications, such as Suzuki or similar teaching certification (for instruction track), that can help you move up the career ladder.
Here is a short Helper Video 
This page will take you through 4 steps to (1) Select from Music careers/jobs, (2) Find Music job listings, (3) Prepare for Music careers, and (4) Provide Music career-specific resources.
Step 1: Select a Career/Job: This page starts with 4 ways for you to identify and select from listings of Music careers/jobs:
A) Fastest Growing Music Careers - 2023 to 2033 (est.)
These listings are based on job growth estimates and helps you to identify the fastest growing and evolving Music careers. Some careers may not initially seem related to Music, so relevant Music jobs are listed alongside each listing. This can also help us to identify which careers (bottom of the listing) may have negative growth - perhaps due to automation or planned obsolescence.
B) Median Annual Salary U.S. Music Careers
These listings are sorted (descending) by median annual salary in the U.S. This may help us to identify our ideal career. We may not qualify at this time for the desired career, but this listing and the results provided can help us to explore job details, as well as learn how to appropriately prepare for the career.
C) Music Career Ladders (Educational Requirements)
These listings will help us to identify Music careers sorted by educational requirements (with the most difficult to obtain listed first). This may help us to identify career ladders (as we scroll down the list), and help us to get jobs that we qualify for now.
D) Select From a Listing of 136 Music Jobs.
The list may be quite long. There are two ways you might like to use this list:
1) Filter - As you enter a word, you will filter (limit) the list of job titles
2) Browse the list (Don't Filter) - You can simply explore the list of job titles. There may be many that you might never have considered to be of interest.
Once you have identified a job title of interest, simply click on it.
Step 2: Find a Job: After you have selected a career/job title above, you will see a form asking for your location. You will see several radio selection choices to utilize the job search site of your choice.
Step 3: Prepare For a Career: In this section you will gain access to detailed information to help you prepare for the chosen career. Information may include (not every career choice includes all of the elements below - updates occur quarterly):
Core Duties: Lists the primary worker-related tasks performed in this occupation
Supplemental Duties: Lists additional tasks that are performed but are secondary to the core duties
Work Activities: Summarizes the broad types of behaviors and actions related to this career
Specific Work Activities: Provides more granular day-to-day activities tied to the work performed
Essential Skills: Provides foundational skills that are core to performing this specific occupation
Transferable Skills: Provides career-portable skills that can be applied across multiple occupations and industries
Day-in-the-Life Summaries: Provides a snapshot of the key activities performed on a typical workday in this career
Knowledge Required: Provides the requirements regarding the acquisition of facts and principles
Software Skills: Lists software tools commonly used in this occupation, organized by category and priority
Preparation Required: Provides a summary of the required experience and education
Education Required: Detailed breakdown of the education required
Training and Experience Required: Detailed breakdown of the training and Training and Experience Required
Local Salary Information: Provides national and local salary ranges
Certifications: Provides appropriate government and private-sector certifications and/or credentials that may be required
Professional Associations: Provides professional associations that are related to the career selected
Job Listings: Provides links to active current job listings for the selected career, along with multiple similar job titles to explore. All information appears on this page without navigating away.
Related Careers to Consider: Lists up to 20 careers that might be of interest to you (related to your initial choice - what they do, what they know, and what they're called), ranked by best fit.
** If you clicked on a link from section D (as described in Step 1 above), you will see one or more links to an occupation that is usually a bit more general than your initial job selection - the link(s) is directly related to the specific job you identified through your prior selections.
*NOTE: It is possible that there may not be a career path identified for the specific job you selected in Step 1. If this is the case, scroll up the page and click on a different career/job.
Step 4: Career-Specific Resources (detailed and constantly updated): Continue to scroll down the page and you will find tabs that provide detailed (updated) links specific to the career you selected. This information includes:
Videos: Provides a listing of video links related to this career. A great way to get a quick overview of the occupation.
Resumes: Sources for resume materials and techniques. This can help to get you started.
Job Description: Sources that provide job descriptions, which are vital to resume and interview preparation.
Interviews: Provides links that can help you to prepare for and successfully complete the job interview. Can also assist with coffee chats.
Step by Step: Provides links to resources that can help to organize the career search process.
LinkedIn: One of the best professional social media sites that provides links, opportunities, and networking specifically for careers and career development.
Step 1 of 4: Select a Career/Job
37 Music careers are listed below (sorted by Percentage Change in Total Job Openings - 2023 to 2033 est.). Music-related jobs specific to each career are also provided. This shows which careers are emerging and growing the fastest. Please Scroll and Select below:
| Occupations | U.S. Job Openings 2023-2033 (% change) | Music-Related Jobs |
39 Music careers are listed below (sorted by U.S. National Median Salary). Music-related jobs specific to each occupation are also provided. Please Scroll and Select below::
| Occupations | National Median Salary | Music-Related Jobs |
39 Music careers are listed (sorted by Education/Preparation Requirements - descending) to provide career ladders. Music-related jobs specific to each career are also provided.
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Education/Preparation Categories: 5 = Usually requires graduate school (e.g., Master's degree, Ph.D., M.D., or J.D.) 4 = Usually requires a four-year Bachelor's degree 3 = Usually requires vocational training, related on-the-job experience, or Associate's degree 2 = Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, but not always Please Scroll and Select below: |
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| Occupations | Education/Preparation | Music-Related Jobs |
Scroll through the picklist (below). There are 136 specific Music job titles listed. Select those that may be of interest - you will get active job listing links, along with detailed resources to help you prepare for a career related to that job.
You can use this form two ways:
Filter - As you enter a keyword, you will filter (limit) the list of job titles below
Browse the list (Don't Filter) - You can simply explore the list of job titles. There may be many that you might never have considered to be of interest.
OR - leave blank and scroll through the choices:
Select a Job Title (Scroll and Select) :
Step 2 of 4: Find a Job
Find Job Listings:
Musical Instrument Repairers and Tuners.
Step 3 of 4: Prepare For a Career
Musical Instrument Repairers and Tuners
Description: Repair percussion, stringed, reed, or wind instruments. May specialize in one area, such as piano tuning.
Please click on a section below to expand and see detailed occupational information related to "Musical Instrument Repairers and Tuners":
U.S. Total Employment (2023):
7,800U.S. Total Employment (2033 est.):
7,500
Employment Change (2023-2033 est.):
-300 (-3.9%) Average Annual Job Openings (2023-2033 est.):
800
Core Duties
Supplemental Duties
| Important Supplemental Job Duties (in order of importance)
For the Top 5 most important - How can you build experience and skill doing these? This will help now, to begin preparing for this type of occupation. |
|
| Importance (%) | Description |
| Importance: 64 (%) | Description: Refinish instruments to protect and decorate them, using hand tools, buffing tools, and varnish. |
| Importance: 64 (%) | Description: Make wood replacement parts, using woodworking machines and hand tools. |
| Importance: 55 (%) | Description: Solder posts and parts to hold them in their proper places. |
| Importance: 55 (%) | Description: Remove irregularities from tuning pins, strings, and hammers of pianos, using wood blocks or filing tools. |
| Importance: 50 (%) | Description: Refinish and polish piano cabinets or cases to prepare them for sale. |
| Importance: 50 (%) | Description: Adjust felt hammers on pianos to increase tonal mellowness or brilliance, using sanding paddles, lacquer, or needles. |
| Importance: 45 (%) | Description: Align pads and keys on reed or wind instruments. |
| Importance: 43 (%) | Description: Assemble and install new pipe organs and pianos in buildings. |
| Importance: 41 (%) | Description: Remove dents and burrs from metal instruments, using mallets and burnishing tools. |
| Importance: 36 (%) | Description: Wash metal instruments in lacquer-stripping and cyanide solutions to remove lacquer and tarnish. |
| Importance: 32 (%) | Description: Deliver pianos to purchasers or to locations of their use. |
| Importance: 27 (%) | Description: Strike wood, fiberglass, or metal bars of instruments, and use tuned blocks, stroboscopes, or electronic tuners to evaluate tones made by instruments. |
Work Activities
| Important General Work Activities (in order of importance)
For the Top 5 most important - How can you build experience and skill doing these? This will help now, to begin preparing for this type of occupation. |
|
| Importance (%) | Description |
| Importance: 85 (%) | Description: Making Decisions and Solving Problems: Analyzing information and evaluating results to choose the best solution and solve problems. |
| Importance: 79 (%) | Description: Getting Information: Observing, receiving, and otherwise obtaining information from all relevant sources. |
| Importance: 75 (%) | Description: Handling and Moving Objects: Using hands and arms in handling, installing, positioning, and moving materials, and manipulating things. |
| Importance: 75 (%) | Description: Thinking Creatively: Developing, designing, or creating new applications, ideas, relationships, systems, or products, including artistic contributions. |
| Importance: 74 (%) | Description: Judging the Qualities of Objects, Services, or People: Assessing the value, importance, or quality of things or people. |
| Importance: 73 (%) | Description: Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships: Developing constructive and cooperative working relationships with others, and maintaining them over time. |
| Importance: 71 (%) | Description: Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events: Identifying information by categorizing, estimating, recognizing differences or similarities, and detecting changes in circumstances or events. |
| Importance: 71 (%) | Description: Organizing, Planning, and Prioritizing Work: Developing specific goals and plans to prioritize, organize, and accomplish your work. |
| Importance: 70 (%) | Description: Performing for or Working Directly with the Public: Performing for people or dealing directly with the public. This includes serving customers in restaurants and stores, and receiving clients or guests. |
| Importance: 70 (%) | Description: Inspecting Equipment, Structures, or Materials: Inspecting equipment, structures, or materials to identify the cause of errors or other problems or defects. |
| Importance: 69 (%) | Description: Scheduling Work and Activities: Scheduling events, programs, and activities, as well as the work of others. |
| Importance: 66 (%) | Description: Updating and Using Relevant Knowledge: Keeping up-to-date technically and applying new knowledge to your job. |
| Importance: 66 (%) | Description: Repairing and Maintaining Mechanical Equipment: Servicing, repairing, adjusting, and testing machines, devices, moving parts, and equipment that operate primarily on the basis of mechanical (not electronic) principles. |
| Importance: 65 (%) | Description: Performing General Physical Activities: Performing general physical activities includes doing activities that require considerable use of your arms and legs and moving your whole body, such as climbing, lifting, balancing, walking, stooping, and handling materials. |
| Importance: 64 (%) | Description: Estimating the Quantifiable Characteristics of Products, Events, or Information: Estimating sizes, distances, and quantities; or determining time, costs, resources, or materials needed to perform a work activity. |
| Importance: 64 (%) | Description: Monitoring Processes, Materials, or Surroundings: Monitoring and reviewing information from materials, events, or the environment, to detect or assess problems. |
| Importance: 61 (%) | Description: Evaluating Information to Determine Compliance with Standards: Using relevant information and individual judgment to determine whether events or processes comply with laws, regulations, or standards. |
Specific Work Activities
| Important Specific Work Activities
How can you begin to build experience and skill doing these? This will help now, to begin preparing for this type of occupation. Specific Work Activities appear below: |
|
| Adjust equipment to ensure optimal performance. | |
| Adjust tuning or functioning of musical instruments. | |
| Align equipment or machinery. | |
| Assemble products or production equipment. | |
| Clean equipment, parts, or tools to repair or maintain them in good working order. | |
| Disassemble equipment for maintenance or repair. | |
| Fabricate parts or components. | |
| Inspect mechanical equipment to locate damage, defects, or wear. | |
| Install instrumentation or electronic equipment or systems. | |
| Lubricate equipment to allow proper functioning. | |
| Polish materials, workpieces, or finished products. | |
| Prepare compounds or solutions to be used for repairs. | |
| Reassemble equipment after repair. | |
| Refinish wood or metal surfaces. | |
| Remove dents from equipment, materials, tools or structures. | |
| Repair worn, damaged, or defective mechanical parts. | |
| Replace worn, damaged, or defective mechanical parts. | |
| Smooth surfaces of objects or equipment. | |
| Solder parts or connections between parts. | |
| Test mechanical equipment to ensure proper functioning. | |
| Travel to work sites to perform installation, repair or maintenance work. | |
Knowledge Required
| Knowledge Required (in order of importance)
For the Top 5 most important - How can you build experience and skill doing these? This will help now, to begin preparing for this type of occupation. |
|
| Importance (%) | Description |
| Importance: 85 (%) | Description: Customer and Personal Service: Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction. |
| Importance: 75 (%) | Description: Mechanical: Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance. |
| Importance: 69 (%) | Description: Fine Arts: Knowledge of the theory and techniques required to compose, produce, and perform works of music, dance, visual arts, drama, and sculpture. |
| Importance: 67 (%) | Description: English Language: Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, and rules of composition and grammar. |
Essential Skills
| Essential Skills (in order of importance)
These are the foundational skills most central to success in this occupation. For the Top 5 most important, how can you begin building experience and confidence using these skills now? |
|
| Importance (%) | Description |
| Importance: 60 (%) | Description: Critical Thinking: Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems. |
Transferable Skills
| Transferable Skills (in order of importance)
These are skills that can transfer across occupations and industries. For the Top 5 most important, how can you strengthen these skills now so they support both this career and future career flexibility? |
|
| Importance (%) | Description |
| Importance: 64 (%) | Description: Quality Control Analysis: Conducting tests and inspections of products, services, or processes to evaluate quality or performance. |
| Importance: 62 (%) | Description: Troubleshooting: Determining causes of operating errors and deciding what to do about it. |
| Importance: 62 (%) | Description: Repairing: Repairing machines or systems using the needed tools. |
| Importance: 52 (%) | Description: Service Orientation: Actively looking for ways to help people. |
| Importance: 52 (%) | Description: Complex Problem Solving: Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions. |
| Importance: 52 (%) | Description: Judgment and Decision Making: Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one. |
Day-in-the-Life Summaries
| Day-in-the-Life Summaries These summaries show the main types of activities you are likely to perform on a regular basis in this occupation. How can you imagine your typical workday — using these examples to see if this type of work fits you? |
| Activity: Adjust equipment to ensure adequate performance. |
| Activity: Apply protective solutions or coatings. |
| Activity: Assemble equipment or components. |
| Activity: Clean tools, equipment, facilities, or work areas. |
| Activity: Disassemble equipment. |
| Activity: Fabricate devices or components. |
| Activity: Inspect commercial, industrial, or production systems or equipment. |
| Activity: Install commercial or production equipment. |
| Activity: Join parts using soldering, welding, or brazing techniques. |
| Activity: Maintain tools or equipment. |
| Activity: Operate transportation equipment or vehicles. |
| Activity: Position materials or components for assembly. |
| Activity: Prepare mixtures or solutions. |
| Activity: Repair tools or equipment. |
| Activity: Smooth surfaces of objects or equipment. |
| Activity: Test performance of equipment or systems. |
Software Skills
|
Software Skills These are examples of software tools commonly used in this occupation, organized from most to least important for your career preparation. How can you start learning or practicing the highest-priority tools so that you feel confident using them on the job? |
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| General Software Tools | ||||||||||
| Analytical or scientific software (scroll table below): | ||||||||||
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Preparation Required
| Preparation Required - How much preparation is needed to obtain this type of job? |
| Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed |
| Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job. |
| Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree. |
| Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations. |
| These occupations usually involve using communication and organizational skills to coordinate, supervise, manage, or train others to accomplish goals. Examples include hydroelectric production managers, desktop publishers, electricians, agricultural technicians, barbers, court reporters and simultaneous captioners, and medical assistants. |
Education Required
| Education Required - by frequency of educational attainment This shows you details about the level of education most commonly held by workers in this occupation. How can you begin planning the educational pathway that will prepare you best for this type of work? |
|
| Frequency of Attainment (%) | Level of Education |
| Frequency of Attainment: 54.6 (%) | Level of Education: Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production) |
| Frequency of Attainment: 18.2 (%) | Level of Education: Less than a High School Diploma |
| Frequency of Attainment: 9.1 (%) | Level of Education: High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED) |
| Frequency of Attainment: 9.1 (%) | Level of Education: Bachelor's Degree |
| Frequency of Attainment: 4.6 (%) | Level of Education: Some College Courses |
| Frequency of Attainment: 4.6 (%) | Level of Education: Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) |
Training and Experience Required
| Training and Experience Required - by frequency of training and work experience attainment This section shows you how often different types of training and work experience are required for this occupation. How can you start gaining the kinds of experience and training that are most common for this type of work? |
|
| Frequency of Attainment (%) | Level of Training and Work Experience |
| Frequency of Attainment: 31.8 (%) | Level of Training and Work Experience: Over 1 year, up to and including 2 years |
| Frequency of Attainment: 27.3 (%) | Level of Training and Work Experience: Over 2 years, up to and including 4 years |
| Frequency of Attainment: 18.2 (%) | Level of Training and Work Experience: Over 6 months, up to and including 1 year |
| Frequency of Attainment: 13.6 (%) | Level of Training and Work Experience: None |
| Frequency of Attainment: 4.6 (%) | Level of Training and Work Experience: Over 3 months, up to and including 6 months |
| Frequency of Attainment: 4.6 (%) | Level of Training and Work Experience: Over 8 years, up to and including 10 years |
Local Salary Information
Select a State (scroll and Select) :
Please select a State to see State and National Salaries
Certifications
| Certifications These are examples of certifications that may be important for this occupation. How can you begin exploring which certifications fit your goals and what steps you would need to take to earn them? |
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Registered Piano Technician
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Professional Associations
| Professional Associations These associations connect people who work in this occupation or related fields. How can you start using these associations to learn more, build your network, or find mentoring opportunities? |
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Piano Technicians Guild (PTG)
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Job Listings
| Job Listings and Similar Occupational Titles - scroll and click to identify common requirements, keywords, and skills in current job listings |
Related Careers to Consider
Step 4 of 4: Career-Specific Resources
This section contains detailed external resources appropriate to "Musical Instrument Repairers and Tuners". Explore these resources to start learning more. Links are constantly updated, so bookmark this page.
Videos
Here is a listing of videos related to this career. A great way to get a quick overview of the occupation.
Resumes
Here are resources that allow you to see example resumes for this occupation. It may be helpful to see examples from others who have this type of experience.
Job Description
Here are resources that provide job descriptions, which are vital for resume and interview preparation.
Interviews
There are many great resources that can help guide you through the interview process. These links provide help in preparing and performing an effective interview, specific to this occupation.
Step-by-Step
Here are links to help guide you, step-by-step, to become a(n): Musical Instrument Repairers and Tuners
LinkedIn®
Here are links to various posts and groups from LinkedIn ® that relate to this occupation. Great way to start building professional contacts in the field that might be most appropriate for you.
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