Key Lies in Blind Piano Tuner’s Fingers

NASHVILLE, Tenn. —  Gerald Smith has never seen a piano, although he has made his living seated at one for 41 years, running his fingers over the strings as well as the keys.

Blind since birth, Smith began tuning pianos in 1948. He learned his trade at the Tennessee School for the Blind in Nashville.

“I found out I was going to have to make a living some way or another,” Smith said. “They taught you how to make brooms and they taught you chair caning. I didn’t think I could do either one of them too good.”

While playing the alto horn in the school band, Smith found piano tuning more to his liking.

“In the band, you have to tune up, and I found out I could do that pretty good,” said the native of Jamestown, Ala. “I had a pretty good ear.”

Smith’s good ear and sensitive fingers have tuned keyboards for the likes of Floyd Cramer, Ronnie Milsap, Johnny Cash and the Nashville Symphony, as well as thousands of customers for the two dealers he has worked for.

The 62-year-old tuner is now semi-retired, spending three days a week sharpening the sounds from uprights and grands. It takes him about an hour to tune a piano.

He makes his way easily among the instruments in a showroom, identifying the make and model with a touch of his hand.

“When you tune a piano, it’s just like being acquainted with someone. The more you’re around them, the better you know them. It’s just like an old friend,” he said.

Four decades in the tuning business has taught Smith that each piano has a story behind it, as well. He can tell a lot about the people who play them, even without meeting them.

“If you see dust on the keys up on this end and down on the lower end, you know they haven’t touched those keys in years, which indicates they play little, simple songs,” he said.

“If I sit down at a piano, run my fingers over the keys, I can tell whether it’s been tuned very often. I can tell if it needs rebuilding or overhauling by the way the mechanical part feels.”