Those pianos that are way out of shape sometimes need to be tuned in two separate visits. A regular tuning can take about two hours. While a piano has 88 keys, there are 220 strings inside to work on. From there, he continues taking one note at a time, working his way to the treble and bass and making it to become a solid sound. If he hears a wave, he'll work to take it out and make the sound smooth as glass. Then, he works through the octaves from F to F-sharp. Sitting at the grand piano at First United Methodist Church in Midland on Friday, Sherrod demonstrates the techniques he uses. Many of those who quit tuning will call Sherrod to have them come tune their pianos for them. He won't go longer than a week or two on vacation because after that, he said it starts to get a little rusty trying to tune a piano again. He's traveled as far away as Dallas to work on a piano after the owners moved from a neighborhood in Green Tree and wanted Sherrod to continue tuning their instrument. Trips to Marfa and Terlingua and Snyder are not uncommon. He provides service to those in a 200-mile radius of the Tall City covering West Texas, Big Bend and the Southwestern New Mexico regions. His clientele include churches and schools, as well as individuals. He moved home to Midland and is now one of only three piano tuners in the Tall City. "Essentially, we were building a piano back together again," Sherrod said.
For projects, they would take apart an old piano and re-assemble it with new strings, hammers and dampers and strip the finish and re-apply a new one. In the classroom, they learned about all the parts and functions of a piano. "It was an eclectic group to be a part of," he said. They came from all over the country to be in the program. The students ranged in age from 18 to 75. But the thought of only working at a hospital seemed to be a downer until he heard about the piano tuning and repair school at Grayson County College in Denison.įor one year, he completed the program having to tune a piano every day to get his ear in tune with the pitches and keys. Sherrod first went to Texas Tech University to major in musical education, then transferred to West Texas State in Canyon for a degree in musical therapy. "Before the season starts, I have to shovel it all out just to tune it." There's not another one to match it," he says with a smile. "It's the only piano on earth that has so much popcorn inside it. After a few shows, he got his confidence back and enjoyed the crowd. The first night he sat down to play during the melodrama, it was frightening and scary as the audience threw their popcorn at him. Sherrod's love for playing ragtime opened doors for him to join the Summer Mummers musical ensemble, first as a trombone player for five years in 1976 and then as their pianist in 1981. "I heard him play songs and I listened intensely and got attached." "He had a sense of humor in him," he says of his uncle. He first heard his uncle play a ragtime twist on the "Happy Birthday"song and found that he too really liked the musical genre.
His girlfriend also plays the piano and flute and the two sometimes will perform duets at her church in McCamey. He'd play for Christmas parties at homes in Midland. Even now, he can remember the notes perfectly to the Charlie Brown theme song.Īs a teen, he started playing for churches and social events. By the time Sherrod was a freshman in high school, he was mimicking jingles from television commercials, pop tunes from the radio and classical pieces by Bach, Beethoven and Mozart.
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