---
title: "Piano Technician"
description: "Tunes, regulates, repairs and restores acoustic pianos for homes, schools, churches, recording studios and concert halls."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/piano-technician"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Piano Technician

**Category:** Installation, Maintenance, and Repair · **SOC code:** 49-9063 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 49-9063.00

Tunes, regulates, repairs and restores acoustic pianos for homes, schools, churches, recording studios and concert halls.

Also advertised as: Registered Piano Technician; Piano Tuner-Technician; Concert Piano Technician; Piano Rebuilder.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $46,420 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $22.32/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $31,220 to $71,600, with the middle half between $37,670 and $58,430
- **Total US employment:** 5,380
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +1.9% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 600 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 48/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 5,380 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $31,220 |
| 25th | $37,670 |
| 50th (median) | $46,420 |
| 75th | $58,430 |
| 90th | $71,600 |
| Mean (average) | $49,960 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| MI | $59,570 | $61,912 | 210 |
| NJ | $58,730 | $53,977 | 200 |
| TN | $58,730 | $63,927 | 300 |
| MD | $55,130 | $52,525 | 160 |
| OR | $54,800 | $53,018 | 40 |
| NY | $53,420 | $49,499 | 270 |
| CT | $52,940 | $51,095 | 40 |
| UT | $50,180 | $50,757 | 60 |
| IL | $49,250 | $49,271 | 200 |
| ME | $48,530 | $50,005 | 90 |
| TX | $48,250 | $49,713 | 580 |
| CA | $47,580 | $42,973 | 520 |
| PA | $47,520 | $48,702 | 240 |
| MO | $47,220 | $51,995 | 110 |
| MA | $46,820 | $44,271 | 130 |

19 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 34 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/piano-technician/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/piano-technician.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 6,000 in the 2025–2035 base year to 6,100 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 100 jobs, or +1.9%. Slower than average: 1.9% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 600 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Some preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Apprenticeship.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 54.6% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 18.2% |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 9.1% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 9.1% |
| Some College Courses | 4.6% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 4.6% |

## What the work involves

- Tune acoustic pianos by ear and with electronic tuning aids
- Regulate keys, hammers and dampers for even touch
- Voice hammers to adjust the piano's tone
- Replace broken strings, keys and action parts
- Inspect pianos for buyers and estimate repair costs
- Prepare concert pianos before performances and recordings
- Advise owners on humidity control and care

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Critical Thinking — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Quality Control Analysis — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Troubleshooting — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Repairing — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Equipment Selection — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Equipment Maintenance — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mechanical — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Fine Arts — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Sales and Marketing — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Hearing Sensitivity — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Manual Dexterity — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Finger Dexterity — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Control Precision — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Realistic (R), Artistic (A), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 6.39 |
| A — Artistic | 4.16 |
| C — Conventional | 4.04 |
| I — Investigative | 2.64 |
| S — Social | 1.58 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.00 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 76.8 |
| ISTP | 76.4 |
| INTJ | 69.5 |
| ISFJ | 64.8 |
| ISFP | 63.6 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ, ISTP.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Musical Instrument Repairer and Tuner](https://nuecareer.com/careers/musical-instrument-repairer-and-tuner) — median $46,420
- [Electric Motor, Power Tool, and Related Repairer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electric-motor-power-tool-and-related-repairer) — median $56,210
- [Timing Device Assembler and Adjuster](https://nuecareer.com/careers/timing-device-assembler-and-adjuster) — median $62,620
- [Watch and Clock Repairer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/watch-and-clock-repairer) — median $67,230
- [Electromechanical Equipment Assembler](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electromechanical-equipment-assembler) — median $45,930
- [Coil Winder, Taper, and Finisher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/coil-winder-taper-and-finisher) — median $48,220
- [Tool Grinder, Filer, and Sharpener](https://nuecareer.com/careers/tool-grinder-filer-and-sharpener) — median $50,060
- [Electrical and Electronic Equipment Assembler](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electrical-and-electronic-equipment-assembler) — median $45,930
- [Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, and Buffing Machine Tool Setter, Operator, and Tender, Metal and Plastic](https://nuecareer.com/careers/grinding-lapping-polishing-and-buffing-machine-tool-setter-operator-and-tender-metal-and-plastic) — median $46,550
- [Calibration Technologist and Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/calibration-technologist-and-technician) — median $67,820

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/piano-technician