Barmizvah Brothers

The Barmitzvah Brothers, from Guelf Ontario, are neither Jewish nor are they related. But don't hold that against them. The trio's newest album, Let's Express our Motives, is "An Album of Under-appreciated Jobs", and features songs like "Bookbinder", "Library Page", "Thrift Store Owner" and my favourite of the moment, "Piano Tuner".

He's there on a bicycle
And there on his feet
You can see his wide bell out there on the street,
he claims its not a business but a dedication:
fifteen years and gratification.

Always a musician, he played the clarinet,
But working on the Steinways is the best that it gets

The Grand Spinnets the old uprights
it doesn't seem to attract young men, but eventually it might

You can keep a piano going two hundred years
if you use the right touch
he says he'll never retire, it's just not his style,
He just likes his job too much
Because it can't be taught, no it can't be taught,
Practice not training,
Just you go and ask him, he loves to tell you, and he'll start explaining:

There's fewer young men in tuning
you don't make your money right away.
Most are musicians having hard times
who need something to do with their day

The Grand Spinnets the old uprights
it doesn't seem to attract young men, but eventually it might

basic a440 then an octave down in relationship with that combination of tunes to make a good sound, up a fifth, down a fourth a circle of fifths and an octave, when you get it balanced in fourths and fifths you take thirds and sixths and you've got it, make sure it's balanced the rest of the octaves from up high down to down low, all you need is to count the beats and you can tune a piano

His mother told him he should consider
a job where he would use his ears.
His perfect pitch for working on the ivories
and he didn't think of it again for years,
but later he was able to see himself in the role his mother had once described
so he read as many books as he could gather and worked for free where he could try.