When VanEffen was attending Northern Michigan University, Manley Anderson, who owned Delta Music Center, now Jim’s Music in Escanaba, hired him to service pianos that were in his store. Anderson paid him $10 per piano at that time.

After awhile, Anderson would send him out to remote areas to tune pianos where a regular tuner wouldn’t go. The work paid for VanEffen’s schooling.

“After Manley Anderson hired me at Delta Music Center, I was in college. I took a light load in college so that I could keep up with my piano-tuning business,” VanEffen said. “Just gradually, it grew and grew and grew, to the point where I actually quit college for a semester just to tune pianos.”

After graduating from college in December 1970, VanEffen was hired by Engadine Schools the next fall as director of bands. He had tuned the school’s pianos.

Bill VanEffen tunes a grand piano. He's been doing such work in the Upper Peninsula since 1970. (Courtesy photo)

“By the time I was a teacher, I had the business really well up and running,” VanEffen said.

By fall 1982, VanEffen moved to Newberry to become Tahquamenon Area School District’s director of bands. He never stopped servicing pianos, though.

“Piano tuning – until I retired from teaching in 2003 – has never been my full-time career,” VanEffen said. “But it’s something I’ve always done.”

It provided a great second income alongside his teaching career, he said.

“I remember one time we were broke, and I was a first-year teacher at Engadine. My wife and I needed a washer and dryer, and I went to Marquette and booked a whole bunch of pianos on a Saturday and that paid for the washer and dryer,” VanEffen said. “It’s been an excellent sideline.”

Bill VanEffen and Dan Sirtola work on servicing a piano. The pair have been working together since 2021. (Courtesy photo)

Because servicing pianos is a job that requires traveling to the customer, VanEffen doesn’t have a storefront. As the VanEffen family moved, his business moved with them — from Newberry to their home in Rock, where he now runs his business from his home office. He primarily sources his piano parts from Schaff Piano Supply in Chicago.

“I’ve always had a shop, whether in my home or garage,” he said.

VanEffen also is a commercial pilot and flight instructor. It appears he transferred both of his passions to his two sons.

His oldest son, who shares his father’s name, Bill, started his own business, VanEffen Piano Tuning & Repair in Raleigh, North Carolina. He tunes for North Carolina State University while also having a career as an aircraft mechanic for American Airlines. His other son, Jake, is an airline pilot.

After 55 years, VanEffen has built lasting connections and a large clientele.

Dan Sirtola installing a climate control system in a grand piano. Humidity control is essential to tuning stability. (Courtesy photo)

“We do tuning, regulation, voicing, repair. Voicing is when you adjust a hammer so that the correct timbre comes out of the piano – the correct tone. Repair is fixing anything that’s broken,” VanEffen said.

His customers include churches, private homes and schools. He even became the piano technician for Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie, where he works on pianos in their fine arts center.

“I’ve been a member of the Piano Technicians Guild and I’ve attended several conferences. I went to Steinway School, and I’m still learning. This is a business where learning never stops,” VanEffen said.

But the evening of Oct. 5, 2020, put the future of VanEffen’s business in jeopardy.

While VanEffen was bowhunting for deer, he fell 18 feet from his tree stand onto his back, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.

Bill VanEffen, left, and Dan Sirtola, right, work together to provide Bill VanEffen Piano Services in the Upper Peninsula.

After spending three weeks at the Marquette hospital and six more weeks at Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital in Grand Rapids, VanEffen was able to come home. He credits wife Deb’s selflessness and caregiving, as well as his rehab therapists, for finally being able to come back.

When VanEffen returned from the rehabilitation hospital in December 2020, he decided he would go crazy if all he could do was watch daytime television. He then decided to attempt tuning his own piano at home, which would prove to be a challenge.

“It took what seemed like forever because I’m so used to standing when I tune a grand (piano) and I had to adjust everything to work from my wheelchair,” VanEffen wrote in a piece that’s to be published in the Piano Technicians Journal, an international magazine for members of the Pianos Technicians Guild.

“Now I do my business in a wheelchair, but I’ve got an assistant who hauls me around. He does some of the piano work as well,” he said.

VanEffen noticed that Dan Sirtola, a full-time guitar instructor at Jim’s Music in Escanaba, was struggling to find customers after COVID-19 hit.

“I called him to see if he’d like to haul me around tuning pianos, and we’ve been doing it ever since,” VanEffen said.

That partnership started in early spring 2021. “It turned out to be mutually beneficial, because Bill is someone who always has to be doing something,” Sirtola said. “He gets out of the house, and I get to pick up another profession.”

Being around VanEffen or Sirtola, they seem to treat each other like family. “I would say I see him as a father figure,” Sirtola said. “I’m always looking forward to the people I meet, and it’s rather nice spending time with Bill in general.”

Sirtola added, “Originally running around with him, I kind of saw this piano-tuning gig as kind of a means to an end. This many years in, I’ve been places and met so many different people from so many different walks of life that I genuinely think running around with Bill has been one of the most enriching experiences of my life.

“It’s turned out to be a really fulfilling – not only have I met so many fascinating people, but being able to network with so many people I’ve come into contact with, it’s something that has proven to be really fulfilling and, I dare say, kind of missing from my life.”

The two have combined to tackle challenges over the years.

“I remember our first piano gig in a church not far from our house. It had one step up to a stage where the piano was located. Now we laugh, but at the time, it was scary. I remember telling him to ‘please not die’ when we were going up that step. Since then, he’s had me up flights of stairs,” VanEffen wrote.

“In over four years, Dan has never dropped me.”

VanEffen stated how impactful Sirtola’s help has been on his business.

“There have been some pianos that he just can’t get me to — you know, narrow stairways with 90-degree bends — and he does those. He’s doing a real good job,” VanEffen said.

“There is no way I’d be able to tune if it wasn’t for the people whom I depend on. Dan Sirtola has been a Godsend,” VanEffen wrote.

The pair works hard to ensure each customer is satisfied. “Once in a while we get called back and we just go back at no charge if there’s a problem. Basically, we guarantee everything we do,” VanEffen said.

Now 74, VanEffen hopes Sirtola will take over the business when he’s gone.

“He’s doing extremely good work. I’ve trained him,” VanEffen said.

He’s managed to keep a positive mindset despite the injury.

“Life is different,” VanEffen said, “but it’s still good!”

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Sophie Vogelmann can be reached at 906-786-2021 or svogelmann@dailypress.net.