What career path requires knowledge in the broad areas of music, mechanics, customer service, HVAC systems, and even mice? If you guessed piano tuning and repair, you’d be correct! Since she began Madilene’s Piano Tuning & Repair in 2004, Madilene Loosier has learned a lot about many subjects along the way, and she’s enjoyed the journey.
Loosier grew up in Houston and then the Dallas area. Her education began at Texas Tech, but after starting as a physical therapy major, she decided to change majors to music therapy, which brought her to Sam Houston State University in Huntsville. She’s an accomplished musician–singing and playing the piano and viola, so her love for music and desire to help others meshed perfectly for use in the music therapy field. She graduated in 1996 with a Bachelor of Music in Music Therapy with a minor in Piano. Along the way, she met her husband, now Walker County Precinct 2 Constable Shane Loosier. They got married one semester before Madilene’s graduation. She wanted to find something close to home, but no music therapy jobs were available between Huntsville and Houston. She initially continued working part-time at TIRR in Houston, where she had completed a 6-month internship prior to graduation. The couple had their first son while Madilene was working as a Walker County 9-1-1 dispatcher, and Madilene became a stay-at-home mom when Tommy was a year old. They went on to have two more sons, Brandon and Dillon. Madilene began brainstorming about work she could do that would allow her to stay home to care for her family and also pay private school tuition for her boys. It was then an idea formed that she describes as straight from God.
“God gave me the idea,” she said. “I was thinking about how most instruments you care for yourself, but pianos require care from someone else. I began checking into what it would take for me to become a piano technician. I checked into the American School of Piano Tuning.”
Through a series of events, the school offered her the course at half price. She felt like that was an answer to prayer, and she went for it. Madilene worked her way through the program over the next year, and she began tuning for contacts at no cost. She started out with one piano each week as she became faster and more comfortable tuning. They were happy with her work, so she decided it was time to start charging. She began building relationships within the piano technician world that have helped her develop as a technician over the years. This included joining the Houston chapter of the Piano Technicians Guild.
In 2021, the business had a new member come on board. After working as an auto collision repair technician, Brandon (the Loosier’s middle son), expressed interest in going to work for his mom. He had gone on calls with his mother while he was in school, so he was familiar with her work. After attending Piano Technicians Academy online and becoming a certified technician, he began working with Madilene. His experience in auto repair fits well with the repair skills needed as a piano tech. He shadowed his mom for six months, learning the ropes.
“I like the simplicity of it,” Brandon said. “It can get complicated, but we’ve been doing it for a while, so it’s like second nature. There’s always something different.”
Madilene is delighted to have her son working with her. She receives positive feedback consistently on his skills and customer service. That makes her mom and boss-heart proud. “I have people tell me all the time, ‘He’s such a great asset to your business,’” she said. “We work really well together–we feed off each other while we’re doing a job, and we don’t really have to say anything. It’s just natural, which is really nice.”
Madilene is looking forward to another new employee joining the team in the near future. Dillon, her youngest son, has one year remaining in the Air Force. He plans to join the business when he finishes his service.
It’s obvious tuning a piano requires a great deal of knowledge, skill, and technique. As Madilene describes the detailed tunings and repairs she completes on her clients’ pianos, it can almost feel like a surgeon describing a complex procedure in the operating room. For the layman, her description of checking the bridge for cracks, the mathematics involved, pulling on the hammer, and regulating an action is awe-inspiring.
“It’s physically and mentally tiring,” she said. “With pianos, there’s a lot of problem-solving; you’re using your brain all the time. It’s all mechanical.” While they use their own ear to tune, they also use TuneLab, a state-of-the-art software to aid in their process. It makes tuning faster and provides consistency across pianos.
Over the years, Madilene has worked for SHSU, Houston Symphony, Conroe Symphony Orchestra, Dosey Doe (Big Barn and Cafe), John Legend, Steven Curtis Chapman, Ray Price, and an abundance of other professional individuals and organizations. They service commercial and residential pianos nearly anywhere you might find one within Walker and surrounding counties.
In addition to the technical work required, piano tuning and service requires a great deal of customer service. Madilene and Brandon often educate their customers on things that may seem unrelated to their work. They’ve learned about HVAC systems to help customers with high humidity in their homes; mice, to help those that have had an infestation in their pianos; hearing, to help customers that have difficulty hearing the highest notes on the piano; and many other interesting topics.
“It brings tears to their eyes sometimes when we play a song after tuning. In the service industry, if you don’t do a good job, you won’t get a call back,” said Madilene.
A good portion of the Loosiers’ business is repeat and word of mouth, so that is telling of the quality of work they do. The satisfaction gained from their work is symbiotic–they do good work, receive self-satisfaction from making something sound beautiful, and their customers receive the satisfaction of having their piano repaired or tuned. Like the sound coming from those well-tuned instruments, it’s a beautiful thing.
Madilene’s business provides services that include pitch raise, voicing, action regulation, evaluation for purchase, appraisals, sales of piano items, and (most recently) they’ve begun to offer climate-controlled piano storage.
Madilene is very involved in the community and has served on many boards of local organizations, including currently serving on the Huntsville-Walker County Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors.
As she recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of her business, she’s reflective when thinking about the past and excited for the future. “It’s truly a family business,” she said. “I can leave a legacy for them; it’s been a wonderful blessing. I never knew I’d be doing this for 20 years, and I never knew I’d be doing it even two years before I began doing it.”
For more information about Madilene’s Piano Tuning & Repair, visit www.madilenespianoservice.com, on social media, or give her a call at (936) 581-0094.
Postcards Magazine
936-293-1188
PO Box 690
Huntsville, TX 77342
