Eathan Janney

The PhD

I trained in neuroscience because I was obsessed with how human perception works — how the brain constructs meaning from raw sensory data. That lens never left me. When I later learned to tune pianos aurally, I understood immediately what I was doing: I was training my auditory cortex to perceive the world differently. That's not metaphor. That's literally what happens.

The Piano Tech

Becoming a professional piano technician wasn't a detour from my intellectual life — it was a continuation of it. The piano is an extraordinarily complex mechanical and acoustic instrument. Understanding it requires physics, psychology, history, and craft. I was hooked immediately. Piano tuning became the applied neuroscience lab I never had.

Piano Technician Masterclasses — 2017

In 2017, I founded Piano Technician Masterclasses — the first-ever livestream piano tech education platform. My inaugural class was on piano voicing. There was nothing like it online. Piano technicians learned in person, through apprenticeships, or not at all. PTM changed that. We've since trained hundreds of technicians across dozens of countries.

Piano Tech Radio Hour — 2020

When the pandemic hit and the whole world went remote, David Andersen and I launched Piano Tech Radio Hour — a podcast for piano technicians, by piano technicians. We had no blueprint. We just started talking about the craft we loved, in public. Hundreds of episodes later, I understood something: audio-first education is genuinely powerful. The spoken word, delivered consistently, builds trust that video rarely achieves.

88 Lessons — 2026

88 Lessons is the synthesis. Neuroscience-backed curriculum design. Deep audio craft. AI-assisted production for speed and scale. Daily serialized delivery for habit formation. And a founding philosophy that refuses to treat AI and human expertise as opposites. I use AI the same way I use electronic tuning devices: as a tool that augments skill, not as a substitute for developing it.

Why Aural

ETDs — electronic tuning devices — are fine tools. Every serious technician uses them. But a technician who cannot tune by ear is dependent on a machine to do the most fundamental part of their job. Aural training builds the internal reference that makes you independent. It also makes you better with an ETD, not worse.

Why Daily

Spaced repetition isn't a technique — it's how the brain works. Skills that come back every day wire differently than skills you cram. 88 episodes in 90 days isn't a schedule. It's a neuroscience-backed habit loop. By Episode 20 you'll be hearing things you couldn't hear before. That's not inspiration. That's biology.

Why Now

Piano tuning is an aging craft. The average age of a working piano technician is rising. The apprenticeship model is dying. What's needed is a new pipeline — one that can reach the curious musician in Austin, the audio engineer in Seoul, the hobbyist restorer in rural Scotland — and give them a genuine foundation. That's what 88 Lessons is built to do.

Why AI

I use AI in this production the same way I recommend using ETDs in a tuning: as a tool that extends capability without replacing judgment. AI handles the production volume. I handle the curriculum, the philosophy, the voice. The ear training content is mine. The pedagogy is mine. The AI makes sure it reaches you every day, formatted beautifully, without burning me out. I'm not ashamed of that. I'm proud of it.