new to list - inquiry

[Mitch Staples]

Hey Carol,

I think it's important to remind administrators that any piano smaller than
a seven foot performance quality grand is a compromise.  They'll all agree
that it's unfair to expect top quality students to use second quality
pianos.  Most performers hate to compromise so if you use that word a few
times they'll dig a little deeper in their pockets.  Of course there may
come a point when the money is just not there.

As far as maintenance goes it's kind of a pay me now or pay the store later.
Again you have to remind administrators that if they want to be competitive
with other schools and attract top quality students they can't skimp on
maintenance. I've found that if you delay maintenance on a piano the
students loose respect for that instrument and are more apt to trash it, I
have a fall board on my bench right now with some choice words scratched in
it.  It's also very important to have someone available to do emergency
maintenance on concert instruments.

It's good to hear from you,

Mitch





At 07:56 PM 8/2/00 -0400, you wrote:
>Thank you very much, Scott and Dave.  I vaguely remember that guidelines
>existed, but I'm in such a panic I couldn't find them!  These are exactly
>what I was looking for!
>
>I went into this proposal "thing" telling the folks who hired me, that I was
>only interested if both "they" and the "university" were going to set it up
>right.  I didn't want to be part of anything that diminshed assets and would
>be underbid from the start.  I just figured this was a good opportunity to
>offer the right kind of education to my clients, who after all, want to be
>educated on how to do this right!
>
>I want to stress maintenance, a parts budget, and technician time needed for
>proper maintenance.  I'm also of the opinion, since the new practice rooms
>are not even designed yet, that it would be nice if some of them were large
>enough to accomodate baby grand practice pianos.  It seems to me that no
>matter what quality of upright piano you subject to hard practice, the pins
>eventually "walk" out the action.
>
>How do you guys feel about using  grands instead of uprights for practice
>pianos?
>
>Carol Beigel, RPT
>
>
>