That dadgumed short SD-10

[Greg Granoff]

Fred,
Glad to know someone else is familiar with this problem!  I was ready for
all kinds of jokes about Humboldt County in far northern CA being behind the
"redwood curtain" and not really the U.S., etc.  Anyway, I know of Pratt,
having seen him on TV once years ago. Dreadlocks on students of both sexes
have become quite common here at Humboldt, so he looks a lot less unusual to
me than he did then.
The head prof of the piano area here says these students-- some of them at
any rate-- are in for muscle/tendon problems, though I can't say I know
about that one way or the other.
I like the idea of a bench that has such an extreme range of adjustment
though. It would certainly end the confusion of  "alternative seating
devices" as the other instrument tech here says. Anyway, thanks for the
sympathy note...:-)
Greg

Greg Granoff
Humboldt State University

----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred Sturm" <fssturm@unm.edu>
To: "College and University Technicians" <caut@ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 08, 2003 12:11 PM
Subject: Re: That dadgumed short SD-10


> Greg,
> That's what's happening around here, as well. Our major piano prof is a
> lowrider - has his own bench at about 15 1/2 inches. Has rubbed off on
> quite a few students. But he's mild compared to our
> sometimes-resident-in-Albuquerque pianist Awadagin Pratt (likely familiar
> mostly for his amazing set of dread-locks), who sits on his own bench at
> what looks like 12 to 14 inches. Kind of hard to accomodate. A few years
> back it was the opposite, with people grabbing our one 20 inch adjustable
> (an old Steinway, with wood screw legs - creak, creak), and wanting it to
> be higher.
> Last weekend we had a custom bench on stage designed and built by a German
> architect friend of our main piano prof. I didn't get a real close look at
> it, but it seemed adjustable between 12 inches and about 21. Maybe he'll
> market the design to somebody.
> Regards,
> Fred Sturm
> University of New Mexico
>
> --On Wednesday, May 7, 2003 3:37 PM -0700 Greg Granoff <gjg2@humboldt.edu>
> wrote:
>
> >
> > Man, you guys must live in a different world!  I have exactly the
> > opposite problem here.  We had a piano instructor here a couple years
ago
> > who was so long-waisted that he could never find a keyboard that was
high
> > enough or a bench low enough.  He made us put one of the recital D's up
> > on blocks (the instrument is already on a truck) for a performance so he
> > would be comfortable.  He was a great player and a decent instructor,
but
> > insisted that many students sat too high and that their tone improved
> > when they sat much lower.  He has since taken a job at a sister campus
in
> > Chico, but his legacy is a bunch of students, including a staff
> > accompanist, who crowd every practice room and make every studio an
> > obstacle course of extra non-piano chairs swiped from other areas of the
> > building so they can sit nice and low.  If an artist bench doesn't
adjust
> > down to 16 and 1/2 or 17 inches they cast it aside.  I can't wait for
> > this fad to disappear-- it's making me crazy.
> > Greg
> >
> > Greg Granoff   RPT
> > Humboldt State University
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> >
> >
> > From: David M. Porritt
> > To: caut@ptg.org
> > Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2003 2:39 PM
> > Subject: RE: That dadgumed short SD-10
> >
> >
> > I've got about 4 artist benches with the longer legs that will bring
them
> > up to 21" high.  They're in high demand and get "borrowed" to all kinds
> > of places.
> > dave
> > *********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********
> >
> > On 5/7/2003 at 2:17 PM Alan McCoy wrote:
> >
> >
> > Recently I've worked with a number of pianists who complained of
> > keyboards too high relative to bench height. Since then I have been
> > measuring all the concert instruments here and around town. Top of keys
> > to floor for Steinways always hovers around 29 inches, while Baldwins
are
> > around 28 inches. These pianos are mostly on trucks, but not all are.
> > Bench heights (maxed out) are 19" which is still too low for quite a few
> > pianists here and some visiting artists also.
> > Alan McCoy
> >
> >
>
>
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