Dear David: An administration which allows their main concert piano to be used as a practice piano will soon have their concert piano sounding like a practice piano. It will be necessary to replace the hammers every 4 or 5 years if they do not disallow the excess practice on that instrument. When you mention damper problems, I wonder if interior playing and strumming or other special preparations are allowed on that piano. That could be devastating to the dampers. Even piano professor's studio pianos should not be used for student practice, or they will soon sound like practice pianos. If they are going to preserve their capital assets (pianos), they must take some resolute action in that direction. This is an administration problem. They have to deal with the budget. If they are "pennywise and pound foolish", they WILL, down the road, have a large capital outlay to deal with, or the serious students and teachers will gravitate elsewhere. Somewhere in the archives I stated a priority system which I developed at the beginning of my 15 years at ASU (the undefeated football school this year, Rose Bowl etc.). This system was designed to be conservative and yet meet the needs of the musicians. Jim Coleman, Sr.
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