You Thought ...

[Tom Cole]

Z! Reinhardt wrote:
> 
> You Thought You've Heard Everything When ...!
> 
> Dear ListMates --
> 
> Many of you must have contributions to this line of thought.  Please add
> them so the rest of us may laugh out loud, take pity, or whatever.
> 
> "We've thought about getting them [their kids] a better piano because
> they're doing well in their lessons, but my husband and I can't understand
> why we should spend so much more money on something that looks so much like
> what we already have."
> 
> This is from an actual conversation I had with a customer who is the owner
> of what she admits was the *cheapest new piano available ... just to see if
> the kids would be interested in lessons.*  (No, I didn't laugh in the
> customer's face -- I've set an appointment to service this piano with the
> intention of following LaRoy Edwards' advice: "If you can't service the
> piano, service the customer."  I hope to convince her that the money will
> be well spent if it means her kids will experience less frustration while
> the decor of the livingroom will not be disrupted.)
> 
> Z! Reinhardt RPT
> Ann Arbor  MI
> diskladame@provide.net

Z!

This thread doesn't inspire any amusing stories, maybe because it's more
a tragedy than a comedy. But I think it would be important for us to
discuss different ways that we can educate parents, that there is
something more important at stake than how much a piano costs.

To paraphrase what has been written, a man gets himself a new wife and,
not knowing how good at keeping house she is, buys her a washboard, not
wanting to risk good money on a washing machine.

It's not my style to tell this story to most people. My tendancy is to
abide by what the customer wants to do - maybe this is the most that
they can afford, something is better than nothing and let's make this
thing sound and play as good as possible within reasonable limits. But I
also think that saying nothing about this situation does a disservice to
the children who are at the mercy of this prevalent attitude. At least
the above parable attempts to put the parents in their children's shoes
and may work in the right circumstances.

Something I do, which is less challenging, is to tell of my experience
playing on the 10'2" Fazioli concert grand at the national convention in
Albuquerque. There is a piece that I play that has lots of p and pp
phrases in it which is good for checking the regulation and when I
played this piece on the Fazioli, I played it _better_ than I had ever
played it before... significantly. I could play the notes absolutely
evenly because the action was so well regulated and the tone was so
exquisite that my ears fell in love with it immediately. The instrument
was completely transparent to my musical intent that I could just be
with the music, there was no impediment. Such a joy.

The way to a musician's heart is through his ears (and fingers and
eyes). If you can engage the heart then nagging the kid to practice is
not necessary.

Buying a high quality piano is the best encouragement and the best
guarantee of the child's success. Buying the cheapest instrument is
encouraging him to fail. Maybe, because of the parents' negative
expectations, they buy the cheapest, not realising how they are biasing
the outcome.

Tom

-- 
Thomas A. Cole, RPT
Santa Cruz, CA
mailto:tcole@cruzio.com