[pianotech] priorities

Tue Jul 20 15:34:49 MDT 2010

I have a customer who lives in a Mobile Home.
All they have in the living area is a rather nice Steinway B from the turn of the century. ( the wheels have been removed from the trailer.  The piano still has its wheels.) It has been like that for the past 15 years.  Go figure.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Paul T Williams 
  To: pianotech at ptg.org 
  Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 2010 4:29 PM
  Subject: Re: [pianotech] priorities

  I went to a few Microsoft yuppies in the early 90's.  Very nice house, a cool living room with huge TV's, stereos, and leather couch.  Then, nothing else in the house, but a pretty nice 6' grand or better, usually Kawai in where the dining room should be.  Strange, isn't it.  I still have way too much stuff and only room for a decent Yamaha U-1 in my living room!  If I sold some stuff, I could fit a nice Steinway L there.  Go figgur. But then again, here at school, I can play the best Steinway D's in the state whenever I want! :>)  Right now in the shop is an L I just finished rebuilding and love to play it. I will miss it next Monday when it goes to the new bass professor's studio :>( 

  Paul 

        From:  Michael Magness <ifixpiano at gmail.com>  
        To:  pianotech at ptg.org  
        Date:  07/20/2010 02:45 PM  
        Subject:  Re: [pianotech] priorities 

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  On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 1:05 PM, <tnrwim at aol.com> wrote: 
  Yesterday I tuned a 50 year old Wurltizer spinet and a 75 year old Winter grand, both is the same home. Both needed a lot of work, but what's so unique about these two pianos, is that they sit next to each other in the living room,  and they are the only pieces of furniture in the whole place. It's a rather small apartment of a Chinese family who have only been in Hawaii a few months, but there is no other stick of furniture in the whole place. There is no TV, no desk, no chairs, no tables, nothing. I was able to glance in the two bedrooms to see only mattresses on the floor. I learned from the teenage son, who was the interpreter for the family, that he, his dad and his younger sister, all play the piano. They left a Kawai studio back in China. 

  While I was working on the pianos, the teenager stood at the kitchen counter reading a book, the younger sister sat on the floor watching a Disney movie on a lap top, and the father and mother tried to keep a 5 year old boy out of my tool kit. I don't know why they are here, other than the teen eager said he's here to go to school. 

  I guess for some families, having two pianos is more important than a dining room table, a couch, much less a big screen TV. 

  Wim 

  I have been in a few homes that are similar, not to the extreme you describe but one comes to mind. 

  I have a music prof at the local State University who has a Harpisichord, pump organ, violin of some quality, Stereo & large sound system & a Chickering upright, No other furniture save a couple of benches & kitchen chairs. 

  Mike 

  -- 

  It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

      Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

  Michael Magness
  Magness Piano Service
  608-786-4404
  www.IFixPianos.com
  email mike at ifixpianos.com 

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