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 > >
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC