performance piano - student psychopathology 101

[Richard Brekne]

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Its a long road to getting the faculty and administration to see the
piano technicians perspective in this problem. But thats the key. In the
end the student simply need to know, and get the message from a unified
faculty and administration, that blaming the piano dont get it. If they
muck up an exam.. its not the pianos fault, and its certainly not the
piano technicians fault.

No other way around it ... tho how you get to that point is another
question. All rests on the confidence the faculty has in you, your real
abilities being worth the neccesary level of trust, and the willingness
of the faculty to take issue immediatly with any student who starts down
that "blame the piano or the tech" road.

RicB

Otto Keyes wrote:

> Just thought I'd throw something out for your thoughts & comments.
> The following has not been a huge issue, but I'd like to educate the
> crew here to avoid recycling history.  Just wondered how many of you
> have come accross the same type of issue, & how you handle it.Many of
> the pianos here have been over-voiced, causing them to split after
> awhile.  This seems to have come about because the players perceive
> the pianos to have changed over-night.  One student in a studio class
> will have a poor performance (for whatever reason), & this seems to be
> infectious, so everyone gets a hair up his/her nose that "the piano is
> too bright, dull, doesn't _____" (you fill in the blank).  However,
> the day before, the instrument in question was wonderful, blah, blah,
> blah... I have been attempting to educate the faculty & the students
> that perceptions change like (& sometimes with) the weather, and my
> goal is to keep the instruments as consistent as possible so as to
> avoid having to hang yet another set of hammers prematurely.  It is
> sometimes difficult to inform them in a tactful manner that perhaps
> this is a problem of perception, especially the gale force of opinion
> is blowing unchecked in the opposite direction.  One of the problems
> of democracy, I guess, but that is another discussion altogether.  :-)
> Anyway, just thought I'd throw that out for your comments. By the
> way,  this summer I restrung the treble, shaped the capo bar &
> hammers, etc., of several G-2s (& others) which were breaking an
> inordinate number of strings.  Should take care of the problem, but
> we'll see as we get into the heavy practice season for recitals, etc.
> They sure tune cleaner now. Otto

--
Richard Brekne
RPT, N.P.T.F.
UiB, Bergen, Norway
mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no
http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html
http://www.hf.uib.no/grieg/personer/cv_RB.html


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