<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>Re: [CAUT] excessive pedaling?</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> On 3/21/05 2:30 PM, "Chris Solliday" <sol= liday@ptd.net> wrote: <BLOCKQUOTE>The trouble with being= unaware is that one is unaware of being unaware. Chris Solliday </BLOCKQUOTE>     Actually, other than making a triple negative and o= ffering opportunities for a few wisecracks, I think that Chris, in his typic= al cryptic way, was making a good point. He was commenting on my post, where= I said that as a young pianist I didn’t think much of the una corda p= edal because I had never played a piano that had been well-regulated and voi= ced (specifically with respect to una corda). So I was unaware of the possib= ilities, and “unaware that I was unaware.” Hence I had a prejudi= ce that was unwarranted, and was missing a very important skill.     Which brings me to the reason I am bothering to par= se Chris’ prose: As caut’s we have a very special responsibility= . We are the ones who give the ever new generation of pianists their experie= nce of what a piano can be. To the extent we succeed in giving them instrume= nts to practice and perform on that are responsive, that have all kinds of s= ubtlety possible by virtue of regulation and voicing, we will have helped ed= ucate not only them but their students. We will raise their expectations, so= when they go somewhere else they will know what is possible and will demand= it. Which is why I give a great deal of emphasis (as much as my limited tim= e allows) to keeping the piano major practice grands in as close to performa= nce shape as I can, along with piano faculty and the concert instruments. Th= e rest of the inventory can be average.     If I don’t provide pianos that have had a goo= d una corda voicing, as one example, the piano students who play them won&#8= 217;t learn what the possibilities are, and they will be unaware of being un= aware.     Nuff of that <g> Regards, Fred Sturm University of New Mexico </BODY> </HTML>