Junk Pianos

[Billbrpt@AOL.COM]

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
As a technician I feel and understand what is being said about junk pianos.  
Nevertheless, I started taking lessons (upon my own request) on an old 
cut-down vertical, you know, the kind with the mirror at the top for choral 
directors.  It was bad, not everthing worked and I really can't remeber if we 
tuned it ( I was 10 at the time), but I finished two years of lessons on that 
thing and because i was enhusiatic about playing and practicing, I progressed 
rather rapidly.  I loved it.  Now when my parents bought a new Yamaha P-116 I 
realized my own provincialism, if you will.   
    So, I think it is possible that technicians can be a little tyranical and 
a little ignorant of the persepective their customers.  Its not only tyranny, 
though, its also that these pianos are just a pain in the neck to work on! 
                                                                              
 Jim Rickson 




While I somewhat agree with the point that a child should be given the best 
possible piano to learn on, I know for a fact that it often won't make any 
difference.  I know of numerous instances where virtuoso performers first 
learned on what some on this List would readily condemn as "junk" and that 
fine instruments often go unused, serving more as items of decor than 
anything else.

I know of a young man from a suburb about 20 miles away who received a full 
scholarship to Julliard.  His parents were good, honest and hard working but 
neverthe less, poor.  He had learned on a piano where strings and parts were 
broken.  He just continued to play on what was left and imagined the sound 
that was supposed to be there.

Then there is the lady who today goes around to nursing homes and entertains 
the residents on whatever "junk" is there in whatever state it is in.  It 
doesn't matter to her.  As a child, she grew up in a very poor family who 
could not afford a piano.  She used to imagine that her mother's stove was a 
piano and learned to "play" on it.  Don't ask me how that is possible but it 
is a true story.

After all, Beethoven wrote his greatest music after he was totally deaf and 
from what I've read, on a broken, dysfunctional piano.  I always view laments 
about "junk" pianos with much skepticism.  It usually means that the person 
is afraid of a little challenging work.

Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin
 <A HREF="http://www.billbremmer.com/">Click here: -=w w w . b i l l b r e m m e r . c o m =-</A> 

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/a4/69/8b/96/attachment.htm

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--