Bad Student Piano Insight

[Thomas Cole]

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
My wife is a piano teacher and for the first lesson, she goes to the 
student's home to see what kind of a piano they have, how in tune it is, 
how playable, what is the bench height, and how conducive the 
environment is to practicing. If the student has a keyboard, she advises 
getting a piano as soon as possible (which sometimes it isn't) or she 
might discuss the condition of the piano (tuning, voicing, regulating, 
repair).

Having a piano technician for a husband is not the norm, of course. We 
both belong to the Music Teachers Association of Calif. and the board 
has discussed having me as a presenter but so far haven't asked for my 
input. There is widespread reluctance to peek behind the fallboard, I 
think. Likely they are daunted by a piano's complexity and don't want to 
spend the kind of time it would take to learn even the basics. I haven't 
given up hope, though, and I'm working on ways of making the subject 
palatable to the more technophobic. Maybe if teachers can understand a 
little about what makes a piano tick (or, hopefully, not tick :-) they 
would have more confidence to speak to parents about the pianos their 
children are playing on.

Tom Cole

Vinny Samarco wrote:

> Hi Terry and List,
> As a pianist and teacher as well as new tuner, I can only offer the 
> following insight.
> Perhaps, A, the teacher has never been to the student's house but the 
> student has always traveled to the teacher. Or B, the teacher 
> shouldn't be teaching piano.
> No wonder so many kids quit piano-having to play on such a terrible 
> instrument.
> Vinny
>
>     ----- Original Message -----
>     From: Terry <mailto:terry@farrellpiano.com>
>     To: pianotech@ptg.org <mailto:pianotech@ptg.org>
>     Sent: Friday, December 24, 2004 6:45 AM
>     Subject: Bad Student Piano Insight
>
>     No doubt many of you have run across this situation before. This
>     is about the third or fourth time I have seen such an extreme
>     example of a student playing on a bad (major understatement)
>     piano. This is the same family that asked me to find a nice used
>     piano for them (see my other recent post).
>      
>     First time appointment with this family. Below are the grizzly facts.
>     - 1950 Gulbranson spinet
>     - typical worn 55-year-old cheap piano
>     - 90 cents flat and, of course, way, way out of tune
>     - reason they called piano tuner: plastic elbow on G5 broke
>     - sustain pedal hasn't worked for months (ever since the flood)
>     - Grandma gave them her treasured Gulbranson
>     - student is 13 years old and has been taking lessons for six years
>      
>     Yes, for six years, this little girl has been practicing on this
>     out-of-whack junker! And just for the record, there is no doubt
>     these folks have disposable income to spare. But I did gain some
>     insight into this situation from talking with the dad. He knows
>     absolutely nothing about pianos (and stated so). His mother gave
>     him the piano for the daughter to play and told him that it was a
>     very high quality ("the best" she said) piano in excellent
>     condition (they don't wear out, do they?). I am absolutely
>     convinced that the guy really thought he was providing his
>     daughter with a top-notch instrument that she could excel with.
>     She wasn't playing it because daddy was cheap.
>      
>     As soon as I explained to him that in reality it was a medium
>     quality piano 50 years ago, but is now worn out, and a spinet is
>     far from optimal for a intermediate student, he readily agreed
>     that he should ditch the piano and we started talking about how to
>     shop for a replacement. He was instantly ready to upgrade. The
>     information I gave him about his piano was completely brand-new
>     stuff for him.
>      
>     I just thought I'd share that because it was a new experience for
>     me. Previously, in these situations, I had assumed the parents
>     were simply horrible people. Maybe not always.....
>      
>     One question remains though: why hadn't her piano teacher of six
>     years said anything to the parents about the piano?
>      
>     Terry Farrell
>

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/d8/00/a9/aa/attachment.htm

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