the future of piano study

[Thomas Cole]

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Since pianos are in the durable goods category, I wonder what sort of an 
indicator new piano sales is. I would think that market saturation is at 
least a factor in declining sales because, for example, I see a lot of 
old pianos being handed down, sold or given away.

I'm not so concerned about an end of our profession, at least as long as 
my calendar continues to fill with appointments. But I do some small 
things here and there to encourage people to study music, such as:

    . encourage parents to get a piano teacher for their child (ren) and 
provide them with a list of teachers if they're interested.
    . help them get a better teacher if I find out they don't like their 
present teacher.
    . recommend repairs or adjustments to make the instrument play and 
sound better if there are problems with the piano.
    . talk to parents about the Irvine study which demonstrated how 
music education is integral to a good education.
    . join the MTA and give talks to piano teachers about how they can 
record their students, make CDs, etc., to encourage students to practice 
and make lessons more exciting. I've given talks on other subjects, if 
for no other reason than to bridge the gap between teachers and technicians.
    . tune, regulate, voice, repair, rebuild, consult on purchasing...  
in short, do what I can to support people, young and old, in their 
enjoyment of piano.

Tom Cole

Blackstone Piano wrote:

> I'm curious to know what other piano tuners think about the future of 
> piano study.  I can only guess that the number of children who 
> studied piano 100 years ago versus today is staggering.  I've seen 
> some figures on the decline of piano sales as each decade passes, and 
> that is a telling indicator. 
>  
> I'm not a cynic by nature, and I am not overly concerned about the end 
> of our profession coming too soon.  Still, I do think about it and 
> wonder if other piano tuners are concerned.  Will the number of piano 
> students continue to decline, or slow to a steady number of new 
> students each year?  Is it possible in this day of sports, video 
> games, TV, the Internet, and a million other activities, to reverse 
> this trend?  What would it take to make this happen?  
> Should/what should we as piano tuners be doing more to try and reverse 
> this trend?  I came across an interesting speech from Brian Chung, the 
> senior vice president and general manager of Kawai America 
> Corporation: http://www.pianonet.com/articles/artofwar.htm
>  
> I'm just curious what other people think about this.
>  
> Thanks,
> Colin McCullough
>  
> please visit the McCullough Tuning Tutorial, a free online resource 
> for learning how a piano is tuned.
> www.blackstonepiano.com/tutorial/tutorial.htm
>
>  


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