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<DIV>Were the new pianos good ones? ;-)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Barbara Richmond</DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: =
black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=Topperpiano@aol.com
href="mailto:Topperpiano@aol.com">Topperpiano@aol.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A =
title=pianotech@ptg.org
href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, May 20, 2004 =
1:19
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: Betsy Ross =
Spinet</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>Years ago I was privy to some research done by one of =
the piano
manufacturers and the MTNA. Their research showed that the =
attrition
rate of students on old upright pianos and spinets over 30 years =
old was
about 80% and the attrition rate of students who started lessons on =
new pianos
was about 20%. I no longer have any evidence that this was =
accurate and
one could question the findings given the possible bias by the piano =
company
and teachers. You could also speculate on the commitment by the =
parents
to keep their children practicing if they had made the monetary =
investment of
a new piano. All in all I think the results had some real =
validity. The
problem arises when the student has a piano that is so far removed =
from the
quality of the teacher's piano. It also becomes an issue when =
certain
musical requirements are made beyond counting and basic dynamics. It =
is really
difficult to create a legato line using a piano with a retarded decay =
rate.
And nearly impossible to play staccato notes on old uprights with =
inadequate
damping and overall ringing. The results from the piano =
manufacturer's
standpoint is that if teachers would recommend new pianos then they =
would keep
students longer. I really can't argue much with this line of =
reasoning
given the really horrible pianos that students have purchased on a =
teacher's
recommendation. </BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>