<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.5730.11" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial" bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7><FONT id=role_document face=Arial color=#000000 size=2> <DIV>    <STRONG><EM>David</EM></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><EM>  Awesome post pal. </EM></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><EM>  20 something years ago WIllis Snyder said in his class " aim for the high end". It's been stuck in my head ever since.  In the our collective futures & in my Sons future, the high end is getting higher so we hone our skill set in all areas.  Dennis said to me last night as we sat around the camp fire in the back yard.</EM></STRONG> <STRONG><EM>I see that you attract that (the high end) by what you give out.  Smart young man.</EM></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><EM>  I told him much would be expected of him.  Now the challenge for me is to try to expose him to the type of player & experience that you describe Dave so he absorbs more of the intuitive part of our work & can see how pianists are connecting to his work  Thanks for the perpsective</EM></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><EM>  Dale</EM></STRONG></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>Dave Andersen writes</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2><U>There is way, way too much pleasure, thrill, and emotion in the acoustic experience for it to die. You cannot---and I mean, CANNOT---replace the total aural and body experience of being in the near-field sonic bubble of a fantastic piano.</U> </DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"> <DIV><BR class=khtml-block-placeholder></DIV> <DIV>I have been in some of the finest speaker arrays in the finest studios in the world, listening to A/B comparisons of the best digital reproductions of acoustic piano and actual piano, and there's just no contest.<STRONG><EM> No contest between digital repro and the real piano recoreded, and no contest between the recorded piano and the real thing, standing with your head in the piano while it's being played.  </EM></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><BR class=khtml-block-placeholder></DIV> <DIV>That's why the entire pop music business went back acoustic after the massive machine flirtation beginning in the late 70's thru about 1994...machines playing music, trying to emulate acoustic sounds, sound and feel like shit to your body, to something deep in you.  </DIV> <DIV><BR class=khtml-block-placeholder></DIV> <DIV>As machines rise and equal our linear intelligence, in 20-25 years,  and the carbon-silicon relationship becomes infinitely more complex, I believe our ears, our whole beings, will crave and demand these beautiful acoustic, tactile, woody, body experiences.  I believe a reconfigured, flexible acoustic piano industry will thrive for the next 100 years, but that our craft needs to take a huge step up, and lead the entire piano business into an open, transparent, peer-based, respect-based paradigm, where people are told and come to expect the truth about pianos and piano service.</DIV> <DIV><BR class=khtml-block-placeholder></DIV> <DIV>I also believe that predicting a grim, dystopian future is easy to do, but it casts kind of a pall over things; I'd rather, at this time, look for the strengths in our industry, now and up ahead. I'm committed to finding ways to foster the love of listening to and feeling the piano, and I think there's a bunch of indicators that tell me I have company in that.</DIV> <DIV><BR class=khtml-block-placeholder></DIV> <DIV>That all said, I love the back and forth, Ric, and I'm glad you're thinking in challenging, wide-ranging ways, as always.</DIV> <DIV>It's appreciated.</DIV> <DIV><BR class=khtml-block-placeholder></DIV> <DIV>Best,</DIV> <DIV><BR class=khtml-block-placeholder></DIV> <DIV>David Andersen</DIV></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>