<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; = charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2668" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hello Tom and List</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I hear on the BBC that Yamaha are = offering, as First Prize to any NON professional pianist over 30 years = old taking part in a South Bank piano competition  a Ł10,000 Yamaha piano. = They're doing their bit here anyway. So is the BBC in their "Young Musician of = the year" annual event. I have more work than I can possibly handle since there = are fewer and fewer piano tuners coming into the field. Learning how to tune a = piano in UK is now more difficult there being no piano factories. (Herrberger-Brooks = piano action and key factory has also ceased trading some while back along = with Broadwoods, Knights, Rogers etc.) so the only place I know of is = with what used to be called the "Furniture College" in Commercial Road, London. I = dare say there are various piano workshops or Ateliers who train new recruits. = No, here it is not the lack of pianists which is worrying, it's the lack of tuners.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Regards from Sunny Sussex</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Michael G.(UK)</FONT></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; = BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: = black"><B>From:</B> <A title=tompiano@bellsouth.net = href="mailto:tompiano@bellsouth.net">Tom Servinsky</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A = title=pianotech@ptg.org href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">Pianotech</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, July 20, 2005 = 2:21 AM</DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: the future of = piano study</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I can't speak for our neck of the = woods ( S. Florida). All of our piano teachers are carrying full loads = plus huge waiting lists for any future openings.   Piano lessons = are going strong and parents are most enthusiastic of the = benefits pianos lessons provide. In addition I'm seeing a lot of the high school = students going to the symphony concerts as dates instead of the parting down = the block.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Tom Servinsky</FONT></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; = BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: = black"><B>From:</B> <A title=blackstonepiano@att.net href="mailto:blackstonepiano@att.net">Blackstone Piano</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> Tuesday, July 19, 2005 = 7:02 PM</DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> the future of piano study</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>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.  </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>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: <A = href="http://www.pianonet.com/articles/artofwar.htm">http://www.pianone= t.com/articles/artofwar.htm</A></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I'm just curious what other people = think about this.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Thanks,</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Colin McCullough</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana color=#000080 size=2>please visit the = McCullough Tuning Tutorial, a free online resource for learning how a piano is tuned.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><A href=""><FONT face=Verdana = color=#000080>www.blackstonepiano.com/tutorial/tutorial.htm</FONT></A><= /DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><BR></FONT> </DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>