<HTML><HEAD> <META charset=US-ASCII http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; cha= rset=US-ASCII"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2600.0" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #fffff= f">Years ago I was privy to some research done by one of the piano manufactu= rers and the MTNA.  Their research showed that the attrition rate of&nb= sp;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 a= bout 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 an= d teachers.  You could also speculate on the commitment by the parents = to keep their children practicing if they had made the monetary investment o= f 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 cert= ain 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 ina= dequate damping and overall ringing.  The results from the piano manufa= cturer'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 o= n a teacher's recommendation. </BODY></HTML>