<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1"> <title></title> </head> <body text="#000000" bgcolor="#ffffff"> My wife is a piano teacher and for the first lesson, she goes to the student's home to see what kind of a piano they have, how in tune it is, how playable, what is the bench height, and how conducive the environment is to practicing. If the student has a keyboard, she advises getting a piano as soon as possible (which sometimes it isn't) or she might discuss the condition of the piano (tuning, voicing, regulating, repair).<br> <br> Having a piano technician for a husband is not the norm, of course. We both belong to the Music Teachers Association of Calif. and the board has discussed having me as a presenter but so far haven't asked for my input. There is widespread reluctance to peek behind the fallboard, I think. Likely they are daunted by a piano's complexity and don't want to spend the kind of time it would take to learn even the basics. I haven't given up hope, though, and I'm working on ways of making the subject palatable to the more technophobic. Maybe if teachers can understand a little about what makes a piano tick (or, hopefully, not tick :-) they would have more confidence to speak to parents about the pianos their children are playing on.<br> <br> Tom Cole<br> <br> Vinny Samarco wrote:<br> <blockquote type="cite" cite="mid003501c4e9d0$05daa0e0$87dd55c7@V40111700"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; "> <meta content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1476" name="GENERATOR"> <style></style> <div><font face="Arial" size="2">Hi Terry and List,</font></div> <div>As a pianist and teacher as well as new tuner, I can only offer the following insight.</div> <div>Perhaps, A, the teacher has never been to the student's house but the student has always traveled to the teacher. Or B, the teacher shouldn't be teaching piano.</div> <div>No wonder so many kids quit piano-having to play on such a terrible instrument.<br> </div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2">Vinny</font></div> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 5px; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 0px;"> <div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size-adjust: none;">----- Original Message ----- </div> <div style="background: rgb(228, 228, 228) none repeat scroll 0%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size-adjust: none;"><b>From:</b> <a title="terry@farrellpiano.com" href="mailto:terry@farrellpiano.com">Terry</a> </div> <div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size-adjust: none;"><b>To:</b> <a title="pianotech@ptg.org" href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</a> </div> <div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size-adjust: none;"><b>Sent:</b> Friday, December 24, 2004 6:45 AM</div> <div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size-adjust: none;"><b>Subject:</b> Bad Student Piano Insight</div> <div><br> </div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2">No doubt many of you have run across this situation before. This is about the third or fourth time I have seen such an extreme example of a student playing on a bad (major understatement) piano. This is the same family that asked me to find a nice used piano for them (see my other recent post).</font></div> <div> </div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2">First time appointment with this family. Below are the grizzly facts.</font></div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2">- 1950 Gulbranson spinet</font></div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2">- typical worn 55-year-old cheap piano</font></div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2">- 90 cents flat and, of course, way, way out of tune</font></div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2">- reason they called piano tuner: plastic elbow on G5 broke</font></div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2">- sustain pedal hasn't worked for months (ever since the flood)</font></div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2">- Grandma gave them her treasured Gulbranson</font></div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2">- student is 13 years old and has been taking lessons for six years</font></div> <div> </div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2">Yes, for six years, this little girl has been practicing on this out-of-whack junker! And just for the record, there is no doubt these folks have disposable income to spare. But I did gain some insight into this situation from talking with the dad. He knows absolutely nothing about pianos (and stated so). His mother gave him the piano for the daughter to play and told him that it was a very high quality ("the best" she said) piano in excellent condition (they don't wear out, do they?). I am absolutely convinced that the guy really thought he was providing his daughter with a top-notch instrument that she could excel with. She wasn't playing it because daddy was cheap.</font></div> <div> </div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2">As soon as I explained to him that in reality it was a medium quality piano 50 years ago, but is now worn out, and a spinet is far from optimal for a intermediate student, he readily agreed that he should ditch the piano and we started talking about how to shop for a replacement. He was instantly ready to upgrade. The information I gave him about his piano was completely brand-new stuff for him.</font></div> <div> </div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2">I just thought I'd share that because it was a new experience for me. Previously, in these situations, I had assumed the parents were simply horrible people. Maybe not always.....</font></div> <div> </div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2">One question remains though: why hadn't her piano teacher of six years said anything to the parents about the piano?</font></div> <div> </div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2">Terry Farrell</font></div> </blockquote> </blockquote> </body> </html>