That dadgumed short SD-10

[Fred Sturm]

Greg,
	That's what's happening around here, as well. Our major piano prof is a 
lowrider - has his own bench at about 15 1/2 inches. Has rubbed off on 
quite a few students. But he's mild compared to our 
sometimes-resident-in-Albuquerque pianist Awadagin Pratt (likely familiar 
mostly for his amazing set of dread-locks), who sits on his own bench at 
what looks like 12 to 14 inches. Kind of hard to accomodate. A few years 
back it was the opposite, with people grabbing our one 20 inch adjustable 
(an old Steinway, with wood screw legs - creak, creak), and wanting it to 
be higher.
	Last weekend we had a custom bench on stage designed and built by a German 
architect friend of our main piano prof. I didn't get a real close look at 
it, but it seemed adjustable between 12 inches and about 21. Maybe he'll 
market the design to somebody.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico

--On Wednesday, May 7, 2003 3:37 PM -0700 Greg Granoff <gjg2@humboldt.edu> 
wrote:

>
> Man, you guys must live in a different world!  I have exactly the
> opposite problem here.  We had a piano instructor here a couple years ago
> who was so long-waisted that he could never find a keyboard that was high
> enough or a bench low enough.  He made us put one of the recital D's up
> on blocks (the instrument is already on a truck) for a performance so he
> would be comfortable.  He was a great player and a decent instructor, but
> insisted that many students sat too high and that their tone improved
> when they sat much lower.  He has since taken a job at a sister campus in
> Chico, but his legacy is a bunch of students, including a staff
> accompanist, who crowd every practice room and make every studio an
> obstacle course of extra non-piano chairs swiped from other areas of the
> building so they can sit nice and low.  If an artist bench doesn't adjust
> down to 16 and 1/2 or 17 inches they cast it aside.  I can't wait for
> this fad to disappear-- it's making me crazy.
> Greg
>
> Greg Granoff   RPT
> Humboldt State University
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>
>
> From: David M. Porritt
> To: caut@ptg.org
> Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2003 2:39 PM
> Subject: RE: That dadgumed short SD-10
>
>
> I've got about 4 artist benches with the longer legs that will bring them
> up to 21" high.  They're in high demand and get "borrowed" to all kinds
> of places.
> dave
> *********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********
>
> On 5/7/2003 at 2:17 PM Alan McCoy wrote:
>
>
> Recently I've worked with a number of pianists who complained of
> keyboards too high relative to bench height. Since then I have been
> measuring all the concert instruments here and around town. Top of keys
> to floor for Steinways always hovers around 29 inches, while Baldwins are
> around 28 inches. These pianos are mostly on trucks, but not all are.
> Bench heights (maxed out) are 19" which is still too low for quite a few
> pianists here and some visiting artists also.
> Alan McCoy
>
>