piano class

[Jeff Tanner]

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Wim,
I don't teach a class, probably for this very reason, even though there 
are a handful of students around here every year who've inquired about 
it.  My first reaction to your story is that if you don't have at least 
10 students interested, it's probably not worth you breaking your neck 
to offer it.  Our "Introduction to Piano Technology" workshop, in which 
I was one of the first students back in 1984, was discontinued after 3 
years due to lack of enrollment.  Three the first year, two the second, 
and one the third.  Not worth offering when there are other things that 
need doing, and its certainly not going to boost budget or salary 
enough to make it worth the effort.

On the other hand, if you really think you'd get enough response, I 
could see a two-week workshop between semesters being a good format for 
a piano parts and functions class.  You might have a better chance of 
getting something like that approved.  That, really, was what the 
workshop I took was.  We studied action models, learned how to remove 
actions, and even understand a handful of repairs, replaced a broken 
string or two (as a class), and even got into tuning theory.  He was 
really able to cover a lot of material in the two-week workshop format. 
  I got my first college credit (2 hours), by attending that workshop 
between my junior and senior years of high school.  It was also 
available to the general public, probably through some type of 
community education program.

Just my reaction and humble opinion.
Jeff

On Friday, October 24, 2003, at 10:59 AM, Wimblees@aol.com wrote:

> I've put forth a proposal to teach a class on "piano parts & their 
> functions," at both the undergraduate and graduate level at UA. Much 
> to my dismay, and several of the students who really wanted it, the 
> graduate curriculum committee has already rejected the proposal. The 
> undergraduate curriculum committee has tentatively approved it, but 
> when it came up for discussion at the full faculty meeting the other 
> day, one of the concerns was the number of students who would take 
> this class, and how often it should be offered. The Provost, in an 
> effort to save money, is cracking down on classes with fewer than 10 
> students. Although that would virtually eliminate a bunch of classes 
> in the music school, it will be difficult to approve a new class, 
> unless it can be shown that at least 10 student will take it.
>
> So I am asking for help, especially from those of you who teach a 
> piano class, as described, at major state universities. We have about 
> 350 undergraduate students, and 150 graduate level. There are only 4 
> undergraduate piano majors and 7 graduate piano majors, but the three 
> piano profs together teach about 40 students all together. These are 
> either majors, minors, or students with some degree of proficiency. 
> (There is a piano lab for "non players").
>
> So that I can argue my case that this class will be well attended, to 
> get an idea of how we compare, could you please answer the following 
> questions.
>
> How often is the class offered?
> How many students attend the class?
> How many undergraduate music students in the department?
> How many graduate music students in the department?
> How many undergraduate piano majors?
> How many graduate piano majors?
> How many piano faculty?
> How many students do they teach?
>
> I would like to hear any other comments on this matter that will help 
> my argument to teach this class.
>
> Thanks for your input.
>
> Wim Blees RPT
> University of Alabama
>

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