[CAUT] What Types of Pianos in Non-Piano Teaching Studios and Classrooms?

Paul T Williams pwilliams4 at unlnotes.unl.edu
Tue Dec 8 12:38:04 MST 2009


Dave,
I forget....how big is a M&H CC?  Don't know if I've ever seen one.

Paul W.

P.S.;  We just got shut down for the day due to this minor "blizzard".  No 
arguements here, I can actually get into a couple of rooms that are ALWAYS 
busy for an extra tuning! Yay! 

Am I weird for sticking around?  This town is more or less flat and I have 
a 4x4 to get home, so no worries!





From:
"Porritt, David" <dporritt at mail.smu.edu>
To:
"caut at ptg.org" <caut at ptg.org>
Date:
12/08/2009 01:33 PM
Subject:
Re: [CAUT] What Types of Pianos in Non-Piano Teaching Studios   and 
Classrooms?



Paul:
 
Here each piano teacher has 2 Steinway Bs except for the artist in 
residence who has a Steinway D and a redesigned D.  All of those are in 
pretty good shape and are tuned at least 4 times a year.  One other artist 
in residence in piano (not here a lot) has a Steinway L & an upright. All 
voice faculty have a grand of some kind (3 with Steinway Bs, 1 Boston and 
1 Baldwin L) and are tuned at least 3 times a year.  The 10 piano major 
rooms have 5 Ms, 4 Ls and a B and these are usually tuned about every 6 
weeks..  All other instrument teachers, theory, history etc. have either 
Walter studios or Baldwin 243s except for the violin studio that has a 
Mason & Hamlin CC.  We have 4 grands in classrooms the rest have uprights. 
Choral Hall and Band Hall each have Bs in reasonable shape. 
 
dave
 
David M. Porritt, RPT
dporritt at smu.edu
 
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Paul 
Milesi
Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 2009 11:33 AM
To: PTG CAUT List
Subject: [CAUT] What Types of Pianos in Non-Piano Teaching Studios and 
Classrooms?
 
I’m wondering what sorts of pianos other schools have in teaching studios 
for theory/comp, flute, trombone, choir director, and, particularly, 
voice.  Are they verticals or grands?  How frequently tuned?  Better or 
worse shape than practice rooms?

When I came on board here a few months ago, I removed grands from all 
teaching studios except piano and voice.  It just seemed like a 
misallocation of limited assets to me, since we didn’t have any playable 
grands in practice rooms (3 Webers with lyres that had come apart, on the 
ground).  The new chairman (an insider) agreed.  Now we have 12, including 
6 Baldwin Rs and Ls and 2 Steinways, in various states of (dis)repair. 
None of them is great.  But at least I can get to them for major 
reconditioning.  The faculty, once they got over the blow to their egos, 
are much happier with vertical pianos that are in better condition and 
better tune, and that take less space in their studios.  And students are 
happier as well.

We currently have studio uprights in 4 classrooms.  Again, I removed 1 
very old Steinway S to a practice room for reconditioning for use by piano 
majors.  It seemed like a waste to have it sitting in a classroom, never 
really played except for ear training.

This has dramatically changed the face of things at the school, obviously. 
 I’m just curious to see if I’m in line with others’ thinking about asset 
allocation, since I’m a pianist myself and rather sensitive to providing 
students with some “real” instruments.  Have I gone overboard?  :)
-- 
Paul Milesi, RPT
Staff Piano Technician
Howard University Department of Music
College of Arts and Sciences, Division of Fine Arts
2455 Sixth Street NW
Washington, DC 20059
University:  (202) 806-4565
Home:  (202) 667-3136
Cell:  (202) 246-3136
E-mail:  paul at pmpiano.com
Website:  http://www.pmpiano.com


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