[CAUT] pushing pianos

[Fred Sturm]

On Jul 23, 2010, at 8:54 PM, David Skolnik wrote:

> All due respect to everyone, (really), but I'm not sure I buy into  
> either the instructors aspiration or Fred's explanation.  Who are  
> these piano students that they are expected to move pianos around?   
> So they're heading off to your's and your's conservatory and now  
> think they are exempt from the proscriptions about moving pianos?

Well, maybe there are institutions where proscriptions work, and where  
only licensed and authorized people move pianos around. Not in my  
world. The students are mostly the ones who move the concert grands on  
and off stage, and move the rehearsal pianos around the rehearsal  
halls and occasionally between them. Sometimes it's work studies who  
have been given a modicum of training by the hall manager (who has  
been given a modicum of training by me), but quite often it is generic  
music students. If the percussion ensemble shows up for rehearsal with  
its instruments and the concert grand is on stage, they do not search  
for some "licensed" individual, they push it out of their way,  
probably into the storage area. We don't have staff on hand  
supervising and available at all times. That is just reality.

> I can be on board with regard to pianists understanding the  
> mechanical workings of their instrument, but what are they learning  
> by moving a piano an inordinately long distance except, maybe, that  
> it would be a good idea to have some friends on the football team?


I guess it is the "inordinately long distance" thing that sticks in  
your craw. As long as it is a reasonably smooth shot, I don't see the  
problem. I am willing to accept Alan Eder's judgment that it is a  
reasonable move to do this way.
	The thing is, music students are the future band and orchestra  
directors of high schools, where they will be the ones in charge of  
whatever piano moving happens. They are future faculty of community  
colleges and small liberal arts colleges without much support staff,  
where they will be the ones in charge. It seems to me that the more  
people understand the potential dangers and precautions to be taken  
when moving a piano on a dollie or on its casters, and when a  
professional mover should or MUST be hired, the better. Yes, it can be  
moved carefully down the smooth hallway on its truck. No, it can't be  
moved across the parking lot to the next building. No, it can't be  
moved over that high threshold. If there is even a very small bump, it  
needs to be slowed way down and eased over. A lot of people have the  
impression that if a grand is on a truck, it can be shoved anywhere,  
and the more that impression can be modified, the better.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
fssturm at unm.edu
“Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to  
shape it.” Brecht