the future of piano study

[Michael Gamble]

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
Hello Tom and List
I hear on the BBC that Yamaha are offering, as First Prize to any NON =
professional pianist over 30 years old taking part in a South Bank piano =
competition  a =A310,000 Yamaha piano. They're doing their bit here =
anyway. So is the BBC in their "Young Musician of the year" annual =
event. I have more work than I can possibly handle since there are fewer =
and fewer piano tuners coming into the field. Learning how to tune a =
piano in UK is now more difficult there being no piano factories. =
(Herrberger-Brooks piano action and key factory has also ceased trading =
some while back along with Broadwoods, Knights, Rogers etc.) so the only =
place I know of is with what used to be called the "Furniture College" =
in Commercial Road, London. I dare say there are various piano workshops =
or Ateliers who train new recruits. No, here it is not the lack of =
pianists which is worrying, it's the lack of tuners.
Regards from Sunny Sussex
Michael G.(UK)
  ----- Original Message -----=20
  From: Tom Servinsky=20
  To: Pianotech=20
  Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2005 2:21 AM
  Subject: Re: the future of piano study


  I can't speak for our neck of the woods ( S. Florida). All of our =
piano teachers are carrying full loads plus huge waiting lists for any =
future openings.   Piano lessons are going strong and parents are most =
enthusiastic of the benefits pianos lessons provide. In addition I'm =
seeing a lot of the high school students going to the symphony concerts =
as dates instead of the parting down the block.
  Tom Servinsky
    ----- Original Message -----=20
    From: Blackstone Piano=20
    To: pianotech@ptg.org=20
    Sent: Tuesday, July 19, 2005 7:02 PM
    Subject: the future of piano study


    I'm curious to know what other piano tuners think about the future =
of piano study.  I can only guess that the number of children who =
studied piano 100 years ago versus today is staggering.  I've seen some =
figures on the decline of piano sales as each decade passes, and that is =
a telling indicator. =20

    I'm not a cynic by nature, and I am not overly concerned about the =
end of our profession coming too soon.  Still, I do think about it and =
wonder if other piano tuners are concerned.  Will the number of piano =
students continue to decline, or slow to a steady number of new students =
each year?  Is it possible in this day of sports, video games, TV, the =
Internet, and a million other activities, to reverse this trend?  What =
would it take to make this happen?  Should/what should we as piano =
tuners be doing more to try and reverse this trend?  I came across an =
interesting speech from Brian Chung, the senior vice president and =
general manager of Kawai America Corporation: =
http://www.pianonet.com/articles/artofwar.htm

    I'm just curious what other people think about this.

    Thanks,
    Colin McCullough

    please visit the McCullough Tuning Tutorial, a free online resource =
for learning how a piano is tuned.
    www.blackstonepiano.com/tutorial/tutorial.htm

     
---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/4b/83/ce/27/attachment.htm

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--