was Samick is crap? Now young tech

[David Boyce]

Oh, Alicia, I so envy you your ability to play the piano.  We had some 
discusion months ago on here about who of us can and can't play. I can play 
some classical pieces from memory, but I can't play from sight. I never had 
lessons as a child.

It's good that you found someone to mentor you in England. I doubt if you 
could have done so in Scotland, where I live.

What I meant, though, about the death of piano technology, was that piano 
manufacturing in the UK is all but finished.  Over the last 30 years, one by 
one, the English piano factories (there were none in Wales or Scotland, and, 
briefly, the Rippen/Lindner one in Ireland) have gone out of business.  Now 
there is only one left, Kemble, which is really owned by Yamaha. No grand 
pianos at all are produced in the UK now, as far as I know.

So the many piano factory jobs which existed, offering apprenticeships and 
other training, no longer exist.  I do not know how many people are employed 
in manufacturing (probably more assembling now) at Kemble, but I wouldn't 
think it's many.  Thus, there is only a handful of piano manufacturing jobs 
in the UK, and virtually nil prospect of any increase.

What of rebuilding workshops?  There are precious few rebuilders of the 
calibre of our august JD of this list. And those that there are, are not 
substantial employers and trainers of others. It is not economically 
possible for them to be.  So the number of training places available with 
good rebuilders in the UK is vanishingly small.

For training, then, that leaves only the college courses, of which there are 
three. London Metropolitan University, Lincoln College, and the Blind 
facility in Hereford.

There is no short or medium term prospect (and probably no longterm 
prospect) of piano manufacturing taking off again in the UK, so the 
situation isn't going to change anytime soon.

Best regards,

David.

I found a mentour to teach me privately who serviced pianos there. Plus i 
studied piano there.

As for piano technology dieing in UK... I wouldnt say so... theres alot of 
tuners out there who are willing to mentour... I'm saying this with 
confidence as I lived the last 17 years there....

Alicia