[pianotech] Clunker vs Electronic Keyboards

[David Love]

When the person owning the piano can't or won't fix, alter or repair the
piano to make it playable or when the piano simply isn't worth shelling out
the required amount of money to fix, alter or repair it then I think it's
questionable as to the benefit of being an ideologue.  Of course I would
prefer that people learn on a good acoustic piano because the tone, dynamic
control (with a grand anyway, not clear about an upright) and feedback is
different.  But there are times when it may not be the best choice.
Remember that the ear is also being trained (it's not typing) so if the tone
of the instrument is so poor that it must basically be ignored in terms of
feedback then I'm not sure that the argument holds.  In addition, positive
feedback (enjoyment) is necessary to maintain some interest.  A very poor
acoustic piano whose function and tone are sub par especially when that lack
of quality is highlighted in comparison to, say, the teacher's piano, can
serve as a very negative bit of feedback for a beginning pianist and not
only kill any interest in the "keyboard" but defeat the goal of training the
ear.  A decent quality keyboard with all the bells and whistles can be fun
and get the young musician to explore a variety of other sounds and textures
as well.  Hopefully, it's not a choice that people have to make (but sadly
it often is).  The muscle tone argument sounds good but in comparison to a
weighted keyboard I think has no basis in any real evidence. 

 

David Love

www.davidlovepianos.com

 

From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Joseph Garrett
Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2010 7:32 PM
To: pianotech
Subject: [pianotech] Clunker vs Electronic Keyboards

 

David Love questioned the validity of keyboards vs a clunker piano. My
response is this: 

Pianos touch and sound can be fixed/altered/repaired. A piano promotes
Muscle Tone and a weighted Keyboard does not. Teachers found this out, early
on, with the keyboards. At first they were promoting the idea, as a Tuner
was not needed and ....all the pluses of the keyboards. They quickly found
out about the muscle tone thingee, because their students were not
progressing at the same rate as before with a piano.

Don't get me wrong. I am not opposed to the Electronic Keyboards. They have
a very good place in the making of music. They are the best thing since
Peanutbutter, when it comes to gigging, etc. I often will suggest that an
Electronic Keyboard be placed at right angles to the piano, (bass end), when
puberty hits a student and interest wanes. All the electronic stuff will
help to keep that student interested, IMHO.

Just quit calling the damned things Pianos!!

 

 

Joe Garrett, R.P.T. (Oregon)

Captain, Tool Police

Squares R I

 

 

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