It's always unfortunate when people have to make that choice but it does happen and with the more sophisticate keyboards now it's not nearly as clear a choice. Were it up to me I'd have all pianists learning on high quality grands as uprights simply don't develop touch control in nearly the same way. When asked about purchasing a piano for a beginner I always tell them to buy the absolute highest quality piano (preferably a grand) that they can afford. Better for the ear, touch, control, development, pleasure. Sadly, I don't always win that argument. David Love www.davidlovepianos.com From: Joseph Garrett [mailto:joegarrett at earthlink.net] Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2010 8:08 PM To: David Love; pianotech at ptg.org Subject: RE: [pianotech] Clunker vs Electronic Keyboards David, There ya go with that "acoustic pianer" phrase! <G> I will agree with you, somewhat. As you have put it, there is no validity to fixing pianos unless they are some high end thang. Just ain't so in my books. (and I have lots of fine examples to show in that regard.<G>) We all tend to get a bit aloof in regards to uprights. They are just fine when they are put into good mechanical stead. One feature is: you can fix an upright in stages. a grand you have to fix the whole darned thing at once. It's more expensive to fix grands than uprights. (of course that may change if we lose the availability of parts) You and I can discuss this to death and we'll both be right. So....I agree to disagree.<G> Regards, Joe Joe Garrett, R.P.T. (Oregon) Captain, Tool Police Squares R I ----- Original Message ----- From: David Love <mailto:davidlovepianos at comcast.net> To: joegarrett at earthlink.net;pianotech at ptg.org Sent: 2/16/10 7:50:50 PM Subject: RE: [pianotech] Clunker vs Electronic Keyboards 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 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100216/b6b07818/attachment-0001.htm>
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