State of Pianos in Schools

It is too easy for school administrators who are asked to make budget savings, to focus their attention on the fund of money used for the tuning and maintenance of the pianos. There is obviously, no visible difference to the pianos if they are tuned or not. There will be an audible difference, but if the administrators are tone deaf, an out-of-tune piano is not going to bother them anyway. 

Financial management, for any institution is extremely important, but what makes good sense on a spreadsheet on the finance office computer can be nonsense in the practice rooms. Pianos were once bought by schools as assets, but somehow their value to the budget-makers has fallen to the point where they are now considered a liability. So much for good asset management!

There can be very few people who do not understand the need for institutions to make savings wherever possible. The conflicts of interest that remain after waste has been addressed, will always create problems. 

During separate conversations with a couple of piano teachers recently, the state of pianos in schools was mentioned. At one, high-end, fee-paying school they feel so poor they can no longer afford to have the pianos tuned each term, and so have them tuned once a year. Another school does not usually bother to tune the piano used for the Associated Board Piano Exams. If they do, they seem to look for and accept the cheapest quote they could find!

There could well be a generation of piano-playing students who may never know what a properly tuned piano sounds like. A look at some of the piano recitals and demos that are uploaded to Youtube is enough to demonstrate that there are many who seem oblivious to the howling sound of an out-of-tune piano! 

In term time, many school pianos are played constantly. Tuning stability is impossible if such a piano is tuned only once a year. The tuner can only play a game of catch-up! Because the piano was in such a poor state of tune before tuning, it is not going to stay in good tune for very long after the tuning. This is frustrating for the teacher, the students and the tuner.

Giving children cheap food is no way to plan for a strong future generation. If piano playing is to survive for the next generation, the budget-makers should give the tuning and maintenance of school pianos a much higher priority than has become normal over the last two decades.

© Steve Burden

Prestige, Priorities and Pianos.

Imagine: a posh, exclusive hotel - the perfect setting for just about any kind of event - with extensive and flawlessly kept grounds, an award winning restaurant, golf courses, conference facilities... and a piano! 

In a corner of the dining room is a double-overstrung Ibach baby grand piano. It is not ancient, but if there were an 'MOT' Test for pianos, this one would fail. It needs re-stringing and a lot of careful rebuilding work before it could once again give worthy credit to the Ibach name.

In spite of its condition the piano plays fairly well, and though tuned rather infrequently, when it is tuned the tone proves the old rule that a 'quality' piano can sound good and play acceptably, even when it is in a bad state of repair. 

I was told that, at quite a considerable cost, the lid had recently been re-polished! Sure enough, the lid was beautifully French polished and looked as good as new. But am I alone in thinking the money was spent on the wrong part of the piano?

The guests pay good money to sit and eat in the 'award-winning' restaurant. Whether the top of the piano looks nice, is of no consequence to someone who cringes at the unharmonious sounds coming from the piano! I know I fuss about these things but a top restaurant is about good food - the clean plates and cutlery are taken for granted. Pianos made to look nice without a thought of what they sound like, is the same as serving poor food on clean plates.  

In such an exclusive hotel, where the best of everything is on offer, it is sad that a tired, old piano is considered good enough to entertain the guests as they enjoy award-winning food in such prestigious surroundings. 

Ah well, they might have got the piano wrong but at least they got the super-luxurious paper towels in the toilets right! 

To achieve an air of real class and prestige, surely the choice of piano ought to be a  little higher on the priority list!

The Piano World

© Steve Burden

Piano Actions

The piano action is made up of thousands of components but its one single purpose is to present the pianist with an even and responsive touch. The repertoire of piano music can be played with so much more confidence and freedom when the pianist knows the full range of dynamic expression is at his fingertips. 

In the early days of piano history, fierce competition fuelled efforts to develop a strong, reliable piano action and to do it with efficient and economic methods of manufacture. The basic design of the piano action today is not significantly different from what it was 120 years ago. For a hundred years, generations of piano makers have been entrusted with a perfect working template.

Action makers in the early 1900s achieved an impressive degree of perfection - all  without the aid of computer technology. Even now, only minor variations in the comparative geometry of actions from different makers distinguish one from the other. Changes now, are restricted mostly to materials and glues. The use of carbon fibre is a most interesting development - clearly, the material's strength, coupled with its weight (or lack of it) opens exciting possibilities for its wider use in the construction of both piano and actions. 

The drawings of some of the early actions by the likes of Schroter (1717), Christofori (1707), and Stein (1780) are only primitive sketches. Very different from what the piano action has become. No doubt, these brave pioneers spent many tense hours thinking up new ideas and alternative ways to transfer the simple movement of the piano key through to the hammer and thus, to the string.

By 1850, Sebastian Erard had developed the piano action to the point of being recognised as more or less, the design used today. Further 'variations on the same theme' were tried, some proved useful, but many came to nothing. Herburger, Schwander, Langer, and Renner were among the best of the many action 'houses'. Actions made by these makers are found in many of the better quality pianos around today.

The recent rise of piano-making in China and the far east, has meant that the Piano Trade is now a truly global affair. It is sad for we nostalgic types in the west, where local piano-building traditions have all but died out, to accept that piano production has shifted almost entirely from the West to the East. This is the stark reality of our contemporary world. Materials are sourced from anywhere on the globe to make the piano a truly multi-national product. Perhaps it is too much to hope that peace and 'harmony' in the world might yet be a happy by-product from the manufacture of pianos!

The Piano World

© Steve Burden