I take up the subject of the importance of teaching music and how it is aided by those people who can facilitate expression. The specific category with which we are concerned centers around the study of the piano, the possibility for expression that it offers and the importance of making the range of expression as broad as possible for all who study in earnest, that is teachers and students alike.
We assume that all teachers are musicians and that piano technicians who work for them are concerned with helping them expand their range of expression. This means that the piano technician works to obtain the most improvement possible on each instrument serviced given the limitations of time, financial considerations and the potential or capability of the instrument at hand.
Since teaching music, or specifically teaching piano encompasses the study of music the teacher might be thought of as a more advanced student whose experience will guide the novice or any player of less experience who wishes to enhance his or her own musical awareness. Personal taste is important when aesthetic considerations are taken into account. Sensibility for music can be cultivated through ongoing study. Thus the true musician will never cease to study, learn and attempt to broaden the expressive range and power afforded by the instrument itself and one’s own aptitude and inclination toward music.
Likewise, the true piano technician will always seek out greater possibilities for building good musical tone, intonation, proper mechanical functioning and precision into each job or task undertaken. We take it that every teacher has the musical soul and will attempt to understand and appreciate the effort that goes as what it takes to make the instrument capable of following the expression of the player every bit as much as the importance of learning to play
It would seem then that teachers and piano technicians alike could benefit from some study or idea of what goes into each vocation. Our age of apparent specialization has tended to compartmentalize these two areas in which there is nonetheless a great overlapping of information. Many technicians have spent years studying music which is a great asset to them. Just how much general knowledge of how the piano works has been afforded to teachers may not be fully clear to technicians who may either take it for granted that what they know about pianos is generally understood, or perhaps not understood in the least if it does not seem to be a matter of interest to teachers of piano.
We might propose that a general understanding of good functioning instruments, how they are made and how they work is important to technicians and musicians alike. Non technicians may not be interested in finding out if the topic is not presented in a manner that draws them in. For some it may be like this: “I can’t define it, but I know it when I hear it” To put it more simply, reasonable intonation sounds better to the musical ear than poor intonation and wonderful intonation is even better than “reasonable” This gets to the crux of the matter of how often one senses the need for having one’s piano worked on. That is a topic for a future discussion.