CAUT

  • 1.  Practicing on teaching pianos

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 11-06-2018 07:52
    Hi gang,

    Does anyone have a policy on access to piano teaching studio instruments? We have studios with new pianos and I'd prefer that students, even very advanced ones, practice in the practice rooms. I've explained that to the faculty and administration who act as if they understand but then the next time we speak, they say we should allow advanced students to practice on those pianos.

    Thanks in admin dance for your sage words of wisdom!

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    Zeno Wood
    Brooklyn, NY
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  • 2.  RE: Practicing on teaching pianos

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 11-06-2018 08:48

    This only happens in one piano prof studio and it doesn't bother me. They're only there twice a week.  We did get a brand new Steinway A for a practice room, but had the locks changed and only doctoral students are allowed to use that piano. So far, no water rings from drinks on it and we've had it a year!

     

    Paul

     




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  • 3.  RE: Practicing on teaching pianos

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 11-06-2018 09:31
    Zeno,
    I think it's a lost cause. Professors will always allow their top students access to their studios to practice and rehearse. The chair couldn't possibly control that behavior. Make the case, note that this will cause more rapid deterioration, and then step back and go about your business. It's not worth fretting about.
    Regards,
    Fred Sturm
    "I am only interested in music that is better than it can be played." Schnabel




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  • 4.  RE: Practicing on teaching pianos

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 11-06-2018 09:38
    Hi Zeno -
    If you are looking to begin the process of your denouncement and ultimate ushered-exit from the scene, this is a fine place to start.  You're looking at administrative cowardice and pedagogical pandering, as in: teachers want to display a level of control over 'their' space, to be able to bestow their largess upon favored students, for a variety of purposes.   I may have told you (or posted to list) my experience at Manhattan School.  From the beginning, I was asked by admin to try to get control of the student practicing in studios, but the teachers resisted, for the above reasons.  Additionally, there was a (barely) underground market in extra keys, which became a secondary enforcement pastime, as in, walking into a practice room (after knocking) to find a hefty set of illicit keys on a chair or even the piano.  I had to steel myself against the dismay I knew I was causing at confiscating what had likely taken great effort (and perhaps $) to accumulate, but the anarchy so offended my sensibilities.
    In the end, I had to accept a compromise, of sorts.  I gained elevated access to the computerized scheduling program, where I could pro-actively reserve time in practice rooms (subject to scheduler confirmation - almost never a problem), and I extracted a general understanding of when faculty (or their minions) would NOT be in their studios.  They had to understand the trade-off.
    Ultimately, the problem should rest more with the internal strife generated within the various teacher's studios by some students being treated 'more equally' than others, and an admin that is unwilling to demonstrate fiduciary responsibility by protecting investment.   

    Just keep a timely journal and periodically report on the entropic process to your admin.   
    Get even when opportunity arises :)
    Ask Alan Eder.  He has a unique cross-over perspective.  And he's in California.

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    David Skolnik [RPT]
    Hastings-on-Hudson NY
    914-231-7565
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Practicing on teaching pianos

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 11-06-2018 10:04
    Here, all of the piano faculty studios are used to one extent or another for practice. This is a reality that is mostly dictated by our small facility -- we simply do not have enough practice rooms.



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  • 6.  RE: Practicing on teaching pianos

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 11-06-2018 10:34
    HI-

    Yeah, Ultimately each piano faculty person is going to make that call regarding their own space. That used to be more of an issue here, with breaking wires and all, but we finally upgraded our practice room options, both in quality and quantity, and that fixed itself. 

    best,
    Dennis.  



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  • 7.  RE: Practicing on teaching pianos

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 11-06-2018 18:31
    Since my name had been invoked on this thread, I feel compelled to respond.

    Like at Kent's school, there are so few practice rooms available to our piano majors that it would verge on cruelty to not allow some of them to utilize the teaching studio(s).

    As David S. pointed out, the ways faculty allocate resources under their jurisdiction can be really quite feudal, nepotistic, etc. I once caught a student with a host of keys that they had no business possessing and queried the faculty members who had given them to him. Responses were along the lines of, "But he's so talented!" While I do admire talent, I do not subscribe to diva-ism in any way, shape or form. I did share that thought with the faculty culprits, albeit somewhat more crudely than I have conveyed it here...

    The real issue, of course (besides too few practice rooms) is resource allocation, and who controls that, and why.

    Alan

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    Alan Eder, RPT
    Herb Alpert School of Music
    California Institute of the Arts
    Valencia, CA
    661.904.6483
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    Original Message