The follow modification is serving well on the Yamaha G3 grand in our piano studio, for our instructor with a right knee injury. Fabricate a replacement base plate for the bottom of the lyre wide enough to add an extra pedal on each side. Yamaha pedals pivot on pins that extend out the sides of the pedal. Fabricate bushed blocks that will accommodate the pins, and mount the pedals on the base. Replace the pedal rod guide further up on the lyre with one built to accommodate five rods. Left rod needs to run exactly parallel to the sustain rod, and the right rod to the shift. Install rods that stop short of the the bottom of the key bed. Make blocks to bridge the new outboard rods to the rods they need to activate. Figure out any additional bracing needed to achieve structural rigidity.
I can send photos on Monday.
Original Message:
Sent: 02-25-2023 02:38
From: Steven Rosenthal
Subject: Needing info for physically challenged piano student
You don't mention what kind of piano this needs to be done to. Over the years many vertical pianos had some sort of bridge between the middle and right pedal, either as part of a bass sustain system (Kawai) or simply to provide a piano with 3 pedals even though the middle one was essentially a dummy. A bridge could be made across to the left pedal. Also, one may be able to simply rig the left pedal to operate the sustain directly.
When Chick Correa was touring in 2019, he was having problems with his right foot and had a 4th pedal off to the left that operated the sustain pedal with a lever that lifted the back of the (grand) sustain pedal so he could use his left foot. It wasn't a complicated system and worked quite well. He was a stickler for dampers lifting as soon as he depressed the pedal.
------------------------------
Steven Rosenthal RPT
Honolulu HI
(808) 521-7129
Original Message:
Sent: 02-24-2023 21:57
From: Wim Blees
Subject: Needing info for physically challenged piano student
Greg
Contact Michiel Van Loon,
mvanloon@xs4all.nl, in the Netherlands. He has invented a contraption that works with the thigh to activate the pedals. I attended a class he gave at the Europiano Conference in Warsaw last fall where he showed the contraption.
Tell him you got his name from me.
Wim
Original Message:
Sent: 2/24/2023 8:07:00 PM
From: Greg Junker
Subject: Needing info for physically challenged piano student
Requesting information (letter listed below) for physically challenged piano student from a university music professor. Any ideas?
Greg,
I have a student who has a short right leg and can't feel anything in his foot. He wears a shoe with about a 3'' sole so he can walk correctly. He is taking piano and must cross his legs to use his left foot to use the damper pedal. I went online looking for something that may allow him to use the damper pedal on the left side of the pedals. Of course, I saw all the pedal extensions for children, but only found prototypes of various "home-made" mechanisms to help with someone who can't use his/her feet to pedal. I thought the Thigh Controlled Pedal solution was the best, but there was only one every made. (Old sewing machines had those rather than a foot pedal, and they worked well.) Plus he could use his right thing in place of his foot.
Do you have any information at all about something that might work for him? Any ideas at all would be appreciated.
Greg Junker
Greg Junker's Piano Shoppe LLC
------------------------------
Greg Junker RPT
Owner
Belleville IL
(618) 971-9595
------------------------------