One important consideration in regards to the purchase of any music instrument is to decide if a used or new one is the best route to take. Similar to previously owned automobiles, used pianos and other musical instruments can come with their own set of problems. Used pianos may or may not have been well-maintained or taken care of by the previous owners. However, new pianos almost always cost more than comparable used ones. Music supply shops usually have payment plans for a new piano, whereas sellers of used instruments generally require full payment up front.

For people  considering the purchase of a piano for young children or who cannot afford the price of an expensive musical instrument, a used model generally is the wisest option. Also, individuals often purchase a piano and the child loses interest and no longer wants to play. A previously owned piano is generally the best option for those purchasing solely for an instrument for their children. People can always choose to sell their used instrument later and upgrade to a newer model based on their circumstances.

Another consideration is in what kind of conditions and for how long a piano has been stored. A piano kept in a moist, damp, and unconditioned basement is certainly going to decline in value and quality if stored in this manner for any length of time. A piano that is kept in a well conditioned space and played often, or at least periodically, is going to be a much better choice than the musty mildewed one. Any piano that is taken care of and played often is a preference. For more information see Why Does My Piano Go Out of Tune?

When evaluating the cost of the piano, people also need to know if they will incur any additional costs after the purchase. For example, it will be an added expense to hire a professional tuner/technician to return the instrument to playable condition. Transporting a piano is not a simple job by any means, and usually best left to professionals, so people additionally need to know if moving and setup are included in the price. A piano in a large space or music shop looks smaller then it will when it is moved to the buyer’s residence. Better safe than sorry, so it is essential to measure first, purchase later.

Purchasing a piano is an important step, and it should be taken unhurriedly and following some basic guidelines. People thinking about buying a piano must take into account several things prior to going through with the final purchase.

You Might Also Want to Read:

• Quick Reference Guide for Piano Owners and Prospects
• How Good A Deal Is A Used Piano From A School?
• Lifesaver for your Piano
• Care of Your Piano
• Review-The Piano Shop On The Left Bank

to read and write.  We are all affected by music

even if we don’t perform for a living.  Encouraging

a child to listen to music, or to learn how to play

an instrument, and teaching them about the lives

and experiences of artists inspires some to go on

to be singers, writers and performers, and for

others, it simply becomes a tool to express

themselves in their daily lives.”

-Trisha Yearwood, 3-time Grammny winner

In my last post I talked about the need to support and promote music education across the United States.  In the time since then, I have compiled a small listing of sites that could be useful and have posted what I have on the page, “Music Resource Page“.  Admittedly not comprehensive, I hope to make it much more so – with your help..  If you come across a site or a program that advocates for music education, please share it with us.  If you have a site from outside the U.S.  I will gladly include it in the list as long as I can personally verify what it says, and unfortunately I only read English fluently.  Help me make this page into a valued asset in the music education community.

Two quick examples-

• Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation – This foundation was started in 1996 by the late Michael Kamen, composer for the film of the same name that told the story of a struggling composer who went to work as a high school music teacher and the impact he had on generations of students. The foundation provides instruments to schools and after-school programs that need help to continue providing music education to students who might not otherwise be able to afford it. It is my understanding that this group was a major player in getting school music programs in New Orleans back in operation post-Katrina.
• Discovery Through Music – The Grammy Foundation and Campbell Soup Company’s “Labels for Education” have partnered to make this 6-week K-6 curriculum available free to schools participating in the “Labels for Education” program. This curriculum will “provide sequential, creative and fun opportunities to understand and apply the basic elements of music (beat, tempo, rhythm, pitch, melody, harmony, dynamics, timbre, and texture) while integrating language arts, math, science, and technology into the curriculum.”  This is a means for a school; to have a basic music education even if they can’t afford anything more.

I’m not able to donate money to these groups.  Living on disability I do good to get my bills paid each month and keep food on the table.  But I know how important music has been in my life and if I can help one other person know that joy and richness then I am more than happy to use this blog to spread the word.

Music even helped me find my wife.  I was staff pianist in a small  Southern Baptist church in the Texas Hill Country.  As my wife tells the story, she and her little girl started attending this church and she fell in love with my playing before she actually met me – definitely before her daughter asked me to be her Daddy! As of this past June we have been “happily ever after” for 23 years.

Spread the word.  If you know of a music program in jeopardy (from what I hear there are more each year) maybe something from one of these sites will help keep them going.  If that happens I’d love to hear about it and I imagine your fellow readers would too, so please leave a comment.  If you know of another site or program that I didn’t mention, please share.  Leave a comment or send a message.  Let’s work together to keep the music playing!!

You Might Also Want to Read:

• Celebrate Music – Celebrate Life
• KUIW Fundraiser
• The Pianist and the Muse
• Piano Lessons For Both Parents And Kids Made Easy
• Beginner Piano Lessons – Hearing the Music

It is obvious that this group has learned to sing.  It is obvious to me, as it should be to anybody who has done any performing that they have learned how to put on a good show.  They have also gained in ways that aren’t as immediately obvious and have potential benefits that reach far beyond 5th grade chorus.  They have developed the discipline necessary to reach for a common goal and the teamwork skills needed to reach said goal together.  They have also, at least in some cases, overcome some serious personal inhibitions.  Jared, the soloist in this next piece, is the boy mentioned in the Nightline piece who was afraid to even speak in class just a few months before recording this video.  (I have heard of many corporations spending hundreds of thousands of dollars each year on personal development programs for their workers.)  How many of them can report such success?  Listen -

Sure, I realize that much of this program’s unusual success has to lay at the feet of Mr. B, I cannot believe that there are NO other teachers out there capable of accomplishing something like this. Could it be that the teachers are spending so much time and energy defending the very existence of their programs in this age of budget slashing that they have nothing left for what matters – the kids and the music? It was stated in the ABC piece that most of these 5th graders would be going on to schools with no music program.  If you are a parent or community leader facing this possibility, please check out supportmusic.com.  This is an excellent advocacy resource site.

Teachers- Keep teaching music as long as the opportunity exists.  But don’t just teach the time signatures and note values and “Every Good Boy Does Fine”.  Teach them to love the music and to love making music.  Teach them the discipline and teamwork needed but make sure that they also get to know the thrill of putting on a good performance and having the audience in the “palms of their hands”.  (It doesn’t get much better than that!)  Then you will have equipped them with something that can stay with them for the rest of their lives – and won’t hurt nearly as much as the sports injuries sustained by so many children these days.  Also, promote your program as it gets going.  Think what a kick it would be for one of your kids to write Grandma across the country or Dad in Afghanistan and tell them that they are on YouTube.  What a morale booster!

Parents and administrators- Support your music teachers.  That’s not just a financial commitment, although if the teacher is not getting paid it makes it harder for them to work with the children.  Let them know they are appreciated.  Make sure they have the resources necessary to get their job done.  Keep their piano tuned without them having to beg for it.  Make sure an administrator is present everytime the kids perform.

Final comments- If any of you know of good resource links for supporting school music please send me a link.  If I get any, I will put up a resources page.  Also, if you have a school music program that you are proud of, please write and tell me about it.  I would love the opportunity  to help tell the Internet world about you.  Now, in “tribute” to the 100-degree weather we are having here in South Texas, here is one more number from Mr. B and the PS22 chorus.  Stay cool-

You Might Also Want to Read:

• Music Resource Page Now Online
• KUIW Fundraiser
• The Pianist and the Muse
• Piano Lessons For Both Parents And Kids Made Easy
• Beginner Piano Lessons – Hearing the Music

If you live in or near San Antonio, Texas, and want to support music in this area, come out this Thursday night, starting at 6 pm, to Tycoon Flats at 2926 N. St. Mary’s for a fundraiser for KUIW, the Internet radio station for the University of the Incarnate Word.  There will be a concert, a silent auction, and an open mic jam session.  You can click on the image above for a larger version of ther flyer.  (Click here to listen to KUIW.)

You Might Also Want to Read:

• The Pianist and the Muse
• Music Resource Page Now Online
• Celebrate Music – Celebrate Life
• Learn Piano By Using A Cd
• It’s Never Too Late to Rediscover the Musician Inside Of You

I recently found this book in my local public library and checked it out, more from curiousity than anything.  What I found is a book that should be required reading for aspiring piano teachers and highly recommended for parents considering either starting their children on the piano or resuming their own studies of the piano that might have fallen by the wayside at some point since their childhood.

Thad Carhart, the author, tells of his experience while living in Paris with an obscure piano shop in his neighborhood.  He had studied piano as a child, with mixed success, and was considering taking it up again.  Carhart was intrigued, and a bit mystified, by this shop, well away from the prominent music conservatories of Paris, and became even more so when he went in and learned that a reference from a previous customer was required for him to deal with them.  Once that was achieved he began a journey of learning and passion that most people cannot imagine.  Luc, the proprietor of the piano shop, began to educate him on the mechanics of what makes a piano good, and what makes a good piano great.  Part of this process, at first, is aimed at helping Carhart find and buy the piano that is right for him.  After that is accomplished, he progresses to learning about piano maintenance and all that that involves.  He also gets several lessons in piano history and a few on the current state of the piano industry, including a visit to the factory in Italy where Fazioli pianos are made and an interview with the company’s founder, Paolo Fazioli.

But along the way, one of the biggest lessons Carhart received was in passion.  Just a few examples here:

• Luc on wealthy people who buy fine pianos as symbols of wealth instead of sources of music:  “‘They might as well park a Mercedes at the end of their grands salons,’ he would rail, ‘for all they know of music!  Today I tuned a Steinway concert grand in an apartment that was at least four hundred square meters and I swear it hasn’t been played in years.  The owner told me it made him feel good to see it in the morning, and there it sits with the cover open as if Horowitz himself were about to enter and play.  He might as well look at his Swiss bank book or his stock certificates!’”
• Luc on the pianos that suffer the fate above: “‘It’s like a great conversationalist who is put in solitary confinement,’ he once told me, and I better understood how for him a piano could suffer a kind of death, even though it was wholly intact and well maintained.”
• Carhart on his ideal piano teacher: “Years later, when I rediscovered the importance of the piano in my life, I imagined some like her, an intuitive teacher who could draw out the music from within rather than drilling it into me. Instead of relying on a chance encounter, though, I saw that I would have to seek out such a person and make clear my needs and expectations if I were to enjoy playing as an adult.”

Although I have never been to Paris, don’t speak French, and have never totally quit playing, I saw several things in this book that were familiar to me.  The last shop I worked for reminds me somewhat of Luc’s.  I have met teachers that remind me of every teacher described in the book.  Most importantly,  although I have lost it several times, I have been able to regain, at some point, my passion for music.

Teachers- Strive to be the teacher described above by the author.  If the student, no matter the age, wants to make music and knows the excitement that can come from a good performance, nothing can stop them, in my opinion.  If, on the other hand, the student is so bound up by the regimentation of technique that even when they do a good performance they will still berate themselves because that “quarter-note D in the fifth measure” was a shade louder than the teacher had said it should be, and another student will be resigned to “I can never be good enough.”

You Might Also Want to Read:

• Quick Reference Guide for Piano Owners and Prospects
• Things To Think About When Shopping For A Piano
• Lifesaver for your Piano
• Care of Your Piano
• Memories of an Old Friend

Take Your Cue from Your Kids

If your kids seem to enjoy banging on toy drums or tapping a toy piano, it could be a sign that he/she is ready for the real thing. Some kids may start out being curious around a piano, and may like tinkering with it. If your kids like expressing themselves through music, you can try a sample lesson and see how it goes from there.

Take Some Lessons Yourself to Motivate Them

If you enjoy playing the piano, chances are, your kids will appreciate them too. Make lessons fun, and use entertaining educational material as much as possible. Learning how to play an instrument should be fun, so let them see you enjoying yourself as you practice with piano tunes.

Think Long and Hard Before Committing to Formal Lessons

Don’t be over anxious to sign up right away. You may have found the best teacher, but the question still remains – how far is your child willing to go? Sit down with your child and ask him/her how much time is reasonable for practices, training and recitals. These lessons do cost money so make sure you are getting a good investment and you are not just indulging yourself with unrealistic expectations. First and foremost, your child should always have fun while learning how to play the piano.

You Might Also Want to Read:

• Beginner Piano Lessons – Hearing the Music
• Piano Lessons – Creating a Practice Environment For Beginners
• Music Resource Page Now Online
• Celebrate Music – Celebrate Life
• Review-The Piano Shop On The Left Bank