Do 19th Century Pianos Sound Good?

How do 19th century pianos stack up sound against modern pianos?

How do the older 19th century pianos compare in sound to our modern counterparts. With the new technologies we have today, along with the natural design evolution of the piano, one of the differences is that we can add far more tension on the strings. This provides more power and better tone quality of sound than the earlier pianos. See this sound comparison that illustrates the difference. It has some fun facts about the history and evolution of the piano.

Buying or Selling Your Piano On Craigslist?

What do you need to know when buying and selling your piano on Craigslist?

Craigslist is a great resource for all of us who are looking to buy or sell a whole range of products and services. But when it comes to buying or selling a piano, here are a few things to keep in mind.

1. As many prospective piano buyers are looking to get the "best deal" possible, you may have a hard time getting a fair value for your piano (if selling.)
2. If looking to buy a piano, do not be fooled by an amazing price and great brand name. Always get a professional to evaluate the condition of your prospective instrument. I can't tell you how many times I have been called in to work on a "free" piano that should be in the garbage heap.
3. Take your time whether shopping on Craigslist or anywhere for that matter. Buying the right piano for you requires that you slow down and take time to make sure that you have covered the bases.
4. If selling your piano, it may not hurt to engage an intermediary (qualified piano technician) who is willing to act as a buffer, to answer questions from prospective buyers. It can be worth a cut of the action (small percentage of sale) so that you do not waste time answering a million questions from laypeople who are fishing.
   
5. If selling your piano, make sure it is up to snuff as much as possible - tuned, cleaned, all keys working; before you put up for sale. This will help you get the best price possible when asking your price.
   

Questions

Will answer you question

I am putting this out there for anybody who has any questions about Pianos, Music, Buying, Selling, Tuning and Servicing, Music Education, Playing and Listening to Piano Music. Let me know.

Please tell me what your question is and I will do my best to answer it. Bear in mind that it might take a little time for me to get back to you but if you are willing to be a little bit patient, I will get respond. If for some reason you don't hear from me please just remind me that you tried to contact me.

If you don't yet have a Google account, you will have to create one in order to register your question in a comment to this blog post.

Thanks, I look forward to talking to you.

Question

1. Which piano has 4 strings per note? Steinway, Bechstein, Blüthner or Baldwin? The answer is Blüthner Pianos come with four strings per note rather than the standard three strings per note that you find on most pianos. The fourth string sits up higher than the other three which allows it to ring symphonically with the other three.

Re-Educate the Politicians

This is an article that I wrote on my Piano Article Site. I have had a number of positive comments about it recently so I thought it might be worthwhile re-posting it on my Piano Talk Blog.

Re-Educate the Polititians

Music has everything to do with math, science and education. To substantiate this premise, we can quote statistics and studies that show how a large portion of scientists, mathematicians and doctors are amateur musicians with a solid background and training in music. But to discover how music is of such fundamental importance to the education of our children, we need to dig even deeper and ultimately answer the real question; how and why has our modern culture disconnected music study from education? As this is a very complex issue, we can only answer this question in part, since a thoroughly comprehensive answer is beyond the scope of this article.

But first we need to go back 3000 years or so. In the ancient Greek civilization, music was considered along with science, astronomy and mathematics as a primary and necessary study in the pursuit of truth and knowledge. Philosophers and thinkers of that era mathematically calculated the musical scale and tonal system and applied additional calculations in designing the musical instruments so musicians could express the cultural esthetics of that time.

Indeed, the musical and tonal systems and instruments that have been used by all civilizations throughout history were conceived in a similar fashion. Through imagination, calculations, esthetics, practical application of esthetics or what is known as music and art.

The modern piano and twentieth century piano tuning resulted in a similar fashion. Essentially, you had over a period of roughly 150 years, extended debates, discussions, experiments, disagreements by theorists, mathematicians, many of whom were musicians or who worked closely with musicians about what a piano should look like, sound like and what kind of tuning would best support the music. All the while music was being played and instrument design and tuning was continually modified in order to accommodate the ever changing musical esthetics.

The purpose of this brief historical exposition is the following. Here we are in the 21st century and we have as a civilization and certainly as a culture lost sight of these important connections. If there were a process in all past civilizations whereby man inquired into the nature of the universe and connected music with astronomy and philosophy, where does that leave us in the present. Have we really evolved or are we devolving.

Mathematics, science, music, art all have one thing in common which is higher thinking, creative thinking, critical thinking; in other words, the ability to think. So I have to conclude that the problem with our politicians and education bureaucrats who declare music as an unessential and as a casualty of budget woes, is a symptom of their inability to think and make the right decisions and choices in a beaurocracy embodied with a hubris of misplaced priorities. Their line of “reason” that declares music as an unessential is also a result that delivers music education as a casualty of our modern American compulsion of relentless commoditization of esthetics, art and just about everything and holding that up as the as the holy grail. True art and beauty and expression can never be a commodity any more than a rainbow can. When we fail to pass on to the next generation a suggestion, a map or pointer to the higher strata of human sensibilities, and consciousness, we end up with .............. reality shows.

Yamaha Piano

This story is a year old - Yamaha purchased Bosendorfer piano and will maintain Vienna production and unique piano designs, but will reassess global sales & marketing.

Bosendorfer used to be owned by Kimball - some time ago.