How different would my career have been if I had owned a digital piano as a child? I asked myself that question today as I taught a group piano lesson and watched the kids enthusiastically pushing buttons to find sounds that fit their songs. Their fingers flitted over the controls with an expertise that comes from life-long exposure to electronics and I found myself marveling at their effortless creativity. I listened as one my 10-year-olds played a beautiful piece of music that he composed and recorded, with drums, in perfect rhythm. I will never forget the joy and sense of accomplishment in his proud smile.
People often compare the piano retail business to used car sales and, frankly, I can understand why. Over the years, far too many piano dealers have participated in misleading advertising schemes, unethical pricing schedules, “bait and switch” tactics, misrepresentation and outright dishonesty. It’s gotten bad enough that those of us who truly care about our clients have to work ten times harder to earn their trust. Piano shoppers today often experience real fear at the prospect of giving an unfamiliar business their hard-earned money. It’s sad, but it’s completely understandable.
The rise of The Internet helped in some ways. It’s given consumers a whole new voice. Piano shoppers can review their dealers, leave feedback and even warn others when they feel they were mistreated. The downside to the internet is its sheer volume of information. Everybody with an opinion and a smart phone can create a blog. …and while it’s great that everyone has an opinion, it’s hard to know whose opinions are based on real information and whose are based on old info, opinions or third-party propaganda.
How, then, can you tell which piano dealers are trustworthy and which ones are just “out to make a buck”?
In October of 2009, several piano students disappeared at Gist Piano Center while performing a recital. A year later, their concert footage was found. Undeterred by this terrifying setback, several more piano students attended a recital at Gist in October of 2010. They too disappeared. The only record of their horrific experience came from a digital camcorder that happened to record the entire event. After hours of work, experts were able to salvage two minutes and 56 seconds of video from that recital. Determined to find these missing students, authorities at Gist posted this haunting video online – hoping that someone would know where these students had gone. You can still see that video >here< – but beware. Once you do, you may never sleep soundly again.
Now, exactly one year later, students are gathering in record numbers to search the Haunted Steinway Halls in Louisville and Lexington – looking for some sign of their missing comrades and exploring all of their various music theories.
Students at Western Middle School in Louisville, Kentucky will begin the 2011-2012 school year with a Yamaha digital piano lab – thanks to another partnership between Jefferson County Public Schools and local piano experts at Gist Piano Center. On Wednesday, August 17, representatives from Gist Piano Center and Jefferson County Public Schools assembled the 15-piano Yamaha digital piano lab for what turned out to be the first day of classes in the school year. The pianos, which came from another JCPS school, were brought in, unboxed and inspected for missing components before assembly.
“We were lucky that they were so well packaged,” said Tim King of JCPS. “We were only missing a few screws, some AC adaptors and a couple of stands. Thankfully, we were able to set the pianos up just in time for classes.”
“That’s not how it sounds on the CD!” Have you ever heard your piano student utter that famous line? You can just hear the disappointment oozing from every pore. They worked so hard to learn this piece, working sometimes for weeks just to be let down. I used to feel this way when I was a budding young pianist too. Luckily, as a budding young vocalist, I had already turned into the next at-home Paula Abdul with the invention of Karaoke. I could sing just like her and had the back-up band to prove it. But when it came to the piano, I was once again all alone – just me and my metronome.
I have often said that people think there’s “nothing new under the sun” in the piano business. We’re dealing with an instrument that is over 300 years old and has changed relatively little. Most teachers, technicians and private owners have chosen their favorite brands years ago, firmly plugged their fingers into their ears and begun to hum loud enough to drown out any new information that might contradict their traditional view of the piano world. For those of us who work with current piano information on a daily basis, this is extremely frustrating.
One of the biggest challenges I face as a piano expert is finding others in my community who understand the value of modern piano tools. It’s not easy to find someone who will ask their students to play along with a CD, record a MIDI file or – gasp – practice their scales with a drum rhythm instead of a metronome. However, I occasionally have the fortune of encountering one of these enlightened souls and I want to share her relatively unique story with you. Read more
Come on. Admit it. There’s no shame in it. Lot’s of people do it. In fact, I do it myself. Some mornings when I get up and step into the shower, I can’t help myself. I grab my shampoo bottle, turn up the radio and start belting out “Friday” or “You Can’t Touch This” – whatever comes to my (admittedly groggy) mind. Hi. My name is James and I’m a Shower Singer. …and so are you.
Lots of us get up every morning, sneak into the bathroom, crank the radio, and sing to our hearts’ content. …and, though we hide our efforts from the “discerning” ears of friends and family, we take some comfort in the fact that – though he doesn’t know it – we can hear our next door neighbor doing the very same thing.
Well, fellow Shower Singers, the future is here! Introducing the all new HP-305 digital pianos from Roland.
Designed to reproduce the natural, expressive feel of a grand piano (right down to the characteristic “click” feel and the old-school “ivory feel” keys), the new Roland HP305 is so authentic you’ll forget you’re playing a digital instrument! …but, though it has a breath-taking SuperNATURAL piano sound (based on the Steinway 9′ concert grand), 3-track recorder, metronome, and iconic front leg cabinet design, the HP-305’s real appeal is for – yes, you guessed it – the Shower Singers!
Connect your iPod, USB flash drive, or USB CD drive to this piano and you can take pre-recorded songs (even your favorite CDs!), cut out the vocals, and sing your favorite music with CD accompaniment! You can even change keys! You’re shower can’t do that!
So, fellow Shower Singers, it’s time for us to step out of the shower, dry ourselves off, (put some clothes on!), and sing ‘till our hearts’ content with the all-new HP-305 pianos from Roland.
Stop in for a demo and I might even sing for you – just don’t tell anyone!
This time of year, I get a number of bid requests from local schools for digital piano labs. Teaching class piano has been a part of college curriculum for many years, but these days more and more of these bid requests are coming from secondary and even elementary schools. The actual bid proposal takes awhile to customize and explain (since we custom-fit digital piano labs for any size room or budget), but I thought you might enjoy a look at the possibilities…
Enjoy this brief video showing what one school in Texas did with their Roland digital piano lab and how it’s changed class piano forever…
I often tell prospective music students that music is a two-part discipline. To truly become proficient at any instrument, music students not only have to develop the athletic skills associated with playing that instrument (finger independence and strength, breathing and proper posture to name a few), but they also have to understand the language of music (how to read, write and even think in musical notation). This musical language – called “Music Theory” by teachers – is an ever-expanding library of “rules” and “best-practices” that our musical history has given us and it forms the foundation for every student’s understanding of music as a whole. Thus, it’s critical that we find a way to motivate the Video Game Generation to study Music Theory with some of the same enthusiasm they bring to their Xbox.
In the Age of Instant Gratification, it seems harder and harder to keep a music student’s attention. Also, as music is removed for our schools, private music teachers find that they have less and less time in their 30-minute lessons to cover basic concepts that used to be “common knowledge” to beginning students. …so how do we find time in only 30 minutes a week to help our students unlock the power of the musical language? (Imagine trying to study Latin in only 30 minutes a week!)
Everywhere we go, we find that people love to talk about pianos. Do you have a question? Do you have a favorite piece or a piano memory you'd like to share? This is your forum. Send your questions to info@gistpianocenter.com and we'll answer them here. We'll also share out favorite piano stories from the Kentucky and Southern Indiana area. Stay tuned! There's more to come.
