Search found 4028 matches

by Gill the Piano
01 Dec 2004, 20:08
Forum: Piano Advice
Topic: How long do Piano Strings Last?
Replies: 10
Views: 17824

Geminoz - if you DO need a bit of help with the hammers returning before the tuner's next visit, I've shown a couple of clients how to get themselves out of trouble by substituting a bit of strong thread for the tape; a length of thread about 6" long (I don't do foreign measurements, sorry) in ...
by Gill the Piano
01 Dec 2004, 05:50
Forum: Piano Advice
Topic: How long do Piano Strings Last?
Replies: 10
Views: 17824

They have funny little loops on some of the upright actions instead of bridle tapes, and these can break with age. They're a fiddle to do, but not impossible. If only one or two go then do them as and when they break, but if there's a few it might be worth having the lot done.That said, they can go ...
by Gill the Piano
29 Nov 2004, 21:02
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: 5 yr old wanting to learn
Replies: 5
Views: 10306

Usual advice; look on the teaching pages of this site, ask friends, look in the Yellow Pages/ local directory, ask at the local music shops. Recommendation is far better than sticking a pin in the Yellow Pages. A lot of teachers regard five as too young - seven appears to be a 'magic number' for som...
by Gill the Piano
29 Nov 2004, 20:50
Forum: Piano Advice
Topic: How long do Piano Strings Last?
Replies: 10
Views: 17824

You could ask the tuner to tackle the pitch raise in two goes rather than one big one; sometimes the piano responds better this way. I raised the pitch on a Brinsmead of exactly the same type and age as the one you describe, but only broke one treble string. They're a lot tougher than most people th...
by Gill the Piano
25 Nov 2004, 20:01
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: missing teachers
Replies: 4
Views: 9053

Ask the ones with no vacancies for recommendations; they may know another teacher with spaces, or perhaps one of their grade VII or VIII pupils would start your kids off while you go on a waiting list for the original one? Most teachers round here have waiting lists. You could ask a church organist ...
by Gill the Piano
21 Nov 2004, 16:49
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: piano lessons wanted
Replies: 1
Views: 5744

Look on this website under 'piano teachers', ask around your friends who are learning/whose children are learning, or ask at your local music shop. Yellow Pages have listings, but recommendation is always best. Ask the teacher you choose if you can have a trial lesson to see if you and they will get...
by Gill the Piano
18 Nov 2004, 22:53
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: How to choose a Piano teacher?
Replies: 5
Views: 12681

Look on the list on the UK piano Page! You can also try Yellow Pages and www.musicteachers.com (I think - that's from memory!) and at your local music shop. However, the best way is always recommendation. Ask someone who's already having/had lessons, or whose children learn. If you contact a teacher...
by Gill the Piano
07 Nov 2004, 16:05
Forum: Piano Advice
Topic: Pitching
Replies: 3
Views: 7858

The semitone multiplier is the number by which you multiply the original pitch to get the next note up; ie 440 x 1.0594632 (if I remember the dim and distant days of college!) gives you the pitch of A#. And if you divide it by 1.0594632 you get the pitch of G#. But I'd check the multiplier; don't ta...
by Gill the Piano
04 Nov 2004, 18:57
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: Piano Lessons Statistics needed
Replies: 2
Views: 8154

Have you approached the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, Trinity College of Music, the London College of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama? They could give you an idea of entries to music exams. Perhaps Chappells music publishers might tell you how many piano lessons b...
by Gill the Piano
01 Nov 2004, 10:08
Forum: Piano Advice
Topic: How many costs good piano?
Replies: 1
Views: 5314

How good? New? Which country? We need a bit more to go on! :)
by Gill the Piano
30 Oct 2004, 15:14
Forum: Piano Advice
Topic: Looking to Downsize...advice please !
Replies: 2
Views: 5775

Also, many uprights will occupy the same footprint as the Niendorf unless it's unnaturally large! Do you mean that it's too big height-wise or widthways? With regard to depth the American 'spinet' type uprights protrude further from the wall than a normal upright, as does a pianola because of the ex...
by Gill the Piano
26 Oct 2004, 17:26
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: Willing to teach student who only has digital piano?
Replies: 6
Views: 14015

Another thought has occurred to me ( :shock: ); many churches have church halls with pianos (in various states of repair!) which they might be pleased to rent out for a small (with a bit of luck!) consideration. Worth a try... :)
by Gill the Piano
25 Oct 2004, 18:48
Forum: Piano Advice
Topic: Old Piano - G. Ajello and Sons, London.
Replies: 15
Views: 24066

Excuse that gobbledegook - my computer seems to have picked up a nasty from somewhere!
by Gill the Piano
25 Oct 2004, 18:47
Forum: Piano Advice
Topic: Old Piano - G. Ajello and Sons, London.
Replies: 15
Views: 24066

I had an academic <a target="_blank" href="http://searchmiracle.com/text/search.php?qq=Education">education</a>, hang around pubs (and churches and universities) playing the piano AND tune pianos. Am I a freak?! :shock: Yes, Geminoz is right; have a go at playing it - get a lapto...
by Gill the Piano
23 Oct 2004, 18:13
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: Willing to teach student who only has digital piano?
Replies: 6
Views: 14015

A good teacher, whilst preferring to teach someone who has a proper piano, should be glad that someone is keen to play despite adverse conditions! And if you're in London I believe there are some places who rent out pianos in studio rooms for practising...I'm not sure how you'd find them, but perhap...
by Gill the Piano
23 Oct 2004, 18:04
Forum: Piano Advice
Topic: Old Piano - G. Ajello and Sons, London.
Replies: 15
Views: 24066

You could also approach a local piano teacher - many kids are trying to learn the piano on nasty little plastic things and consequently ruining their touch before they've had a chance to learn it. Their parents often argue that they can't afford a piano, so a freebie would be excellent for the pupil...
by Gill the Piano
17 Oct 2004, 19:01
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: learning the piano
Replies: 2
Views: 6677

Why the aversion to lessons? We've come a long way from knuckle-rapping old bats, you know! (Apart from myself, obviously... :twisted: ) You could have a lesson a month; most teachers have spaces during the day, as their rush-hour starts about 3:30. And there are teachers who visit if transport's a ...
by Gill the Piano
17 Oct 2004, 11:20
Forum: Piano Advice
Topic: Restore Ronisch or buy 30yr old U1
Replies: 7
Views: 12857

Your Ronisch was made in the Golden Age of piano production when pianomakers didn't have one eye on the clock and the other on the cash register, and top quality materials were used. The Conservatoire piano, whilst much younger, has probably had a far harder life with professional-level musicians th...
by Gill the Piano
08 Oct 2004, 19:08
Forum: Piano History
Topic: B. Squire & Son piano
Replies: 8
Views: 17291

Lift off the top door (which will be fastened at both ends), then the fall (lid over the keyboard) and you should be able to get at the keys which simply lift out. If there's a rail across the back of the keys, this either lifts off or is secured with a screw at each end. Easy! If you get this far i...
by Gill the Piano
03 Oct 2004, 14:08
Forum: Piano History
Topic: B. Squire & Son piano
Replies: 8
Views: 17291

If you find the serial number (usually in top left or right hand corner amongst the tuning pins) then Bill can tell you more about the age of the piano. Mr Leslie was one of the men who worked on the piano; names are stamped here and there throughout, usually, so if there was a problem with a certai...
by Gill the Piano
27 Sep 2004, 21:49
Forum: Piano Advice
Topic: Overdamping - can it be made more effective
Replies: 3
Views: 8405

Barrie's right; a decent technician will be able to improve things. Sometimes the action can be slightly out of place, which will make everything ring on a bit - make sure it is securely fastened in against the strings, and that it is seated in place on the keybed. And it only takes one note not dam...
by Gill the Piano
19 Sep 2004, 21:07
Forum: Piano Advice
Topic: Please help boyfriends birthday
Replies: 3
Views: 6982

If he hasn't got one, get him a piano! If he HAS got one,secretly make a tape of him playing, play it to him and ask him what he thinks of the pianist. It's amazing how some people don't realise their own ability but can recognise it in others! :) Gill x
by Gill the Piano
12 Sep 2004, 17:37
Forum: Piano Advice
Topic: Would like to find name of song...
Replies: 6
Views: 11366

I agree, it's great fun, especially when you get all the frilly bits going! I'm not so keen on playing it with five year olds who insist on going back each time they make a mistake...can take weeks! I've always known it as Heart and Soul, but it's amazing how many people refer to it as Chopsticks. P...
by Gill the Piano
11 Sep 2004, 22:10
Forum: Piano Advice
Topic: le onde!
Replies: 2
Views: 5710

I know the full score for the whole album is available because I have to shift it off every piano in every home where teenagers live when I call to tune the pianos! Maybe Amazon can get it for you or the sheet music site recommended by Geminoz on this page under (I think) teaching. Or this (general)...
by Gill the Piano
11 Sep 2004, 22:05
Forum: Piano Advice
Topic: Would like to find name of song...
Replies: 6
Views: 11366

...or you can come into any British school at any break time where there is an unsupervised piano and hear it AD INFINITUM as even kids who can't play the piano play that one! :roll: They often refer to it as Chopsticks, although as Geminoz says, it's 'Heart and Soull (I Fell In Love With You)'. Are...
by Gill the Piano
08 Sep 2004, 19:34
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: Mariage d'amour - Richard Clayderman!!!
Replies: 19
Views: 57837

Thanks a lot, Geminoz - I have a dreadful feeling you're going to cost me a lot of money... :shock:
What an excellent site! I'll send you silent thanks when me and my piano are sitting destitute in the gutter - with a huge pile of sheet music :lol: !Gill x
by Gill the Piano
08 Sep 2004, 19:24
Forum: Piano Advice
Topic: Which Piano should I keep?
Replies: 4
Views: 9374

The more irreverent tuners amongst the fraternity have been known to call baby grands 'ashtrays' (not me, of course :shock: ...). If you're going to have a piano have the largest one you can accommodate! Length of string = quality of tone. Which is why we're all coming down on the side of the pianol...
by Gill the Piano
05 Sep 2004, 14:46
Forum: Piano Advice
Topic: Piano Tuning and maintenance - Yorkshire
Replies: 5
Views: 10692

If tuning's cheaper than you thought, use the change to get the tuner to do all the donkey work! He/she will know which way up the dampers go (dirty side up...) and will either have some damper bodies knocking around or will have a mate who does. Take the easy way out, save your energy for your pian...
by Gill the Piano
04 Sep 2004, 18:25
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: Mariage d'amour - Richard Clayderman!!!
Replies: 19
Views: 57837

Have you looked for books of Clayderman pieces? Most albums/LP's/CD's have a parallel book published by people like IMP, or if it's from an old record, Music Sales. Abebooks.com do have a few piano books, or eBay.
by Gill the Piano
04 Sep 2004, 18:22
Forum: Piano Advice
Topic: Grand Piano or Upright Piano Plans
Replies: 2
Views: 6370

If you contact Yamaha they do some nice posters with exploded diagrams of pianos; ask them nicely and they might even give them to you free if they're for educational purposes! :D Gill x
by Gill the Piano
04 Sep 2004, 18:11
Forum: Piano Advice
Topic: Piano Tuning and maintenance - Yorkshire
Replies: 5
Views: 10692

I'd ask the tuner to do the dampers - it can be a tricky job if you've not done it before and you may need extras like new springs which would necessitate buying a whole packet of them. As to cost, generally speaking the further from London you are the cheaper it is. Tuners who are independent will ...
by Gill the Piano
24 Aug 2004, 19:51
Forum: Piano Advice
Topic: E Squire Piano
Replies: 2
Views: 5883

If it's Squires of Ealing, then many of the ones I've tuned from the 1930's - 40's are made by Kemble. It depends upon whether the serial number (top left/right hand corner of frame inside) has a 'K' prefix. If so, it's almost certainly a Kemble who made good reliable instruments. Your best bet is t...
by Gill the Piano
22 Aug 2004, 21:23
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: teaching young children in a group
Replies: 4
Views: 9239

I agree with GS; the idea of teaching six five year olds gives me nightmares! In my experience the average five year old has the attention span of a gnat and times that by six...AAAARGH! I speak as someone who spent ages telling a five year old the difference between a tone and a semitone and asked ...
by Gill the Piano
22 Aug 2004, 21:11
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: teaching young children in a group
Replies: 4
Views: 9239

The idea of teaching six five year olds at a time gives me nightmares; I agree with GS, one at a time is far more productive. In my experience the average five year old has the attention span of a gnat and a group of them will distract eachother. I speak as someone who spent ages explaining the diff...
by Gill the Piano
22 Aug 2004, 21:04
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: standard of music colleges
Replies: 1
Views: 4324

If you mean the London College of Music, then it has a very respectable pedigree and has, I believe, turned out many reputable music teachers and professional musicians. The National College is not one with which I'm familiar, but I'm not really up to speed on the very latest developments in the mus...
by Gill the Piano
22 Aug 2004, 20:54
Forum: Piano Advice
Topic: KIRKMAN VERTICAL IRON PIANO
Replies: 1
Views: 4243

You'd need to know the serial number - usually on the top left or right hand corner of the frame inside - to ascertain the exact age of the piano. It's unlikely that the piano is of any significant value, but it depends what you have the piano for. If you have it to play and it's a beginner's piano,...
by Gill the Piano
26 Jul 2004, 17:26
Forum: Piano Advice
Topic: August Forster
Replies: 7
Views: 15891

I've tuned two August Forster grands which both came from a shop called Sheargolds, in Maidenhead, Berkshire. They both seemed nice enough, though one had been ruined by over-toning and sounded soggy to me - the customer insisted on the toning, apparently. What it was like before it was stabbed to d...
by Gill the Piano
12 Jul 2004, 18:34
Forum: Piano Advice
Topic: PIANO RATINGS
Replies: 2
Views: 14398

I've seen a site called something like 'The Virtual Piano Shop' which had a sort of rating system but it was one person's opinion based on (in some cases) only one or two encounters with a piano make. This seemed a little bit open to sweeping generalisations - in 20 years of tuning I have at least l...
by Gill the Piano
10 Jul 2004, 13:12
Forum: Piano Advice
Topic: Kemble Oxford
Replies: 1
Views: 4284

The Yamaha U1 is generally thought to be one of the best upright pianos around, and an awful lot of professional musos like them, as do many tuners; I was talking about this only the other day with an ex Steinway tuner and he said he thought they were excellent. He was sober at the time, too...serio...
by Gill the Piano
10 Jul 2004, 13:00
Forum: Piano Advice
Topic: Bentley Upright - Now what do I do?
Replies: 2
Views: 5364

Please please please save yourself time and money and get it done professionally; we have to spend HOURS longer on pianos where people have 'done it themselves', and Barrie's right in saying it's very likely that you will break strings. If you break a bass string they have to be custom made for not ...
by Gill the Piano
10 Jul 2004, 12:50
Forum: Piano History
Topic: Broadwood Baby Grand
Replies: 3
Views: 7938

Make sure it is thirty to forty years old, not just that it has been owned by those people for that length of time. Broadwoods are one of the oldest piano firms around and there are an awful lot of very old Broadwoods about. Because they used top quality veneers the pianos age very gracefully and of...
by Gill the Piano
09 Jul 2004, 17:49
Forum: Piano Advice
Topic: Digital or Acoustic Piano
Replies: 14
Views: 22858

If you put a piano upstairs it will be fine as long as it's on an outside wall where the joists run at rightangles to the wall. My piano was in my bedroom at home for many years and forty years later my parents still live in a house which didn't suddenly become a bungalow...mind you, I became a pian...
by Gill the Piano
09 Jul 2004, 17:44
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: help needed with fingering
Replies: 5
Views: 11328

I was trusting that the teacher would have the sense to look at the child's hands to start with! Glad you made it despite such 'help'!
by Gill the Piano
09 Jul 2004, 17:41
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: Pedals?????
Replies: 5
Views: 12755

There is no hard and fast rule for using the pedal; you need to know and understand the music you're playing, and that information cannot be gleaned from a midi file. You have to have proper lessons on a proper piano, as most pedalling is an instinctive thing needing sensitive guidance from a good t...
by Gill the Piano
22 Jun 2004, 22:38
Forum: Piano Advice
Topic: I have bought a house and been left a piano - please help
Replies: 1
Views: 4259

According to Pierce's Piano Atlas (shut up, Bill, it's the only one I have) that makes it pre 1885, so pretty elderly. However, Bluthner is a good make and some people will pay for the name alone. It very much depends upon the condition of the instrument; being as old as it is, you might be better a...
by Gill the Piano
21 Jun 2004, 23:02
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: good school around europe?
Replies: 1
Views: 4642

Don't know about Europe, but in Britain the best are reckoned to be the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal College of Music, Trinity College of Music and Guildhall College (I think) of Music, all in London. There's the Royal Northern College of Music, I think, but I'm not sure where that is - I have ...
by Gill the Piano
21 Jun 2004, 22:50
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: help needed with fingering
Replies: 5
Views: 11328

I think you just have to trust the teacher; he/she will be aware of any problems associated with the size of Emily's hands, and you can always ask that they find exercises that are manageable for her. The last thing the teacher wants is for her to become discouraged and there are so many books aimed...
by Gill the Piano
21 Jun 2004, 22:34
Forum: Piano Advice
Topic: Buying a disclavier??
Replies: 2
Views: 6773

I've tuned quite a few of these, and think they'd be excellent for a learner. You can record say, the left hand part of a piece and then learn the other hand but have the benefit of hearing it in a two-hand context without a complete mental breakdown. And from your wife and baby's point of view the ...
by Gill the Piano
11 Jun 2004, 14:58
Forum: Piano History
Topic: Piano tuners - a history.
Replies: 6
Views: 10158

I'll freely admit to being inquisitive, but loadsamoney? :shock: Not in this neck of the woods! Perhaps I'm not tuning the right way... Gill x
by Gill the Piano
10 Jun 2004, 20:40
Forum: Piano History
Topic: Piano tuners - a history.
Replies: 6
Views: 10158

Tried the PTG, with no response, but haven't heard of the MPTA, so I'll try them. Morley's were informative on the telephone but didn't seem to think my looking at the records would be helpful - but that was 2 years ago for my MA dissertation, so I could always ask again. All this info is brilliant,...