The past, present, and future of piano study

[blackstone]

I’d like to put forward the following comments/questions to the people in this forum:

-As far as I know, many more pianos are manufactured today than 100 years ago.

-If there are more pianos being made and sold now than ever before, I find it safe to assume there are more people studying piano than ever.

-From my perspective, I see classical music growing more culturally irrelevant over time. Several reasons I believe this is so are the changing tastes of popular music, the continued decline of music education in schools, and the distractions of a hundred competitors for time like TV, internet, school sports, etc. To be clear, I don’t want this to happen, but I think it is.

-I believe that 100 years ago, the piano was far more important culturally than today. From what I’ve read, playing piano was more expected in learned society then. There are many reasons for this, of course; chief among these would be the more obvious fact that people didn’t have TV and radio then, so reproducing music had to be …er...by hand.

-If it was more expected for people in learned society to play piano, can one then assume that more people are playing today because they want to, less because that is what society expects?

-If all of the last five suppositions are true, it’s hard for me to put them all together, since they seem somewhat contradictory.

-If some or all of those suppositions are true, how much of a telling indicator is that of the future of piano study and popularity of classical music in general? I’m not trying to raise alarm; I’m simply curious what other people’s perspectives are.

-I’m curious if anyone here has come across any statistics that estimate the number of people currently studying piano today, and various times in the past?

- Is it possible that the percentage of students who quit within 1 or 2 years of study is higher now as well?

Colin McCullough

Please visit the McCullough Piano Tuning Tutorial, a free online resource for anyone interested in how a piano is tuned, featuring the entire tuning in MP3 audio format.
www.blackstonepiano.com/tutorial/tutorial.htm

[Gill the Piano]

Actually, there were certainly many more pianos per capita of the population than there are today; in 1910 there was estimated to be one piano for every ten people in Britain. There were 1500 piano makers in London alone, ranging from the big piano firms like Broadwood and Chappell down to firms comprising little more than two blokes in a railway arch assembling dreadful jerry-built jobs.
The electric things are reasonably popular, but not amongst serious classical musicians; the day Ashkenazy gives a concert on one I shall start to sweat...certainly most piano teachers I know don't like their pupils only practising on plastic pianos, as the touch and tone is NEVER the same. Most of the plastic ones have been bought by dads who like gizmos and gadgets, not realising that it'll be completely dead in ten years' time with no prospect of getting any money back, whereas with a real piano you nearly always get what you bought it for should young Tarquin not take to the piano.
Classical music is vital for a clear understanding of harmony - compare Chopin and Einaudi. I believe a mixture of classical and proper jazz - harmonically very intricate - gives a real basis for musical knowledge. Unfortunately, few teachers can teach both jazz and classical, so two teachers might be preferable - but pricey!
And that brings me to the dreadful state of music teaching in schools...music is rarely subsidised with the result that the rich kids get to learn music and the poor kids don't. The government chuck money at anything with computers and science and starve the childrens' souls. They seem to have come to the conclusion that music is A Good Thing For Children but sit on their hands and do nothing while universities (Reading and Exeter this year alone) close down; where are the teachers supposed to come from?
Now if someone could just help me down from my soapbox..

[Gill the Piano]

Um...that should be universities' music departments close down...sorry!

[Geminoz]

I think one of the problems with children learning to play the piano (or not) is the fact that parents these don't give the time to ensure they keep it up, and maybe their tolerance level for their little darlings' bashing wrong notes is very low.
You are right Gill (when are you ever wrong ) about starving their souls. I think that applies in more areas than music. Reading is another example.
If only children understood that when life deals them blows (and with kids that's every 5 minutes) they could lose themselves in a book or at the piano (or any musical instrument for that matter), and make themselves feel good again.
Not all kids are cut out to be champions in the sporting arena, but that is where a lot of the emphasis is put these days, governments, schools and parents can then basque in the reflected glory en masse.
I'm not condemning sport, it's great in its place, but a child's life needs balance, and without music, and appreciation of good music the balance is just not there.

[Gill the Piano]

And when you become a doddery old git like myself, you can still play music...although I do have an auntie who's hacked off because the doctor's told her to stop playing badminton as her knees won't take the strain...she's eighty! But for most people sport doesn't last as long as music.
Kids today (good God, I sound like me mother! ) are not used to having to work at things; the computer works at the flick of a switch, they don't have to apply themselves any more. This makes them impatient, and when I tell kids that I had to do half an hour's practice a day they look at me in absolute horror, and it's very clear that if anyone tried to make THEM do half an hour, they'd be on to Social Services like a shot! A violin teacher was bemoaning that fact, because at least with the piano you just press the note; there's no worry about tuning, tone or intonation (not at the beginning anyway) or having to manipulate a bow as well. With some violin methods, it's quite a while before they even apply bow to string, I believe.
The parental backup has to be there too, and from what teachers tell me, the commitment is not as great as it was in that department either; there's an increasing attitude that it's the teacher's job to teach the kids, and any failure to do so rests with the teacher.
Fings ain't wot they used to be...

[Geminoz]

You got that right.
When I was teaching my grandchildren it was a constant battle to try to get them to practice.
When we moved to the west coast last year I left them my piano in the hope it would encourage them to continue playing.....but I won't hold my breath.

[Guest]

Yeah, you're right, but you can only do that for so long.. d'you know what i mean?