SUNDAY THOUGHTS : REAL PIANO

 http://www.cafepress.com/dd/96248422

I love music. 

I especially adore the sound of an acoustic piano. Hammers hitting strings, lush harmonies…Aaah…It’s heavenly in the right hands.

In the hands of a skilled musician, an acoustic piano's sound is divine. 

A well played piano makes me want to sing.

Advances in technology haven't been lost in the musical world, but I wonder if ease and cost are potential enemies of authenticity. 

Do we always know what we're hearing? 

Do we care?

A local restaurant/piano bar has decided to convert its acoustic piano to digital. 

I think if one touts oneself as the best at a specific thing, one should care about the tools, ingredients, and methods one employs. Hearing about how the conversion was done makes me wonder if it's a true conversion, or a criminal act. 

I'd read about the Bulgarian youth center employee who facilitated the destruction of a handmade, Bluthner grand piano, because she didn't think it had any value. Maybe she should have asked someone--a musician, perhaps. 

A musician would have schooled her (or locked her in a closet and whisked the precious piano to safety). 

Why do people make decisions without seeking the potentially life, time, energy, face, or money-saving input of those who have expertise, or experience? 

A lot of apologies, waste and outrage could be avoided. 

On the other hand, why was such a valuable instrument allowed to progress to a state where a non-musician would consider it worthless, and even a safety hazard? 

Why wasn't it better protected and cared for?

Now, I can't play anything except the radio, so I'm trying to understand what happened in Alexandria, Virginia. 

Neither the size of the venue's acoustic space, nor sound was a factor, but the heart and guts of a beautiful, real, acoustic grand piano were ripped out, and the keyboard was replaced by a bottom-of-the-line digital piano, suitable for a child, or a beginner who has a minimal interest in music. At the helm of the newly installed keyboard, is not a first-year piano student, but a virtuoso, a Berklee College honors graduate, a Barry Harris-mentored musical phenom, who is expected to bring to fore over 40 years of expertise, so that patrons can still experience, from the gutted shell of a real grand piano, the sound and feel of... a... real... grand... piano. 

Huh? 

Is it an insult to the intelligence of listeners? Does it matter to patrons, as they dine, whether the piano is real or not? 

Is it unfair to the musician to demand he display Sublimotion skill on a McDonald's instrument? Should a skilled musician be able and willing to play whatever instrument is available, and play it well?

One musician friend lamented, "The acoustic piano is an improvement on the harpsichord. You don't regress, you develop. 

I don't hate technology. There are really good digital pianos on the market, that are a result of years of experimentation and study, that will give you the sound of an acoustic piano, but fitting an expensive grand piano with something made by Fischer Price? I don't understand! You don't buy a Harley to get a mini-bike sound and feel. It's like giving a great vocalist a Mister Microphone and saying, "Here ya go! Use this!"

I wonder why the establishment's owners would not simply invest in a new digital piano, hire a piano tuner, or contact a piano manufacturer.

Why have what is essentially a 1200lb. Casio on deck? 

 

Granted, the piano will never have to be tuned again, and volume control is available, but is tuning so expensive that the best option is to permanently alter a fine instrument?