School Pianos

Openwood · Post by **Openwood** » 05 Apr 2008, 11:07

Apparently it's useful for Debussy but I've never come across an instance when I've needed to use it. Personally, I'd find it more helpful if they fitted a pencil sharpener and a mug holder....

Post by **Barrie Heaton** » 05 Apr 2008, 12:03

Openwood wrote:Apparently it's useful for Debussy but I've never come across an instance when I've needed to use it. Personally, I'd find it more helpful if they fitted a pencil sharpener and a mug holder....

Kemble did that to their school piano and fitted a pull out bit for your laptop, it flopped so the dropped the line

Barrie,

Openwood · Post by **Openwood** » 05 Apr 2008, 13:16

Kemble did that to their school piano and fitted a pull out bit for your laptop, it flopped so the dropped the line

Anyone who sets out to build anything for a school needs to start from the premise that it's going to be kept in the same room as a family of gorillas. That's the nearest they'll ever get to simulating a real classroom environment. I wouldn't buy a school piano with anything attached to it because it will just get ripped off. That's the problem with the hinged wooden music trays you get on uprights - sooner or later they all get wrecked. Don't get me wrong, most of the time the kids don't actually mean to break things, it's just what children do. All the time.

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 05 Apr 2008, 13:38

I object to that remark about gorillas; I LIKE gorillas...

Berry fitted swivel-out ashtrays and fag-holders to their uprights. Now that WOULD be useful on skool pianos, having observed the allegedly intelligent brats of the skool where I live who are working hard on knackering their lungs before they hit 16.

PianoGuy · Post by **PianoGuy** » 05 Apr 2008, 14:04

Gill the Piano wrote:
Berry fitted swivel-out ashtrays and fag-holders to their uprights.

Smart Bakelite jobs which almost encouraged me to start smoking!

mdw · Post by **mdw** » 05 Apr 2008, 16:26

Openwood wrote:
Don't get me wrong, most of the time the kids don't actually mean to break things, it's just what children do. All the time.

You must live in different area of the country to me. Virtualy all the damage is see is outright vandalism and it even happens in some "nice"schools.

Openwood · Post by **Openwood** » 06 Apr 2008, 08:21

Virtualy all the damage is see is outright vandalism and it even happens in some "nice"schools.

Well, yes - I was trying to give the benefit of the doubt, but you're probably right.

Post by **Barrie Heaton** » 06 Apr 2008, 09:54

All Girls schools can be the worst and the boarding ones well you find all sorts stuffed in the pianos, used sanitary towels I was told one tuner he found a little boy in the bottom of a ex pianola in a practise room

Barrie,

mdw · Post by **mdw** » 06 Apr 2008, 10:08

Looks like this is going to be the school horror thread. One of my faves was every single hammer felt peeled of the heads "cos it sounded cool". Typical one at least once a year is a hand full of hammers pulled out of the action. I now recomend a dirty great big hasp and staple with a padlock for the lids.

Openwood · Post by **Openwood** » 06 Apr 2008, 12:36

When I was at school I used to play the piano for assemblies. I once opened the fallboard to discover an (unused) condom lying across the keys. I still wonder if it was meant as a comment or an invitation...

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 06 Apr 2008, 13:26

I now recomend a dirty great big hasp and staple with a padlock for the lids.

I misread that as 'for the kids'. Which actually isn't that bad an idea...

Barrie; was the brat in the pianola dead or hiding?

Post by **Barrie Heaton** » 06 Apr 2008, 14:04

Gill the Piano wrote:
I now recomend a dirty great big hasp and staple with a padlock for the lids.
I misread that as 'for the kids'. Which actually isn't that bad an idea...

Barrie; was the brat in the pianola dead or hiding?

Nether the other kids had put him in there and put a big stool full of music in fount of the bottom door the tuner who told me said it happened in the 50s

the joys of boarding school

Barrie,

Openwood · Post by **Openwood** » 06 Apr 2008, 19:14

he found a little boy in the bottom of a ex pianola

Full marks to the children for coming up with something useful to do with a pianola.