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At the piano meetup I attend we play on a Bechstein grand piano and some people are not used to reading music at least 25cm above the keyboard. One of the meetup members constructed a music stay which rests on the top edge of the Bechsteins stay and comes half way down the fall board so that people more used to playing an upright piano could have the music in a more comfortable position.

I have just completed my own version of this type of stand for use at the Morecambe Bay Piano Group but I evolved the design so that it rests on the horizon surface of the music desk just above the fall board. I had to guess the dimensions so I expected there will be some adjustments to do once I can try it on a grand. A photographs is attached with it perched on top of my upright piano. It was constructed from scrap off cuts of timber I found in my workshop, plywood for the back and sapele for the front stay and the balancing piece at the rear.

Good job! Hard to replicate the distance with an upright though, isn't it? That was what threw me when I took my first ever piano exam on a grand rather than the uprights I was used to...good job my eyesight was perfect then!

Update to this thread.

I have been making a second bespoke piano music desk but alas didn't take photographs before delivering to a friend. Very similar appearance apart from I finished it in matt black and it's purpose was to increase the height of music on a Yamaha U3. My friend is rather tall and was stooping over the music when it was placed on the U3 desk which is attached to the underside of the fall board.

I hope to improve my ability to read music when I receive my first pair of prescription reading glasses optimised for eye to music distance.

You're getting old then, welcome to my world

I have visited quite a few places in my time, that has had some interesting adaptation for music desks did you add music stays to yours?

The most common one I get is from churches as the hymnbooks are too big for the music desk and the pages do not stay open. Yahaha pianos are the worst music desk are too thin to add stays


Barrie

I am probably older than you suspect Barrie ! Fortunately and so far I've just been very lucky.

I didn't fit stays onto the second music desk but the wood is thick enough to accommodate them if needed. I did cover the surface of the horizontal shelf with black felt and parts of the assembly I created to hook over the front panel were covered in felt so not to damage the high gloss finish of the piano. The design is such that it can be left in place with the fall up or down.

Sounds nice, the best one I saw was made of Mecano my thought where at first some poor kid is missing a large part of his/hers Mecano set I loved mine when I was a kid

Barrie