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

[jeremyjchilds]

I don't know about statistics, but In my area (Vancouver Canada) during the 80's everyone wanted to learn jazz and pop.

So there are a lot of jazz and pop teachers around...

Now the pendulum has swung again, and now everyone I know is working on thier ARCT and there is a severe shortage of Good teachers. In our area, there is a revival in the music of the masters.

[Bob]

I hope this doesn't end up in "print" a hundred years in the future.... I think piano lessons will stay pretty much the same in the future as today.

The instrument is probably about as developed as it will get.  The music isn't going to change.

Maybe technology will change things somewhat, but people will still be playing a real live acoustic instrument and have to learn on it.

Piano was popular long ago because there was no radio and recordings.  I think that was about it.  Want music?  Find someone to play piano or play it yourself.

Maybe there will be fads and risese and falls in popularity, but I think it will be nearly the same.

Maybe some improvement in teaching method too, but I think a lot of people want to enjoy their practicing and not just conquer piece after piece.  I think people just enjoy doodling around on the piano and that won't change.

[pianistimo]

i would like to see it become fashionable again to be a pianist.  that music teachers would get paid the same salary as computer whiz's. that concert halls be filled to the brim.  that people would stop buying 2 octave keyboards to learn piano.  that hanon books be pulled off the shelf and burned starting in 2006.  that new technique books would suddenly replace the spot where the hanon books had been.  that children would be sent to china for three week summer vacations - to come back with a little discipline under their belt.  and, one last thing...that music critics be seen as something other than 'the enemy.'  maybe they would have to fulfill a music degree and have some real critical thinking in their essays (and not get paid by the piano mafia to say whatever sounds sweet).  that music magazines once again become 25 cents to buy, but contain a lot of really good info.  that all concerts in the park sound like the philadelphia orchestra. that there is a sudden need for average pianists to play piano concertos?  ok wishful thinking - but could it be like the average person suddenly being able to fly to the moon?  sort of that bus ride that used to be only for the rich and famous, and now we need monkeys because it is so accessible.

[leahcim]

that music teachers would get paid the same salary as computer whiz's.

1 Indian rupee = 0.022981 U.S. dollars though, so they aren't getting as much as you think