Tierd of adjusting your bench manually?

[quantum]

Look what I found...

https://www.pianoshowcaseonline.com/bn-1047-electric-artist-bench-poeschl.html

[rachfan]

Interesting, but I don't know how much usefulness it would have.  Once I properly set the height on my artist bench manually at home, it's forever.  I suppose it might come in handy in a teaching studio or on stage at competitions though.   

[Bob]

It's about time.  I always found that annoying when you had to adjust the bench height just before playing.  A little wear and tear on the hands just before you play.

I wonder what happens when it breaks though.  I have seen so many benches that mechanically messed up.  If that one is the same quality...

[richard black]

Good grief, if we weren't 3 months too early I'd shout 'April fool!'. Talk about solution looking for a problem. It presumably sells to people who get in the car to go to the end of their road and buy a newspaper.

In any case, pneumatic stools, just like the near-ubiqutous office chairs, have been around for years if winding a knob for a couple of seconds is too much work.

[Bob]

It can be if your hands are already worn.  It's one more thing.

Have to move the piano around the room, adjust the bench... more stuff to rip up your hands on performance day.

[dan101]

Adjusting the stool manually has never been a concern to me (I actually like the exercise). Having said that, adjusting it with a remote control sounds like fun... provided there's no malfunction down the road. I hope there's a decent warrenty.

[rachfan]

For anyone having trouble turning the bench knobs:

In addition to playing piano, I work out with free weights and do 4-mile walks for aerobics too.  I'm 63.)  There is an excercise which I include in my sets called "wrist curls".  I put about 30 lbs. of weight on the bar, then sit on the bench (the pressing bench, not the piano bench  ), with palms facing upward, fingers closed around the bar.  Then with arms stationary and using the wrists only, curl the wrists/hands toward you, then release back to neutral position, repeating four or five times.  Turning piano bench knobs will never be a problem again.

[Bob]

(Bob considers hiring a bench height adjustor) Considering we have page turners, why not someone to adjust the bench too?

[mike_lang]

My piano professor has one of these at his Académie Internationale at the Château de Rangiport in Gargenville.  What a great invention!

[richard black]

Have to move the piano around the room, adjust the bench... more stuff to rip up your hands on performance day

I'm sorry, but if my hands are ever so knackered that I can't adjust a bench (and fix it if necessary, which it often seems to be!) I assume it means I've had it, big time.

[gerry]

The only thing that would improve on this (especially for teachers) would be to incorporate the technology from the auto industry where the seat can be programmed individually for each driver. In other words, you would put into memory each student's ideal height (and other things like cush perhaps)...

[Bob]

Yeah, like numbers for memory settings.  I like that.

If you're practicing more than normal for a concert, that's one thing.  If you accidentally strain your hands just before the performance, that's another, and that's possible when you have to push the piano around.  Even moving the bench.  It has some weight to it.

[rachfan]

An artist bench, depending on brand, weighs between 32 and 45 lbs.  That's pretty light to move!

[zorba]

Only in America would we have such a device. Its bad enough that its becoming increasingly difficult to purchase a car without this automatic stuff - Americans can't adjust their own seats, lock their own doors, or roll down their own windows anymore. And now we have a power piano bench.

What's next, a piano that plays itself? 

[Bob]

I wouldn't mind that, the moving bench that is.  I like it in the car.  I usually end up half sitting while adjusting those things, and then when you go to high you have to reverse it.  Much easier to just press a button.  With the cost of the grand and bench already what's another.... how much does it cost?

[gerry]

The possibilities are endless - just think, you could download the personal settings of the great masters... But why stop there, with digital technology, we may one day be able to download and re-create the personal pianos of the greats--Gould's or Horowitz's Steinway, etc. It's late and my mind is dancing.

[rachfan]

But some pianists might not have enough strength to push the button to automatically adjust the seat.   

[Bob]

I just remember getting that extra strain in the hand just before a performance a few times.  A nice wrench of the hand muscles, followed by the realization of what I just did to my hands right before the performance.

That was after I learned not to push the grand around with my hands.  Ouch.

[allthumbs]

If you're having trouble adjusting your bench upwards, try getting off the thing to do it and it should be easy.

[Bob]

It takes longer.  But if you lift up your rear end and adjust the bench, you kind of look odd up on stage doing that.  Better to do all that ahead of time. 

[gerry]

It takes longer.  But if you lift up your rear end and adjust the bench, you kind of look odd up on stage doing that.  Better to do all that ahead of time. 

Or just have th union stage-hand do it for you

[Bob]

I prefer to lift my rear end myself thank you.  

[leslieb547]

I have it on good authority, from a concert pianist friend, that whenever you see a concert pianist in a public performance adjusting the height of the piano stool, it is not because he/she hasn't bothered to check the height in advance, but simply to buy time whilst running the first few bars through their head after walking on and taking the applause.