Attracting more pianists [Bob asks]

[Bob]

I was thinking....

It might not be too much work to pick a college or university, find the piano prof's and email them -- tell them about this site.  We could recruit more "piano minds" to this site.

You could even just email one piano teacher.

Or, ask them to post the email so their students know.

Anyone interested?

[xvimbi]

I think this is generally a good idea. However, there is a reason why one finds few "professionals" in forums like these. These forums are more like self help groups. Everybody knows a little bit, some know more, of course, but often, we don't really know what we are talking about. Yet, in the end, everybody learns something.
Professionals (scholars, coaches of professional pianists and professional pianists themselves) usually will not waste their time participating in such forums. There are even very few music students here. I doubt this will change, even if you would contact such people and make them aware of this forum. I see us essentially as a bunch of amateurs who help each other out, but I do not think this forum qualifies as a serious venue, and that's just fine with me.

[Motrax]

Well, Robert Henry and Meiting are both professionals, and they post occasionally (and I think there were other professionals too, but I don't remember). We've a fair number of piano teachers.

I want to be a pianist myself, and am working toward that goal, though I'm not in college yet (one more month...).

But yes, in general, we are mostly amateurs.  

[ahmedito]

I am a graduate student, going to be a profesional I hope. This is a catch 22 situation. Profesionals wont enter because out of 3000 people, 5 or 6 are profesionals or even know what theyre talking about most of the time; its not a biased opinion, its connecting into the site and finding it full of posts such as Fur Elise this, Moonlight sonata that, Im trying to learn but have no teacher, etc... But I think profesionals would be very interested in a forum such as this if there were more profesionals here, and helpful posts for profesional pianists.... One good way to attract them, although Im not sure what youd think, or I think of this idea, is to add a new topic for Concert pianists, Pros or Graduate Students... Im sure that would go greatly towards attracting pianists here.

[Swan]

There is a teaching forum here too, but not everyone who posts in it are teachers and I have to admit I get a bit confused as to who is a teacher and who isn't.  

There is student's forum too, and often teachers 'gate' crash that, so to speak.  

If there was a forum for professionals, judging from what is already happening here, it would no doubt be used by others who are not professionals and perhaps defeat it's purpose ....

Interesting thread.

[Motrax]

Perhaps make a seperate registration group for professionals, and make it viewable-only for the plebians? I know it sounds a little exclusive, but I believe it would be very benificial if we could have a forum totally free of spam.

The forums we have are pretty much sufficient for everything one could ask, but indeed some replies are less than useful.

Furthermore, a "professional" forum could go so far as to act as a serious meeting place where graduates and professionals could trade connections and inside tips and such. Of course, we'd need a much larger population of professionals for that, but you've gotta start somewhere.

I've seen exclusive forums for the "elite" on other message boards, and despite their nasty-seeming nature, they've worked out phenominally well. People I've seen have tended to cooperate perfectly fine with the fact that they can only read such exclusive forums without being able to post.

I hope I've made myself clear. This is an interesting subject.  

[Bob]

We talked a little about that in an impromptu chat tonight.


Who would determine what a professional is?  

and then the system administrators would have to be able to set that up on this site, if that's even possible.

It still seems like a good idea though.

It would take awhile for a part of the site that to grow though, a few years probably, like other internet things.