Now more than ever, it’s important to let our representatives in Washington know that every child in America deserves a complete, well-rounded education that includes music and the arts.

Grant speaking at the 2010 Music Education Fly-in

Next month, I will again join a team of my peers from the Support Music Coalition (and a surprise guest) in Washington, DC, to meet with our congressmen and senators to discuss the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, also known as ESEA. The goal of this “fly-in” is to insure that the arts continue to be defined as a core subject in our schools.ESEA is the legislation that defines the federal government’s role in primary and secondary education and was due to be reauthorized four years ago. Although President Obama has promised that ESEA will be reauthorized this year, each time the bill comes before Congress there is a risk that music and the arts will be cut.Fortunately, the case for music education becomes stronger every year. Recent research has confirmed that music programs in our schools help students achieve in their academic subjects, develop critical thinking, creative problem solving and communication skills and keeps students engaged.

Joined by VH1 President Tom Calderone and Save The Music's Laurie Lock

Last year, I was energized by the outpouring of support I received from parents all over the country as I posted real-time updates about our meetings on Facebook. This year, I would like to bring your voice to Washington, too.Let me know why you feel music education is important and I’ll share your comments with our legislators. Post your comments below or at my Facebook page.

Be heard and help ensure a more music future for our children.

A recent study in Canada revealed that people feel making music heightens mental focus and enhances creativity. Care to guess which instrument most of them play?

Click here to read the Times Colonist article by Derek Abma’s.

"A lot of people assume my dad gave me that store..." - Greg Billings

MMR Magazine’s feature of Greg Billings from their March 2011 issue.This is a great, concise history of our family’s journey through the music business including how my grandfather started selling pianos and organs and eventually became one of the largest dealers in the country. Plus, they had a lot of fun along the way!

Click below to read the article and flip the pages…

In my previous blog, The Three Legged Stool, I shared the three critical parts of a child’s successful music education. Without question, the one I am asked about most often is how to find the right piano for a beginner.

So, what makes some pianos good for students and others bad? Above all else, a beginner’s piano should inspire the student. That means it will be easy to play softly, have a lot of dynamic range (playing soft and loud) and keys that play evenly.Use these helpful tips that I have shared with hundreds of parents at my daughter’s school functions, PTA meetings and neighborhood picnics to find the best piano for your beginner.

Five Simple Keys

You can be confident you are on the right path when you find a piano with an all-wood action, close-grain soundboard, 3D iron plate, notched ribs and line weighted keys. These are the five features that every great piano ever built has had. Regardless of price and whether the piano is new or used, you will know that the manufacturer was building good, stable instruments when they built that piano. If any are missing, the manufacturer cut corners.

For details, visit our Finding a Good Piano page

When looking at new pianos, these five simple keys will answer everything you need to know about quality, plus you’ll likely have a manufacturer warranty for additional peace of mind. When comparing used pianos, you will need more information to understand the instrument’s condition.

It’s What’s Inside that Counts!

Piano strings are one of the easiest parts to check for clues that a piano is worn out. New piano springs, while made of wire, are somewhat elastic. Over years of use, just like stretching a rubber band, strings will begin to break. Once it starts the hundreds of strings in a piano will continue to snap, one by one, although nobody can predict which ones will go next or when. Mixing new and old strings creates overtones that make the player sound bad. In other words, it takes the fun out of practicing and playing.

You can check a piano’s strings by lifting the lid and peering inside with a flashlight. Used piano strings will be dull compared to shiny new piano strings.

Over time, piano action parts also wear out. Each key sets into motion 45+ small parts that send the hammer toward the string. There are 88 keys on every piano, which means each piano has about 4,000 action parts. Replacing these parts (called “action rebuilding”) costs thousands of dollars… regardless of the price, age or condition of the piano.

Worn parts lead to an uneven, frustrating feel when playing and virtually guarantee that the student will lose interest.

Another part that eventually wears out is the pinblock, a laminated wood block mounted under the piano’s plate. Pinblocks hold the tuning pins in place and when they start to fail, tuning slips within days or weeks. (Typically, good pianos need tuning every six months.) It is impossible to know if a pinblock is worn out by looking at it.

Once a pinblock starts to fail, there’s no stopping it. The only true repair is to replace it which usually costs more than a new piano. This is one of many reasons to be very cautious of used pianos being offered online or by low-end piano stores (see Addition at bottom).

‘Spinet’ is a Four-Letter Word

A spinet pianos is a style of upright that has a drop-down action. The small soundboards, short strings and compromised action design make spinets terrible pianos for any player. Consequently, you will see a lot of them for sale in classified ads and low quality piano stores. Regardless of the overall condition, spinet pianos should never be selected for beginning students. No manufacturer builds spinet pianos today.

Most pianos built since 1945 have a usable life of about 40 years*. While they can technically be played, performance goes downhill fast. Still, individuals and low-end piano stores try to sell them. Keep in mind that, even if you’re willing to put money into repairs when your piano breaks, you will still need to make appointments and wait for replacement parts. Just one broken part on one key can make it impossible for your beginner to practice.

Have a qualified piano technician (not a piano tuner) inspect any used piano you seriously consider purchasing. They will be able to test the action parts, check the pin torque and appraise the piano’s overall condition. $150-200 is a fair price to pay a competent technician for the service and it’s a small investment compared to thousands of dollars in potential repairs. Most importantly, you will avoid setting your student up for disappointment.

Children are amazing.

They can master a new video game without instructions, but they don’t notice when their shoes have worn out.  They can memorize hundreds of TV channels and schedules, but don’t remember what they did at school today. And when they practice on a worn out piano, they start to believe that they don’t play well. They never blame the piano.

Making music is incredibly addictive and students who get started on the right foot move on to play multiple instruments. Start your beginner with a Three Legged Stool and you can count on them enjoying a lifetime of music making.

Inspire your child to realize their potential by giving them a piano they can grow into instead of outgrow.

For more information or help finding a qualified technician, feel free to contact me. If you cannot afford a good piano for your student, please apply for a free piano through the Piano Bank program.

* Some pianos, like Steinway & Sons, last much longer. Many pianos built in the last 30 years are already worn out, but also were not built with the 5 Keys.

Addition: It is unfortunate, but today, unscrupulous sellers and low-end piano stores will do anything to get old, worn out pinblocks to hold. They’ll pound them with a mallet and even inject chemical solutions into the block. To be safe, be sure to find a competent technician to thoroughly inspect any used piano you find online or that a tuner is offering to sell. Make sure your technician’s report includes pin torque readings.

Simone Dinnerstein is a subtle yet powerful force. Confident enough as a child to tell her mother, “When I grow up, I want to be a solo pianist.” Although she had established herself as an accomplished pianist and teacher in New York City by the time she reached her mid-30’s, her childhood dream persisted.

So she rented recital space at Carnegie Hall and self-financed a recording of the Goldberg Variations. It was released by Telarc in 2007, reached #1 on Billboard’s classical music chart its first week, was the #4 seller on Amazon.com (overall seller – not just classical music) and appeared on a number of “Best of 2007” lists. Now squarely in the public eye, her success continues with additional recordings, including her latest released in January, and performances around the world.

Dinnerstein performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 with the Madison Symphony Orchestra last month. She took the time to speak with us after her Saturday rehearsal.

What made you fall in love with Bach’s Goldberg Variations?

SD: I think it’s one of the greatest pieces of music written for keyboard’s repertoire. I think it has every element of what makes art great. I first heard it when I was 13 years old.

What can you tell us about the piano teachers you have studied with?

SD: I studied with Solomon Mikowsky from the ages of 9 to 16, so he was the teacher I had during the first set of years and he was very thorough, very tough. But also he really allowed me to be myself and be free musically. Maria Curcio came from a slightly different tradition than Mikowsky. She had a different approach, which was more to connect the technique to the music in a certain kind of way.

What do you feel makes a music teacher a GREAT music teacher?

SD: I think different stages need different kinds of teachers. I think when you are young and growing up, you need a teacher who is extremely clear and teaches about technique and about how to approach the piano physically, but who also is very inspiring as a musician and helps the student bring out the expression of the music.Later on, a really good teacher is helping the student think independently and be more responsible for being observant of what’s in the score. The teacher has the role of questioning the student’s interpretations and making the student make sure all their ideas are really strong and backed up in terms of how they play.

Tell us about your favorite student.

SD: I had one girl who studied with me when she was very young, at the age of six. She was incredibly musical. I remember at times thinking she was going to somebody else for lessons because I couldn’t understand how she could come to lessons and know how to play in that way just by herself. She was really wonderful to teach because she naturally felt how to play and had an ear for sound. She was like a sponge, you tell her something and she immediately absorbed it.

What advice would you offer struggling piano students?

SD: I think one of the main things is you have to be consistent about practicing. I always thought it was better if my students practiced less time each day, but practiced every day, than practiced a tremendous amount in one day and hardly at all the next few days. I think it’s hard to cram when you are a music student. It needs to become a consistent part of your life.I also encouraged my students to listen to a lot of music… and not just piano music but orchestral music, choral music, and music from other instruments. One of the great things about playing the piano is that the piano has the ability to imitate lots of different instruments. If you know what they sound like and you have that in your head it really opens up a whole world of sound to you.

What would you want to tell students about incorporating music into their everyday lives?

SD: It’s always a good idea if there can be a certain time of day to practice. Some children do better if they practice before they go to school and then others do better if they practice after homework. There always needs to be a time of day that is devoted to practicing; that’s a sacred time (for) just doing that.

As a parent, what are your thoughts on music education?

SD: It’s really important that children receive music education. I think that children should be receiving general music instruction when they are very little. I think it’s really great to bring children to concerts and it’s important to do so from when they are very young.

Congratulations to 2011′s Miss America Teresa Scanlan – the pageant’s youngest ever! The recent high school graduate and great piano player convinced the judges that she was not too young for the job.Click the image below to hear a portion of her rendition of “White Water Chopsticks” performed on a Steinway & Sons Concert Grand piano shortly before being named the new Miss America.

Grant Billings with the legendary Wally Boot at the Steinway & Sons factory, June 29, 2010

It was a great honor (and a whole lot of fun) to spend a hot June day at the Steinway & Sons factory in Astoria with the selection committee from Sun Prairie High School and other special guests. The task: find the perfect piano for the new Sun Prairie High School and Performing Arts Center.

The Steinway Project, consisting of teachers, parents and other community members, raised $145,000 in only eight months to purchase a Steinway & Sons Model ‘D’ concert grand piano and establish a maintenance fund to keep it playing for generations.

Congratulations, everyone, on a job well done!

Unlike the great Jimmy Stewart in the 1939 Frank Capra classic film, I went to Washington as an advocate instead of a senator.

Including myself, more than 30 NAMM Members took time away from their businesses and day-to-day schedules May 10-13 to travel to Washington D.C. and engage lawmakers in discussions about funding music and arts programs in public schools as part of NAMM’s annual Member “Fly-In.” It was truly an experience of a lifetime.

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It is only when she lifts her body to punctuate the notes of the Steinway that one becomes aware that within Steinway Artist Xiayin (pronounced sha-EEN) Wang’s petite frame lies a source of seemingly endless energy and power. Her passion for the piano may only be rivaled by her passion for music education.In between being interviewed by The Capital Times and her performance at Overture Center on February 25, 2010, Wang took the time to visit our gallery where she played nearly every piano and discussed her love of music and desire to share it with others.

Wang auditions Roland digital pianos during her visit to Steinway Piano Gallery of Madison

PG: You are incredibly active in promoting music education. What sparked that passion in you?

XW: There are a lot of younger people eager to know about and learn about music, to learn the beauty of being able to make music. Even if they do not choose to go the career path, knowing music will change their lives.

PG: What can you tell us about the piano teachers you have studied with?

XW: I am lucky to still have all of my teachers in my life. Each taught me a different way. A lot of the technical part I learned from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. The education system is very, very strict in China. My teacher was very firm with the training of technique, theory, (and) ear training. Like a tall building, you need a foundation.

When I came to the United States, it was a different system. At the Manhattan School of Music, they gave me much more opportunity to have my own style; create my own language. It was the right time to explore what I wanted to say with my music.

Xiayin Wang with Grant Billings

PG: As a student, teacher and concert artist, what would you want to say to piano teachers?

XW: If you enjoy doing this there will be much to be learned from your students. Even my youngest students taught me something I did not know about myself. It’s fun.

PG: And what advice would you offer students?

XW: You should practice, practice, practice, as much as you can, but I think that balance is very important. Have fun time, but get your fingers on the piano every day. You will not notice the difference until you get older, but now is when the foundation is built.

Keep in mind that learning the piano is supposed to be hard; there needs to be a sacrifice. I wanted to go to the movies with my friends when I was a kid, but my mother said, “piano bench, piano bench, go back..”

PG: And now you thank her?

XW: Now I thank her, but not enough. I can thank her to the end of the world, absolutely.

Learn more about Xiayin Wang at her website