Author Archives: stevemills

Beware of Buying a Steinway Piano on the Internet

internet_scams

Dr. Smith (name changed) was a pretty typical prospective client. He is a successful physician practicing in the Midwest. He was shopping for a vintage Steinway Grand for his Marco Island, FL home.

Over the next few months, he shopped and shopped and shopped and finally, purchased a 1922 Model A (6’1″) on eBay. He was thrilled to have found a completely rebuilt and refinished piano for less than $20,000. This is very suspicious because the cost of properly rebuilding and refinishing a Steinway grand is more than $20,000.

The good doctor had heard about Pianomation II, the latest player piano system from QRS, so he contacted a Florida Steinway Dealer to receive and inspect his piano and install the player system. The seller reluctantly agreed to ship the piano to the Steinway Dealer, and about a month later it arrived. It only took 15 seconds for the Steinway Dealer to figure out that something was fishy. The legs on the piano were not from 1922! Things got worse, fast.
The finish was very cloudy with many deep surface scratches. Oversized pins were a hint that the pin plank had not been replaced and some of the cheap plastic key-tops were coming unglued. All the action parts were original and worn. Only 90 seconds into the evaluation, they decided to turn the piano over to their technicians for a full assessment.

“Maybe they just got the date wrong,” suggested the techs. Serial numbers are how pianos are dated, and they are stamped in ink on the piano’s plate. The new serial number on this particular plate disagreed with the shadow of the old serial number you could partially see through the new finish. There are other places on a Steinway to find the serial number, but on this piano, the serial numbers had been sanded off.

Now there are many reasons why someone would remove the serial number from a piano, car, or gun. But, none of them are good reasons.

An e-mail was sent to Steinway & Sons in New York City. They promptly wrote back that the serial number in question had been assigned to a Mahogany Model M (5’7″) sold in New York in 1934. This piano was an impostor.

The Steinway Dealer called Dr. Smith. After discussing the possibility of starting the restoration from scratch he said, “But I will still have a piano with a phony serial number.” By now he was feeling that he had been deceived; and, of course, he had been. A few minutes later the Steinway Dealer got a call from the seller who wanted to argue with them about their assessment and protest that he had not broken any eBay rules. The Steinway Dealer suggested that he review the e-mail received from Steinway & Sons. Eventually, after numerous phone calls and more broken promises, the piano was picked up by a guy moving pianos in a horse trailer.

Dr. Smith got most of his money back. But he has since been put off buying a piano.

Had the piano been delivered directly to his home, and the problems discovered over time, it is unlikely he would have been able to return the piano.

Why has the piano market failed to present reasonable offerings online, and thereby opened up a vacuum filled by these carpetbaggers, when industry segments like electronics and guitars have successfully offered products online? There are several reasons.

First, none of the major piano manufacturers will allow their new pianos to be sold online. Best guess is, if they thought it was a viable way to market pianos, they would do it themselves. Why would they need dealers, if they could sell their pianos from a webpage? Obviously, the absence of high quality, name brand merchandise opens up an opportunity for bottom feeders.

Next, pianos are heavy, bulky instruments that must be wrangled into place, wrestled into tune, and constantly serviced. It is almost impossible to move a piano any significant distance for less than $1,000 and it is impractical to service pianos more than an hour away from the seller. Since most used pianos are decades old, there are often problems. The dealer needs to be close by.

The drawback with used pianos is that there aren’t many good ones. Dealers are able to sell all the good pianos they get on trade to local customers without much difficulty. Why would we want to market them to the lowest-price buyer online?

Then there is the economics. With locals selling old consoles and spinets on Craigslist for $200, transporting one even across state makes almost no sense. Properly regulating and voicing a 20-year-old upright is so expensive that it’s not profitable. Most used grands are more than 25 years old, and need extensive action work to be appropriate for normal use. That can be a week’s work, plus parts, which costs at least $5,000.

And finally, the Internet can be a liars’ club. Posters are anonymous and unaccountable. We have serviced a half-dozen or so pianos people have bought online. None of them were great pianos and none of the customers got a particularly good deal. Some of them were nightmares.

Expensive acoustic musical instruments need to be seen and played before they are purchased. The bottom line is: A piano is a large, heavy, complicated instrument that requires constant service. It’s a once in a lifetime purchase. Saving a few bucks by buying one online is unlikely to get you a piano you will love forever. Do yourself a favor; let a reliable local dealer help you find a quality piano, and pay him a fair price.

Steve pic for google

Boston GP178 Performance Edition

The Boston piano features a duplex scale, adapted from the famous Steinway & Sons design, which adds a harmonic richness that simply can’t be duplicated by other instruments in a similar price range.

In comparison to other pianos, the Boston has less string tension. This reduced string tension allows for a larger, tapered soundboard, creating longer sustain, and more singing quality in the tone (as well as longer piano life). A wealth of other engineering enhancements, including optimal placement of ribs, braces, and bridges, also contribute to the Boston’s superior tone and greater stability.

The Boston grand piano offers a larger soundboard in comparison to other pianos of the same length, due to its innovative “wide tail” design. This wider construction of the case means that a 5’ 10” Boston grand has the same soundboard area as a typical 6’ 2” grand piano, creating the power, richness, and feel of playing a much larger piano.

Each Boston piano soundboard is crafted of Sitka spruce, long proven to be the most resonant material available. Boston soundboards are also precisely tapered, which allows them to vibrate more freely. In conjunction with a number of special technologies — unique patents of Steinway & Sons — the result is a powerful, sustained tone.

Fine veneers underlie the elegance of the Boston pianos — available in walnut and mahogany satin or polished finishes, as an alternative to the classic ebonized — all designed to delight the eye and enhance the player’s experience.Steve pic for google

TRADITIONAL PIANOS PLAYING THE BLUES!

Traditional pianos are playing the blues
Unless you have a Steinway, your grandmother’s much-loved black-and-white ivory keys are destined to join many others in the landfill.
By Bruce Kennedy Mon 6:58 AM
Share47

Share
44
inShare
0
6
Here’s some news you don’t hear often in our disposable society. It involves a U.S. company started 160 years ago that’s still crafting world-class products today that are much in demand. However, another part of this story is all too familiar.

Steinway Musical Instruments (LVB -0.20%), maker of perhaps the most renowned pianos in the world, is soon to go private after being purchased by private equity firm Kohlberg & Co. for $438 million.

Like other companies, Steinway struggled through the recession, reporting a 20% annual decline in its high-end grand piano sales between 2005 and 2008.

And while those numbers have come back with the economic recovery, they’re still being tempered by exports from China, Asia’s largest piano maker.

As Al Lewis recently blogged over at MarketWatch, one way of looking at Steinway is as its own biggest rival. How’s that?

“Because Steinway pianos are built to last for generations, a relatively large market exists for used Steinways,” said the company’s annual report. “It is difficult to estimate the significance of used piano sales because most are conducted in the private aftermarket. However, we believe that used Steinway pianos provide the most significant competition in the high-end piano market.”

According to Lewis, a good Steinway appreciates at a steady annually rate of about 4%, “better than some stocks, bonds and mutual funds — because the company raises its prices every year to maintain its renowned level of quality.”

Sadly, however, the steadily rising value of a used Steinway can’t be said about everyday, household pianos. Indeed, Steinway is one of the few companies anywhere bucking the trend of our current throwaway society. Once a staple piece of furniture in middle-class American homes, more pianos are ending up in trash dumps to be broken up and recycled for their wood and metal.

A number of factors are behind the decline of the traditional piano. Along with the required maintenance to keep them in tune, many are being replaced by lightweight and portable electronic keyboards or by less expensive wooden pianos from overseas.

So what do you do with a heavy, unloved and not particularly valuable piano — especially since the instrument’s lifespan is about 80 years and so many of them still out there are reaching the end of their time?

You dump them, of course — which has been a boon for piano movers and disposal businesses in recent years.

There’s at least one alternative. The owner of a New Hampshire piano-moving company has created PianoAdoption.com, a site whose mission is to find “a new home for all serviceable pianos before they end up in the local landfill.” Unless, of course, your piano happens to be a Steinwa

Piano for the Body-Mind-and-Soul

Piano for Body, Mind and Soul
There has always been a recognized trinity between the mind, the body, and the therapeutic qualities of music. And the piano, specifically, has been a long-recognized source of remedy for those seeking escape and creative expression. But recent years have also offered a wealth of scientific studies that demonstrate our instincts have always been correct: playing the piano offers proven benefits—from physical and intellectual to social and emotional—to people of all ages.

Let’s Get Physical
Who knew? Those piano lessons we took when we were young offered specific physical benefits to our developing bodies. And piano lessons and practice can also, it turns out, improve the physical health of adults and the elderly. Dr. Arthur Harvey, retired professor at University of Hawaii at Manoa, published a study through the American Music Conference that details the vast physiologic benefits generated by regular musical practice. One obvious boon of regular piano playing, Harvey found, is the sharpening of fine motor skills in children. But playing music, according to Harvey’s research, also “activates the cerebellum and therefore may aid stroke victims in regaining language capabilities.” Additional research revealed that group keyboard lessons given to older Americans had a significant effect on increasing levels of human growth hormone (HGH), which is implicated in slowing such aging phenomena as osteoporosis, energy levels, wrinkling, sexual function, muscle mass, and aches and pains.

The physical benefits of piano playing are even more far reaching. Mitchell Gaynor M.D., in his book Sounds of Healing, demonstrates that music has therapeutic physical effects including reduced anxiety, heart and respiratory rates; reduced cardiac complications; lowered blood pressure; and increased immune responses.

Keys to Better Thinking
In addition to the proven body benefits of regular play, piano practice can also boost cognitive and intellectual abilities. Playing piano, in other words, makes us smarter. Research through the years has demonstrated that musical training taps into similar areas of brain function as those used in spatial intelligence and even math. In fact, kids who continue their playing through their teenage years average about 100 points higher on the SAT. In 1994, research revealed, undergraduates who majored in music had the highest acceptance rate into medical school, at 66%.

In a study conducted by E. Glenn Schellenberg of the University of Toronto at Mississauga in 2011, researchers split 132 first-graders into four separate groups for after-school activities. One group was given singing lessons, one was given drama lessons, another piano lessons, and the last was offered no after-school instruction. All of the students’ IQ’s were evaluated at the end of the year. Those who participated in the piano lessons saw an IQ increase of 7 points, while the other groups saw an increase of 4.25 at most. The researchers concluded that the fact that piano education requires one to be focused for long periods of times contributes to the greater IQ gains in the piano-playing group.

Striking a Contented Chord
As if the physical and cognitive benefits of regular piano playing were not enough, studies also show that time at the keyboard offers emotional advantages, as well. In fact, research reveals that those who are involved in creating music on a regular basis experience less anxiety, loneliness and depression.

Barry Bittman, MD, of the Body-Mind Wellness Center in Meadville, Pennsylvania, created a study to gauge stress levels among 32 volunteers. The volunteers were put through a stress-inducing activity—attempting to assemble a difficult puzzle while incentivized by a monetary prize—and then were told to “relax” afterward using a variety of different methods, including reading magazines and playing keyboards. The volunteers also gave blood during the study, and the blood was tested for the activity of 45 stress-related genes. In the group that played keyboard to relax, the results showed a significantly higher reversal in the markers for stress-related genes than in the other groups.

“With ongoing research,” Bittman concludes, “recreational music-making could potentially serve as a rational stress-reduction activity, along with other lifestyle strategies that include healthy nutrition and exercise.”

Add to this data the other benefits that come from piano playing—increases in work ethic, diligence, creativity, self-reliance and perseverance—and the result is a veritable symphony of good news for your body and your soul. Ready to tickle the ivories

Is Steinway The Best Piano?

Setting the Record Straight about Steinway & Sons Pianos

After surfing the Internet, hearing directly from confused customers, future Steinway piano buyers, music educators and piano technicians, I want to take this opportunity to address false accusations by non-Steinway dealers and rebuilders. They take it upon themselves to post false, undocumented information to the public via Internet web sites or verbal communication about the Steinway piano.

I am John Simon, owner of Steinway Piano Gallery Tucson. I have been an authorized Steinway dealer for over 28 years. Our family owned business was started in 1932 by my father, the late Edward Simon. I was awarded the Steinway dealership in 1983. I am knowledgeable in the history of the Steinway piano and how it is designed and built. Consequently, I know all 12,116 parts that it takes to make a Steinway including how the Steinway piano has evolved since the first Steinway in 1853.

I qualify as an expert in Steinway product because of the extensive training that Steinway and Sons has provided me over the years. With over 50 visits to the factory I have personally witnessed the building of a Steinway piano from the beginning process to the end. This qualifies me to write this article in support of Steinway & Sons, a company that has produced the finest pianos in the world since 1853 and is featured every year in the magazine The Best of the Best.

Since I cannot address every negative comment about Steinway, I will address the most misleading articles about the Steinway piano. In addition I am able to support my comments with written articles or quotes by the people who build the Steinway and design the Steinway including the head concert technician. These false claims produced by non-Steinway dealers and rebuilders are normally supported by the verbage “experts say” or “experts agree”. But the important question is, who are these “experts” and do they have the credentials to support their testimony about Steinway pianos? We certainly know they are not Steinway piano people.

False information:
1. The older Steinways were the best Steinway pianos built. This statement
implies that the new, or today’s Steinway is not as good as the older Steinways.
2. The Steinway piano went downhill after the family sold the business to CBS
Broadcasting Company.
3. A claim that their rebuilt Steinway piano uses genuine Steinway parts.
4. Accusations that Steinway is now contracting with Kawai in Japan and
Pearl River in China to build Steinway pianos.
5. The Hamburg Steinway is better than the New York built Steinway.

Response to #1.
Today 95% of the performing artists choose – of their own volition – to perform on Steinway pianos. Steinway has never paid a performing artist to play their piano. This is by choice.

A quote from Franz Mohr, “As you know I was the Chief-Concert Technician at Steinway for over 30 years and let me tell you that as a musician and technician I have a real love affair with the Steinway piano. It is the best piano ever conceived in the human mind. In all of my travels and personal relationships with the artists, I do not know of one artist today that would prefer an older Steinway over today’s Steinway”.

The famed Steinway Concert piano room in the basement of Steinway Hall, where the artist can try out and pick the Steinway they want to perform on, has no Steinway older than 15 years. There are 50 Steinways in that basement.

Today there are 125 “All Steinway Schools”. Not one of these schools has purchased the older Steinways. All 125 schools purchased the current model Steinway for their institution.

This quote comes from Steinway’s literature called Fable and Fact. Fable has it that “the Steinway piano of today is not as good as that of the olden days.”

Fact is that the Steinway of today is so much better there is no room for comparison at any point. The Steinway piano of the present is at the apex of its greatness. In power, purity and the beauty of tone it far excels the models of previous years. An important development of tone volume or tone power has been achieved within recent years. The action of the instrument is proportionately quicker and more responsive. The repeating quality is nearly electric in effect. Never before was the mechanical work so fine. The materials used were gathered from the four corners of the earth whatever they may cost in endeavor or money. Every part of a Steinway is a known quantity. Every Steinway is made in the Steinway factory. There zealous of family traditions and universal reputation assures a continuous improvement of their product rather than deterioration. Yesterday’s artists demanded yesterday’s Steinways. Today artists demand today’s Steinways.

Response to #2.
In 1972 with an aging ownership and no heirs to the business Henry and John Steinway (I knew both personally) decided in the best interests of the business that it was time to sell. The company was sold to an owner that would guarantee the continued success and financial support of the business.

Unknown to many is that when the agreement was made it included a clause that said, “no matter who owns Steinway & Sons, now or in the future, the owners will never have a say in the process of building the piano.”

This clause was inserted to protect the Steinway product from becoming the normal mass produced “production piano”. It assures that every Steinway piano would be designed and built by Steinway people only, no exceptions. The process of building the piano would continue as usual.

Response to #3.
Non-Steinway dealers and rebuilders often claim that they use genuine Steinway parts. A minority of these dealers and rebuilders use only genuine Steinway parts. A majority use generic parts. If the soundboard has been replaced and the piano was not sent to Steinway to be replaced then the soundboard is not a Steinway soundboard. Steinway will not sell their soundboards to anyone.

Most rebuilt pianos on the west coast market have been sent to Mexico where the labor is cheap and generic parts are being used.

If you purchase a rebuilt Steinway ask the dealer to provide you an itemized list of what was done to the piano and a Certificate of Authenticity. All reputable dealers should offer you one without your asking. This will guarantee 100% refund of your investment if a generic part is found in the piano. A Steinway that has generic parts is not a Steinway!

Please read my Steinway approved article about “Piano Buyer Beware” under instruments on our web site. www.spgtucson.com

Response to #4
In some of these articles it is claimed that the current owners of Steinway have contracted with Kawai (Japan) and Pearl River (China) to build their pianos. This would make one believe that the Steinway piano is being built in other countries. The Steinway & Sons piano is only built in two countries, in the USA since 1853 and in Germany since 1873. They have never been built anywhere else.

Response to #5
The claims that Hamburg Steinways are better than New York Steinways tells me one thing, that these non- Steinway dealers have not been well informed.

To set the record straight the New York Steinway has always been, and is today, the overwhelming choice of artists performing in America. This fact is verified by Steinway Hall on West 57th Street in New York City. There the legendary basement houses over 50 Steinway concert grands including both the New York and the Hamburg Steinways. Artists throughout the world visit this basement on a daily basis to select the Steinway they perform on for upcoming performances. Records prove that the New York Steinway is the overwhelming choice. In fact, approximately 95% of the artists that perform in the United States choose to perform on the New York Steinway. This data was confirmed by the Concert and Artist Department located at Steinway Hall New York.

Michael Mohr, Director Manufacturing/Assembly for Steinway & Sons in New York states, “the choice between the American built Steinway and the German built Steinway is more of a territorial one.” Mr. Mohr says the Hamburg Steinways are more often tuned between the range of A-442 to A-444 to appeal to the European taste for a bright sound. The combination of harder hammers and the tuning pitch create a brighter sounding piano. This is what most Europeans are comfortable and familiar with. The New York Steinway has always used softer hammers and been tuned at A-440 giving it a fuller sound and creating more depth in color, that American audiences and many performing artists prefer. This difference in sound is really the main difference between the pianos, as both are constructed from the same materials using the same patents and techniques that have been handed down and implemented on every Steinway-whether built in Hamburg or New York-for generations.

The statement that one piano is better than the other is false. It comes down to a matter of sound preference.

If you would prefer to purchase the German Steinway today you would have to pay $40,000.00 more to cover the import duties. This is the one reason these non- Steinway piano dealers tell you the German Steinway is better. It is to inflate the Steinway price to a range that they know you will not want to spend, making their mass-produced pianos, by comparison, more reasonable.

There are certainly many non-Steinway dealers and rebuilders that are honest and will present the correct facts. They will also have in writing materials that support what they tell you. Be sure to ask them.

My point is… does a non-Steinway dealer know more about the Steinway piano and its history than a Steinway trained, informed and authorized Steinway dealer? And I guess if they are willing to go that far they are willing to tell you anything.

Please contact me if you have any questions about this response and feel free to ask to view any of the support materials referenced in writing this article.

This article has been approved by Steinway & Sons for accuracy

Early Childhood Development

The Rewards of Music Education

New Research Proves the Value of Childhood Music Education Piano Training In Early Childhood Has Lasting Rewards
There is an undeniably strong correlation between music education and the development of skills that children need to become successful in life. Self-discipline, patience, sensitivity, coordination, and the ability to memorize and concentrate are all enhanced in the study of music. These skills will follow your child on whatever path he or she chooses in life. You have the chance now to introduce a formative influence that may be second only to the love you give your child. If you’re looking for a way to provide your child with a source of life-long joy, satisfaction, and accomplishment, childhood music education is an excellent first step.

And the piano is an excellent first instrument. No other single instrument matches the piano for its broad application of musical concepts. Even if later your child chooses to play another instrument, the melody, rhythm and sense of harmony acquired with piano education will pay off handsomely.

Better Sooner Than Later
New evidence exists that there are actual physiological benefits to early childhood music education. A study released in February, 1997 presents findings that music education — specifically, piano instruction in pre schoolers produces changes in the brain which enhance children’s abstract reasoning skills. These skills are necessary for learning math and science, to play chess, and to master many concepts of engineering.

Dr. Frances Rauscher of the University of Wisconsin and Dr. Gordon Shaw of the University of California had previously linked piano/keyboard and singing lessons to enhanced spacial-temporal ability in pre schoolers. The new study documents that early piano training also has a direct effect on the development of the brain’s neural circuitry, actually improving intellectual development. In other words, this research points out that early piano training helps to create and maintain certain “connections” in children’s brains that may not otherwise form.

It has long been known that musically educated children develop skills they carry into adulthood Now it appears that piano training can actually make children more intelligent. Can you think of any more precious gift to give the children in your life?

Here’s How The Study Was Conducted
Thirty four children received private piano keyboard instruction, 20 children were given private computer lessons, and 24 children provided other controls. Four standard, age-calibrated spatial reasoning tests were given before and after training. One tested spatial temporal reasoning; three tested spatial recognition. Significant improvement on the spatial temporal test was found for the keyboard group only. None of the groups improved significantly on the spatial recognition tests. This led the researchers to conclude that music training produces long-term modifications in underlying neural circuitry in regions of the brain not primarily concerned with music. The magnitude of the improvement suggests that learning of standard curricula is also enhanced.

Other important developmental benefits to childhood music education
Researchers at the University of Konstanz in Germany found that exposure to music rewires neural circuits. For instance, they used magnetic resonance imaging to examine the brains of nine string players. They found that the amount of somato-sensory cortex dedicated to the fingering hand was far larger than in non-players. Additionally, the earlier the player took up the instrument, the more cortex was devoted to playing it. Most concert-level performers begin playing earlier than ten years of age.

Scientists at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston found that the brains of 30 musicians with perfect pitch — the ability to identify isolated musical notes they hear — had greatly enlarged structures on the left side of their brains. All the musicians with perfect pitch said they were exposed to music prior to age seven. The likelihood of developing perfect pitch is extremely low if exposure comes after age ten.

Another German study, at Heinrich Heine University in Dusseldorf, reported that exposure to music activates and enhances cognitive processes involved in language and reasoning.

Other studies show that all children are born with musical ability. For example, two month old infants can match the pitch, intensity, and melodies for songs their mothers sing, and at four months infants can match rhythm as well. But the older children get without exercising their musical aptitude, the more will be lost and never regained. The reason is neurological — by approximately age 11, the neuron circuits that permit all kinds of perceptual and sensory discrimination, such as identifying pitch and rhythm, become closed off.

Finally, students with coursework and experience in musical performance scored 51 points higher on the verbal portion of the SAT and 39 points higher on the SAT math portion than students with no coursework or experience with music — from data compiled by the Music Educators National Conference from The College Board.

One gift that really does keep giving
As your child’s musical education continues and extends to playing in groups, in recitals, or in competitions, one reward is the special camaraderie that often blooms between young musicians. This can often lead to friendships that last for years to come. The piano can also be a source of stability in the turbulent teenage years. And as an adult, the poise and self-assurance developed by playing and performing at the piano has very tangible value in social and business worlds. There is also the chance that your child has an exceptional musical talent, in which case a whole world of possibilities — both personal and professional — can be recognized and nurtured.

With such clear evidence of the benefits of childhood piano education, the choice as to which piano to purchase still remains. It is highly advisable to buy the best piano you can afford. It stands to reason that the higher the quality of the piano, the better it will sound. And that’s certainly encouragement to get your budding young pianist to play, play more often, and play longer!

Playing a musical instrument makes you “BRAINIER”!

New research suggests that regularly playing an instrument changes the shape and power of the brain and may be used in therapy to improve cognitive skills.
It can even increase IQ by seven points in both children and adults, according to researchers.
Experts said there is growing evidence that musicians have structurally and functionally different brains compared with non-musicians – in particular, the areas of the brain used in processing and playing music.
These parts of the brain that control motor skills, hearing, storing audio information and memory become larger and more active when a person learns how to play an instrument and can apparently improve day to day actions such as being alert, planning and emotional perception.
Lutz Jäncke, a psychologist at the University of Zurich, said: “Learning to play a musical instrument has definite benefits and can increase IQ by seven points, in both children and adults.
“We found that even in people over the age of 65 after four or five months of playing a instrument for an hour a week there were strong changes in the brain.
“The parts of the brain that control hearing, memory, and the part that controls the hands among others, all become more active. Essentially the architecture of the brain changes.
“For children especially we found that learning to play the piano for instance teaches them to be more self-disciplined, more attentive and better at planning. All of these things are very important for academic performance, so can therefore make a child brighter.
“Of course music isn’t the only answer, but I do believe that it should be used in addition to other things.”
Mr Jäncke also said that music can also make it easier to learn foreign languages and become more perceptive in interpreting the emotions of others.
He added: “When you play a musical instrument you have to learn about tone and about scores and your ability to store audio information becomes better.
“So not only does this make it easier to pick up other languages and have a better verbal memory in your own language, we have also seen that musicians are able to pick out exactly what others are feeling just on the tone of their voices. Empathy, disappointment, that kind of thing.
“If music has such a strong influence on brain plasticity this raises the question of whether this effect can be used to enhance cognitive performance.
“Several studies indeed show that musical practice increases memory and language skills, and I suggest expanding this field.
“Hopefully, the current trend in the use of musicians as a model for brain plasticity will continue … and extend to the field of neuropsychological rehabilitation.”
The research is published in the online publication Faculty of 1000 Biology Reports.

Essex Grand Pianos Superior Quality And Performance

Essex Grand Piano EGP155

Designed by Steinway & Sons in collaboration with renowned furniture designer William Faber, the Essex has been created as a tribute to the idea that beautiful piano styles and finishes can and should be possible in every price range. With elegant traditional styling and museum-quality finishes, Essex will be a stunning addition to your home. And it is available in an array of models, sizes, and veneers to fit every décor and every lifestyle…

Read more here: http://steinway.com/pianos/essex/grand/egp-155/