Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner playing with the music stand down

I understood exactly what you were talking about despite your endless and boring tendency to discuss words used in posts(you've probably made more posts just doing just that than most PW have made in all their posts). Of course, it's just your opinion. I think only the sound one hears is affected by the music desk.

I never really thought much about whether the music stand was up or down seeing as I only have that option when I perform, and I'm usually too concerned with the physicallity of the performance itself. I do know that I'm consistently told by my teacher to make sure I put it down. I'm assuming it has more to do with etiquette.

Play with the stand down.

If you understood it, then what you said was unfathomably dense.
(Really.)

It only made sense if you had misunderstood it or just missed some posts. I was giving you the benefit of the doubt.

BTW in case you haven't noticed, I don't say such blunt things to you except in reply to your attack posts. All you have to do is cut it out.


That's exactly what I was talking about, my friend -- how the different sound quality can affect one's perception of the rhythm, and it seemed that's what Jason and Bruce meant too. (If you wish, ask them.) So, you did misunderstand, and you did deserve that benefit of the doubt.

This is what should concern you most, because not only are those imperfections what YOU hear, but they are what the audience will hear as well. This is only one of many reasons why it is so important to learn the fine art of listening (which is much more difficult than most believe...nor is it even WHAT most believe it to be). Record yourself often and listen to what you're doing. You will more than likely be quite surprised by what you hear.

You mean how you think that can happen. Not everyone on the thread agrees with you about the rhythm(me, wouter and perhaps Bruce) although you state your opinion as fact.

This thread led me to experiment with this a little. The main difference I notice playing without the stand is that the sound is louder. I found I didn't want to play the ff sections fortissimo, which makes me wonder: maybe it's not that great an idea for regular practice to blast one's ears with all that sound? after all, the audience is a lot further away from the sound source.

I didn't notice so much difference between stand up and stand down. I always play with the stand pushed back so that the pins are exposed; otherwise the sound seems muffled to me. Stand up/down seems to make more difference when the stand is closer to the keys.

Maybe all those open scrolled ornate music stands served a purpose other than just decoration.. they switched over to solid stands in the 20th century..

Come to think of it, yeah!

Yes, but the stand in the "up" position would be supporting a score covering a large portion of the music desk. Last time I checked 19th century scores weren't "open-scrolled" like the music desks!

Regards,

Scores are less dense than wood, and I would be willing to bet that a score on an open scrolled music desk would block much less sound than a score on a solid desk.

Then again, my opinion in this matter may be biased because I have a Baldwin with a very thick and wide desk rather than a relatively small Steinway desk. The difference on my piano between desk up and no desk is incredible - all the inconsistencies of the instrument and my playing are much more clear.

I've always thought a perforated music desk would be better for the sound (as well as nicer looking). Really the horizontal surface over the strings ought to be perforated as well as the part that holds the music--not sure if the old designs did that.

Always, always down. Always!!!! Always. Even when I'm playing with music, it's down, and the music is laying down instead of being up. Unless I'm JUST starting to learn something, or unless it's chamber. But even for chamber, I sometimes like trying things out with the stand down. You are much more aware of the sound you're producing that way, and you hear closer to what they hear.

I just haaaate it being up when there's no score. It's such a huge pet-peeve of mine.

The problem with open scroll work is that you can't write your annotations without moving the paper to a solid surface. Office clipboards solve that.