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Something broke today, which turned out for the better.

I leave a bluetooth keyboard on the floor to serve as my foot-pedal page turner for my sheet music tablet (yes, after everything, I still refuse to spring $100 for a proper foot pedal ), and today the batteries ran out. Rather than replace them immediately, I tried to make do without it. I found that not being able to easily turn the page (apparently, I cannot be bothered to bring my finger up to the tablet to swipe the screen) actually forced me to stay on the same page and practice the problematic measures on the sheet in front of me. MUCH more than I ever did. I probably spent 10min per page more than I would have if I could just change the page quickly and move on.

To me, quite an interesting observation in how moderately increasing friction can change behavior!

Have you found anything that helps you practice or play more/better?

Some of the keys on my old keyboard stop working once I play for a while then it works again but it’s annoying. Many other weird things happened but I do not remember well. then—I got... you know. And I practice more.

Yes, an excellent observation. I have to keep this in mind.

This isn't piano related, but it's what I think is an interesting example of how small environmental changes can lead to bigger changes in behaviour.

The fire exit door in my theatre auditorium used to be level with the floor in front of the screen. Even though it was intended for "emergency use only" people used to open it fairly regularly to leave after the show was over.

Occasionally when there was a heavy rain water would leak in under that door so about ten years ago I had that door raised about six inches and now there's a ramp that goes up to the door. (And water doesn't come in any more.)

Ever since, that door doesn't get opened more than maybe once a year and most years not even that.

It's no further away than it was before; there's just a gentle slope up to it instead of it being on exactly the same level as the floor. But that gentle slope is enough to make people walk the other way and leave through the front door instead.

I ordered this inexpensive page turner and it works fine:

http://forum.pianoworld.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/3140270/solo-bluetooth-pedal-do-not-buy.html

I’m also intrigued by the homemade calculated version.

Funny, we’re visiting New Orleans at the moment. The hotel elevators are painfully slow, so this afternoon I just walked down the five flights rather than wait for it. When I got to the first floor I discovered that it exited to the street rather than the interior, and also would sound an alarm! So, I walked back up a flight, and waited for the elevator to take me down one level to the lobby. 🤪

Oh my God. This happened to me at work. Except we were on the 14th floor, and I was trying to go down one flight and didn't want to wait for the elevator. But the badging system in the stairwell was broken. So I couldn't go back in either 12 or 14th. Walked down 14 flights, triggered the alarm, walk of shame back to the lobby from the outside. I was pretty grumpy the rest of the day!

There was nothing for you to be ashamed about. You found a flaw in the system. The people who did not test the system are the ones who should be ashamed, and apologetic.

It's not about practicing more (which I need to do as well), but doing something I threatened to do but couldn't manage for a decade...

I have a bunch of unfinished compositions and arrangements that I sporadically worked on for 30 years. My Finale folder is cluttered with multiple versions of the same compositions and nothing is completed.

I often resolved to do something about it, but then came the excuses. Almost always it was; I didn't have enough time or money (to get the ideal set-up, equipment wise) just then.

So end of last year, before our summer holidays I decide I'm going to just start finishing the easiest project and upload it as a score video to YouTube (which had been my idea for about a decade) regardless of how well to sounds or whether I might still foresee future changes.

Had the following not happened I probably still wouldn't have done it:

I set aside the two weeks after new year before my work started again to get busy on it and then a friend from Europe announced his coming for a visit. For just those two weeks.
So, I'm back at work thereafter and time is limited but I decide I will spend every free hour in the evening doing something about those compositions. Next thing, my laptop breaks before I even open a file and there is NO money to get it fixed. So for three weeks the frustration grew (not because I cannot work on my composition but because I cannot do my everyday work and I'm falling further and further behind.)

After three weeks during which another friend of mine had to listen to my moaning and groaning he offered to lend me the money to get my laptop fixed.

Then a funny thing happened: One day at work I thought to myself - normally I would try and catch up on work, but I feel so sick and tired of failed attempt after failed attempt to get anywhere with this personal goal of mine that I'm not going to let it rest before I uploaded my first video even if my work suffers. SO the first week-end thereafter I sat from before sunrise till near midnight and didn't even get up off the chair to eat something and at the end of it the video was up and running. Now three months later I have posted nine videos already and I can finally delete those earlier versions. It feels like I've moved a mountain. Nice thing is, I also know that at some stage it will all be completed..

I think we sometimes need just a small thing to set in motion a big change because it has been mounting. Like the last straw that breaks the back of the camel.

Hahaha! Something similar happened to 2 friends of mine years ago in Atlanta. We worked on the 22nd floor, but our company had two or three floors in the building. I don't remember exactly why, but they tried to navigate the staircase and discovered once they were on it that they couldn't get off it, and had no choice but to go all the way down. And at the bottom it set off an alarm. They stared at it for a minute, and decided that they could bolt to the parking deck which had a tunnel back into the main building. This was obviously in the pre-cellphone era, or they could have just called someone to open the door and let them back in. But it taught me to make sure that doors will re-open from the other side before going into a stairwell.

I built one of those. Gave up on it after a couple of weeks, but it was a cheap experiment ($20).

Problems:
1. It's a bit too high off the ground. The typical cheap membrane dome keys require a housing 3/4“ high or so, in the end it's a bit of a strain to keep your foot up on it without pressing down. The lower profile laptop type keybeds are more expensive.

2. More importantly, the cheap keypad BT units have a very short timeout, like 15 seconds or so. Pressing the button requires a reconnect, which takes a few seconds and makes you miss your page turn, which is the entire point. Higher quality (more expensive) wireless keyboards like the Apple wireless or Microsoft Surface keyboards have no timeout/connection lag (as long as the batteries aren't low). But those keyboards are $100+.

I use one because I already had a spare.

Yes, even minor changes can make a big difference! A good thing to remember if you ever feel "stuck."

Interesting. The cheap one I bought is about 1/2 tall at the pedal, so perhaps uses cheap hardware too. I haven't noticed it timeout though, but I don't use it much.

Elevator sidebar: we just traveled home yesterday, and spent 5 nights in that hotel. Every time anyone complained about the elevator's unusual slowness, I'd mention going down the stairs and discovering the outside exit and alarm, and almost everyone else said that they'd done the same.

I dug it out of my storage bench the other day, so I actually have it on-hand:



Still very "proof of concept" mode, held together with tape The panels that form the forward/back buttons are cut out of an old DVD box.

Cool!

Ok where is the mechanical sheet music (paper/book) page turner?

That is horrifying.

Yes it is horrifying!

Imagine if you found that in a basement/attic... 😳

Yes, a teacher. The applies friction by yelling in my ear to slow down.

Yes, instruction and accountability tend to result in improvement!

Indeed!

Imagine trying to set it up!

Rather than start another irreverent Friday thread, I thought I'd just add this here:

I have some lingering allergies (welcome, late Spring!) and have been sneezing a bit. Is it "normal" for the piano to "respond" to a sneeze? I mean, it doesn't talk, but I can hear (and feel) the soundboard/strings/something reverberate and resonate if I sneeze while sitting at the bench. Suffice it to say, the digital doesn't do that

Mind if I add?

The hinge on the music stand gets tighter and looser sometimes. It’s a wood hinge I believe?

I’m talking about the stand for the music desk not the hinge that moves the whole music desk back and forth. (Music desk prop maybe?)

I think it’s humidity? It’s summer so getting dryer! Looser since I first got the piano.

Anyone else?

I've experienced this too. I try not to sneeze into the piano though.

Man, we just spent 5 days in New Orleans, and the "foreign" (to me) vegetation was in full bloom. Hay fever really wore me out.

Ja, it's also the same key that you are sneezing in, the same key responds. I noticed that since the action is not in the piano. So now I'm singing in a certain key and then I'm guessing which string it is

I always sneeze away from the piano!!

Oh me too, I always turn away and sneeze into my elbow. But I still feel the piano kind of rumble (and when it does, I feel it in my chest).

It must be 15 years or so since I last suffered from hay fever. But this year in central London I have once or twice found myself developing a paroxysm of coughing, due to some sort of pollen - probably, I think, from the plane trees. Anyway, I have discovered a marvellous cure, and I thought I would report it here, so that other hay fever sufferers might benefit. The answer is simple - I put on my FFP2 face mask, and the coughing stopped straight away!

If my uprights the top lid is open and I speak loudly facing the piano I can hear some sort of echoe or reverberation not from the strings but the soundboard.😆 (at least I do not think it's the strings.)I need to try it again sometime again.

Yes I would love one! I have become too lazy to memorize 9 pages never mind a whole sonata like I use to.